Moth Collective is a collective of animators, who now owns an animation studio located at East London. The three key people in the company are David Prosser, Marie-Margaux Tsakiri-Scanatovits and Daniel Chester. I am interested with these bunch because I am interested in their approach of making animations that resonate with their feelings about sociopolitical issues, and ultimately make an impact on societal level. Moth Collective has build a strong body of works since their time at Royal College of Art, which attracts clients such as editorial, charity and NGOs. The first film that makes me interested in their work was 'The Last Job on Earth'. Oscar, who is now on his 3rd Year in the course, showed me this animated film. It was not my favourite work from them, but it got me into doing further research about the Moth Collective.
Moth Collective is pretty selective of the projects they are doing; they only take projects that trust their creative instinct as filmmakers. They admitted that they always did thorough research of their clients before accepting any projects offer because they prioritise trust and creative freedom, which at some instances clients do not want to compromise.
It looks like that they had it easy, being approached by business and never the first one to seek for projects. However, the collective had worked their way through building up a unique portfolio since they were studying in RCA. They have their own stylistic approach to animation, which applies strong understanding of visual language such as the use of negative space, textures and fractured images reconstructing. Unlike a vast majority of animation artists nowadays whose inspirations are mainly from mainstream animation features, video games and YouTube, the artists of Moth Collective are influenced by some avant garde art movements including constructivism and post-impressionism (Henri Rousseau).
They are quite easy-going as a company. Terrible at business and fights a lot for a good story. Dave, Margaux and Dan focuses on getting 'a few individual voices that go to the same direction', agreeing on ideas and combine style together. On one of their interviews I've listened to, they shared a pretty pragmatic advice on making animation (within time and budget constraint): 'keep the animation for the most important bits that need to be punctuated with fluid movements' also be realistic with the clients, don't just do whatever they told you to do, instead negotiate. I have to add to this: Don't negotiate on the last minute, establish a clear expectation from the client before even starting the brief so that you won't get into a quarrel. (I've learnt it the hard way from working for a mad bridezilla)
I can't get in touch with them because I've only sent the email last week, but I have learnt a lot about the Moth Collective just by listening to their podcast interviews.
Here is a prove of the e-mail that I sent them:
In conclusion to this, I would like to bring into light Tom (Hallgarten)'s protest in today's presentation. I respect his bravery in voicing out his contention regarding the PPP2 module and its incoherence to the social responsibility of artists; to make art that we believe in and that we hope will benefit the society. His protest gets me to re-evaluate my purpose of making animations and whether it is good enough to benefit others. Despite having read a lot of books that recapitulate the potential of animation art as a medium to communicate beliefs to the masses, fun aesthetic is a go-to solution whenever I make my animation. I realised that it is easy to get fixated on the superficial things, not putting much thoughts in developing a meaningful narrative for an animation that can potentially improve current sociopolitical conditions. I hate to conform to the capitalist system, which is why the protest gave me a sudden existential crisis. Settling with a day job after graduating from the college would be a worse case scenario for me because I cannot afford living a day without thinking about and doing art, but at the same time I do not want to be forced to work for clients that do not trust and do not give creative freedom. There is no quick way to discover my own unique tone of voice as an artist, but having my own opinion on things is probably a small step forward to figure it out. Ultimately, this protest serves as a reminder to pursue what I believe is right, and not be a 'corporate media whore'.
Sources
https://www.moth.studio/
https://www.creativereview.co.uk/animation-studio-moth-collective-on-film-making-sensitive-storytelling-and-choosing-clients/
http://www.cartoonbrew.com/advertising/moth-collectives-forest-500-animates-reality-rainforest-destruction-125281.html
http://www.skwigly.co.uk/moth-collective-deliver-the-last-job-on-earth/
https://www.shortoftheweek.com/search?q=Moth%20Collective
(Podcasts)
http://podbay.fm/show/848275029/e/1403085782
https://soundcloud.com/animalators/22_moth_collective
