Plymouth studio The Moment creates animated film for BBC film project
The Moment, a Plymouth-based creative studio, has created and produced an animated film which is featuring on the BBC Ideas website.
The film is called ‘Wake up! Foucault’s warning on fake news’. It looks at the modern climate of contradictory information from the perspective of one of the great minds of the 20th century – Michel Foucault.
Watch the film here.
It is one of a number of projects that The Moment is creating, which imagine what famous figures from history would make of some of the issues the world faces today. The idea for the films came from Richard Thompson, who is a producer and director at The Moment. He created ‘Wake up!’ along with the philosopher Angie Hobbs, whose voiceover is on the film, and the Open University.
The film was produced entirely in house by The Moment and directed by Thompson, who is a graduate of the Plymouth School of Art. Thompson joined the agency as a creative intern in 2012 and is now a self-shooting producer director working with the likes of Olympic TV, BBC Worldwide, Audi. He was supported by two of The Moment’s up and coming animators, Tom Donachie also from Plymouth College of Art and Leo Matcham, from University of Plymouth.
It is just under five minutes in length and uses simple animation in tandem with Hobbs’ voiceover to prompt the audience to contemplate how French philosopher Foucault’s theories on language are just as relevant today as they were during their construction. In the age of social media, ‘fake news’, and opinion as self-proclaimed truth, language can do more than just influence; language holds the power to control.
It is part of the BBC Ideas platform, a project which sees the corporation experiment with formats and styles, with the aim of learning from audience responses. The brief for content is to create short videos that teach the viewer something or bring them a new perspective on an existing idea, person or subject.
Richard Thompson, Producer/Director at The Moment, said: “'It was a pleasure working on the animation with Angie Hobbs and our Plymouth based animation team. It was a real collaborative effort and I couldn't be more pleased with the result.”
Alice Kilpatrick, Account Director & Co Head of Production at The Moment, said: “The issue of truth and the media is a huge global talking point and our film has been incredibly well received since the launch a few days ago. It’s a dream brief for our in-house team to create something to make you think about the world differently. Produced entirely out of our Plymouth Studio, we loved the opportunity to work closely with the BBC Ideas team as well as Angie Hobbs and The Open University to bring our fresh and innovative vision to life.”
The Moment is a division of The Creative Engagement Group. It specialises creating and delivering video, digital and immersive (AR and VR) from its offices in Plymouth, London & Philadelphia.
