Tienda Inglesa's secret mission

As Christmas creeps ever-closer the festive ads continue to hit our screens and this one for Uruguay's Tienda Inglesa is an AI-generated story about a grumpy man called Alfredo whose previous experience of his work place's Secret Santa still haunts him.

Created by Publicis Impetu Montevideo and directed by Oliver Lee Garland through Olga Lee, the four-minute film's images are completely created using artificial intelligence but have the look and feel of more traditional CGI animation. 

Despite appearances, the teams behind the campaign say that the work was profoundly artisanal, with the project requiring over two months of dedication from a series of prompters, post producers, editors, colourists and sound departments. A hybrid storyboard which mixed hand-drawn sketches with AI-generated frames shaped the final structure while, at the same time, real locations were scouted in Montevideo, following a traditional scouting process that was later translated into AI. “The focus is on how we use this tool to elevate stories, to do what we couldn’t do before,” the team at Olga Lee explains.

“I’m not a director who comes from post-production," said Garland, "I’m mainly a director of actors and narrative pieces, both comedic and emotional. For me, this is a new world. AI makes the animation process more like a shooting process. You ask for a framing, an acting choice, and it returns something unexpected. Then you refine versions, adjust nuances, repeat the take. That interplay between the intentional and the surprising is the same one you get on a real set.”

Olga Lee has already announced it will continue exploring the narrative and visual possibilities that AI makes accessible to directors. “This project reminded me that being a director depends on how one sees and listens to what does not yet exist,” Garland added.