NEW MATTER

The Elephant in the Room

Alice Bowsher and Grand Motion (aka Plastic Horse) were commissioned to create a very special and poignant animation as part of Save the Children’s national campaign, raising awareness of summer holiday poverty and shine a light on the resources available to families struggling outside of term-time.

Alice’s illustration style was the perfect fit to help tell a difficult story in a sensitive and relatable way and the 90 second animation follows a family and an elephant that gradually grows bigger and bigger throughout - serving as a visual representation of the ‘elephant in the room’ challenges surrounding poverty that one in eight families experience during the summer holidays. 

Narrated by Himesh Patel from the perspective of a child, the film captures the worry of having ‘no stories to tell or clothes to wear’ when returning to school after the summer holidays, bringing to life the financial and emotional pressures faced by families during the break. Recent polling from the charity found one in eight (14%) families across the country are struggling to afford even basic summer essentials such as sun-cream and sunhats for their children this year, with 88 per cent of parents admitting to feeling financial and emotional pressure during the school holidays. Three in five say it is financially the hardest time of year, beating even Christmas. 

To begin with, Alice's illustrations started out as roughs on her iPad. Working this way allows her to get ideas down quickly, then refine them. Once they're refined and finalised, she draw them up with brush and ink, keeping the layers for each scene separate, so the characters and background can be moved around separately in the animation. Once they're scanned in, Alice sends the drawings to Plastic Horse, who work their magic to animate it. 

See the full animation HERE. 

I thought a lot about 90s children's cartoons when working on this project. The sort of things you would watch when you got home from school, Sesame Street, Arthur and Hey Arnold! I feel the tone of these cartoons lends itself well to this campaign, focusing on how families might struggle to get by when children are off school during the holidays.

– Alice Bowsher

As parents ourselves, we can see just how vital STC’s work is. We’ve worked with Alice many times over the years, so animating her illustrations feels like second nature to us now. We begin by cutting up her illustrations in Photoshop and then use After Effects to manipulate them into what you see on screen. Animation can often be a meticulous process, but Alice’s illustrations are so full of character and charm that they make every project an enjoyable one to work on.

– Plastic Horse

Animation and illustration have such a unique power to connect and inspire, often telling the difficult stories other mediums can’t. Save The Children came to us with a truly wonderful script, with an important message that deserves to be handled sensitively but with confidence. The film explores identifiable everyday family scenarios using a playful visual style and an ever-growing elephant in the room, inspiring understanding of the simple truths without alienating.

– Dorcas Brown, Grand Matter

This film aims to reflect the experiences of thousands of families across the UK faced with summer holiday poverty right now. Four million children are growing up in poverty this summer, we want them to know they are not alone and that poverty no longer needs to be the elephant in the room.

– Dan Paskins, Executive Director for UK Impact at Save The Children

www.grandmatter.com/alicebowsher
www.grandmatter.com/animation
www.savethechildren.org.uk

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