Case Study

We teamed with TBWA/Chiat/Day and director Marco Pestini at StrangeLove to create this beautiful journey through eras of confining undergarments for UNIQLO. A woman runs across a lush landscape, clad in the ornate corseted ruffles of the 17th century. Frustrated by her restrictive apparel, she begins stripping out of each piece of clothing. Each forgone garment is more modern than the last, though just as constrictive, until, finally, she’s left in UNIQLO’s Wireless Bra. Free at last.

The film looks as though it takes place entirely in one shot. To maintain seamlessness throughout, it was important for us to help design the complicated clothing transitions for the model, as she could only wear two changes of clothing at a time.

The final transition was comprised of three different camera moves. The first move brought us to her right arm, the second across her back, and the third started from the right arm to finish showing her front side. Each move was completed with a Steadicam without motion control.

Aligning the shots from the first two moves was very difficult—they were simply not matching up smoothly. To counteract this, we projected a CG piece of her arm to track with the second camera movement. The small patch of CG arm filled the small gap in the transition.

We also altered the background landscape throughout. Production took place on a golf course with minor alterations made by the art department—partial hedges were erected for a maze-like effect. We extended the hedges in two of the scenes with massive camera motion to keep the background smooth and unified. We also created the last scene with a matte painting with a modern landscape showing the evolution of undergarments. We went through numerous iterations before the final look was chosen.