'Live. Your. Now': Real Student Life Caputured In TikTok Style Film

Working with FCB London, Unite Students has produced its first brand film, created by students themselves living in their accommodations.

By Emma Vernon

14 June 2024

Unite Students, the UK’s largest purpose-built accommodation provider, has dropped its first-ever brand film, highlighting its homes as places to live the best student life.

Devised by creative agency FCB London, “Live. Your. Now.” features real students living in Unite Students accommodation.

As a way of capturing student life authentically, FCB tasked students to shoot their own lives in real-time. When casting the ad, students who were undertaking university degrees in film and media were approached, but the agency quickly learned that, thanks to TikTok, this generation are already amateur filmmakers.

Owen Lee, at FCB London, said: “Creating a film is always a collaboration, but this was on a different scale. This film couldn’t simply have been done without complete stakeholder involvement from the clients to the students, animators, composer and of course the director. The result is an authentic, energetic insight into the real lives of students who are living their best lives, thanks to the facilities provided by their student accommodation.”

A diverse cast of four students from four different universities was selected from hundreds of applicants and given a crash course in how to use their devices to create something that reflects their own experience at the desired film quality by director Charlie Coombes from 456 Studios, FCB’s fully integrated global in-house content creation studio.

Over one month, the students sent in clips from their lives in Unite Students’ accommodation, including everything from exciting club nights out to mundane laundry room trips. From over 10 hours of footage, moments where storytelling and shooting style aligned were picked and became the skeleton of the brand film.

These moments were then used to supplement a traditional film shoot designed to fill out the brand story. The clips have been tied together by high-energy animations to inject a greater sense of youth and create a TikTok-style film to resonate with the 16-to-18-year-old audience.

In addition, the soundtrack was composed by Charlie Baker to work seamlessly with all elements of the visual, including the frantic student living scenarios.

Shelley Wilde, head of brand at Unite Students, said: “Unite Students provides a home for over 70,000 students to grow, find a community, belong and thrive. We wanted our first-ever brand commercial to capture that and show what student life is really like. Who could possibly be better at showcasing this than the students themselves?”

The 30” hero film will run for 12 weeks across broadcast video on demand and video on demand in the UK.