Art & Graft Examine the Full Spectrum

When creative studio Art & Graft were asked to work on a short animated film for Cornwall-based charity Spectrum in 2011 they took the project on happily. But the end result of that film didn't mean the end of a budding relationship.

During the course of the initial project Art & Graft realised that there was a wealth of interesting people and subjects to cover, and which needed further exploration. To do this Art & Graft and Spectrum came up with a concept which involved bringing together a group of animators and asking each of them to create a short film about one of the people whom Spectrum cares for. 

The final five directors (Matthias Hoegg, Mikey Please, UFO, Kristian Andrews and Art & Graft) stayed in Cornwall to gain experience of the charity and of the people they were making a film about and the result is a set of brilliantly realised, creatively excellent and emotionally resonant films.

Here Mike Maloney, founder and creative director of Art & Graft, reveals the thinking behind the project and how it was put together. You can also watch all five films; above is Art & Graft's Martyn while below, in decending order, is UFO's Ian, Mikey Please's Steven, Matthias Hoegg's Claire and Kristian Andrew's Michelle.

Tell us a little bit about Art & Graft and what it is you do? 

We're what we like to call a creative studio, we specialise in both animation and live-action but also put our hands to multi disciplined projects like the one we have just carried out for Spectrum for instance.

How did the Spectrum project come about? 

We were approach by Spectrum initially to make a promotional film to be shown at charity auction they were holding at The Saatchi Gallery.  This job soon turned into a complete rebrand of the charity, redesigning their website and producing all of the creative assets for the auction, which we were obviously very happy to do.

As part of our research for the initial film we visited the charity in Cornwall, we spoke with members of staff and some of the people they care for. It was obvious to us, straight away, that there was a wealth of interesting subjects that needed further exploration. 

We came up with the concept of expanding on our film and curating a project where we brought together different animation directors and gave them a free range to make a film about an individual whom Spectrum cared for.  The only limitation that we put on the directors was that their film had to be one minute long, other than that they were free to do what they wanted.

Do organisations often approach you about these kinds of projects? 

No, not very often but it is definitely something we'd like to continue doing. In this case we pitched the idea to the client and they loved it. I think a certain amount of trust had been created by our previous work for the charity, which gave them a belief in our vision.

You put the call out to various animation directors; what was the response like and how did you decide which directors to use? 

The response was amazing with every director we contacted replying within days, and to be honest we didn't have to make any hard decisions regarding the directors; it all just seemed to fall nicely into place.

How long did each director spend in Cornwall and how integral was that stay in the finished work? 

Each director spent a weekend in Cornwall and got to meet their subject and the people who care for them.  All of the directors that went relished their trip and got a great deal of inspiration, some of them didn't want to come home!

Are the people in the films real people/based on real people? 

They're all real people who Spectrum care for, none of the stories have been elaborated on at all.

What was the hardest part of the process in pulling this project together? 

This is going to sound rather wanky but it was a really enjoyable process the whole way along.  All of the directors got on terribly well, even attending a couple of group crits, which usually ended up in the pub. I think that we'll all keep in contact… there was even drunken talk of starting an animation workshop together.

Where will the films be seen? 

The films will be hosted on Spectrum's website and also a bespoke Vimeo page will be set up to host the project.  We're also going to have screening for everyone involved.

Will you continue to work with Spectrum/will this be an annual project? 

We've formed a really strong bond with Spectrum and I can't see us not being involved with them in some respect in the future. There's already talk of next years art auction and we'd definitely like to carry the project on.