bodo is the biggest website of experiences in Ukraine. It offers hundreds of activities, from clay crafting to fly-boarding, which help people to diversify their free time.

Unusually Unusual is a film about a fierce confrontation between two seem-to-be-legendary movie heroes, whose enmity turns into friendship thanks to bodo experiences. The story starts with the opening credits as if it was a retro Hollywood-style spy thriller. The next moment, viewers see a retrofuturistic bunker, where an archetypal villain places a Bondlike hero in a laser deathtrap, preparing to triumph. “So, how are you feeling now, sir?”—the villain asks, waiting for a plea for mercy. 

The hero suddenly cheers up and answers that after all the experiences he tried, he feels “Unusually unusual”. This drives the villain crazy, pushing him to enviously ask where the hero found those experiences. In response, the hero somewhat theatrically shows a bodo box.

We made our film a tribute to Ukrainian video culture of the early 90s, when the greatest way to spend free time was to visit a video club or watch a Hollywood movie at your place (if you were lucky enough to have a personal video player). The range of movies was limited, and dubbing was carried out by amateurs, one of the most productive among whom had a specific style that remained a symbol of that era.

So to offer the YouTube viewers and the Instagram scrollers new experiences from bodo website, we utilized the idea of a confrontation between a classic movie villain and a Bondlike hero. We gave a nod to early James Bond series by using naive camera movements, exaggeratedly make-believe props, split-screen, and legendary amateur dubbing style. All this to inspire people to finally try something new and discover unusual experiences.

We set ourselves a challenge to tell about the up-to-date ways of spending leisure time, while keeping the narrative and filming style visually retro—as the initial identity of the bodo dictates. We also needed a strong visual metaphor to emphasize the diversity and unusualness of the experiences one can find on the bodo site. The visual solution of this film was found in the legacy of Hollywood spy thrillers—a symbol of a life full of experiences. The idea was to engage the viewers by the atmosphere of James Bond series, using slightly naive camera movements, exaggeratedly make-believe props, split-screen, which pay homage to the golden era of cinematography, and slightly comical theatricality of the story.