Coronavirus – Preparing an Animation Studio with Blue Zoo
As the Coronavirus (COVID-19) swamps headlines and begins to interfere with our daily lives we might believe that practical advice on combatting the disease in our working lives is as readily available as toilet paper on a supermarket shelf. As precautions are tightened in other countries and our neighbours in Europe facing quarantine and restrictions on travel and events, here in the UK we are hearing words such as “flattening the curve“, “social distancing” and “herd immunity” with plenty of discussion as to what those words actually mean and how useful they are. The World Health Organisation has released advice which you can read here.
The disease is certain to take a toll on our calendars, with large scale events on the continent such as FMX and IFTS cancelled and delegates with tickets for events in the UK awaiting guidance from the government. From a practical point of view there are petitions to government demanding help for freelancers and for industry events (which would include animation festivals and conferences) and Arts Council England has announced it is dedicating the next three months to supporting artists.
Blue Zoo
We spend most of our time at work and the disease has serious implications for those of us and our colleagues with underlying health issues and so what to do if you run an animation studio, or if you are an employee of an animation studio might be at the forefront of your mind. At Skwigly we understand that there will be anxiety among the UK animation community so we have reached out for advice on the matter.
Blue Zoo, one of the UKs largest animation studios and recently voted among the UK’s best places to work in TV, has been keeping a track of the situation since the early phases and co-founder Tom Box has spoken to Skwigly about the precautions they have taken.
At a time of stress and uncertainty we hope the advice below might prove useful.
What were your first thoughts on the virus as a business that employs over 200 people?
Our first thought is always to protect our staff’s health and wellbeing, our studio would be nothing but a room of computers without them! Secondly it is to protect the health of our business, as it has responsibility for paying 200 peoples’ salaries – so the two priorities are carefully balanced.
To reduce anxiety, we also wanted to ensure our staff understood the statistics, so in January we emailed everyone reminding them that for 98% of people it is not a life-threatening issue, and if you did get it, it would most likely be like a mild flu.
The highest priority was those staff who were immunocompromised or classified as at-risk, with every decision we have been making, those people have been front of mind.
What precautions have you taken as a business?
When we first heard about the virus in January, we sent an email out to the studio reminding people to wash their hands (especially before eating) and use hand-sanitizer. We stocked up more than our usual levels, and put them in all communal areas and toilets, along with NHS posters on all toilet mirrors to show how to wash your hands thoroughly.
We also asked people to inform us of their personal travel plans, so we can prioritise self-quarantine to those that have just returned from “hot-spot” countries, and ensure they are set up for remote working.
To reduce the chance of people not quarantining we communicated that we would cover sick pay for any staff who need to self-isolate and unable to work, or stay at home to look after dependants who need to self-quarantine.
On Monday 9th March it was certain things were about to get a lot worse, and very quickly. So we immediately banned all visitors to the studio and stopped our staff going to external events. We also put a temporary halt to staff social events and advised our staff to avoid busy rush hour trains. Any upcoming job interviews were switched to video calls.
For the business, we carried out stress tests to ensure we would not be financially impacted in different scenarios, and communicated with our clients that schedules may be delayed due to unavoidable staff illness levels. Crucially we also told our staff we had done this, so they didn’t become stressed and ill if they were worried about meeting what could become impossible deadlines.
Would you consider upscaling any of the precautions if there is any need to?
We are re-adjusting our policy on a daily basis, so yes! For example we adjusted our normal “beer o’clock” to avoid staff mingling between studios and between floors when we escalated our social-distancing policy. We hope working from home will not be rolled out to everyone, but we have been planning for this scenario too.
Given the commitment to high end software and equipment, how can studio animators adjust to working from home if such a thing were needed?
If this pandemic had occurred a few years ago, we would have been much less able to cope, but now with the advancements of remote-desktop technology, artists can virtually log into powerful workstations without needing the kit at home.
But technology only reduces the impact, it does not solve it. If an artist does not have a strong internet connection and lives out of range of strong mobile signal, remote-desktops are all but worthless. Equally the biggest issue will be staff illness levels, so our focus has been social-distancing to reduce the impact on staff getting sick at the same time, for our studio’s ability to work, and the NHS’s ability to function when numbers start to escalate more so than now.
We’ve fortunately been embracing the work-from-home ethos for a while, which many of our artists now use, so we’ve been busy ramping this up for more staff.
Blue Zoo, like many animation studios often works with freelancers. How would you recommend freelance animators cope with this new situation?
The biggest requirement between any employer and staff (or freelancer) is strong mutual trust. Trust the work can get done to the right quality without communicaiton issues, and trust the studio will pay promptly. So freelancers need to think about this as their main obstacle to getting a job. How can they show the quality of their work is good enough, and their communication skills are top-notch. Peer recommendations and a blinding showreel are obvious ones!
Additionally, there are many studios which operate entirely with remote staff, working around the world. We find a balance of in-studio and remote is best, to build a healthy, friendly culture and stop people from getting cabin fever! But have worked with people we have never met in person, if their work shines.
Many animation festivals and conferences are cancelled, you’re regulars at the event reviewing portfolios for job openings. Do you have any recommendations for portfolios and interviews?
Listen to our ACCESS:VFX Video Podcast on this topic, where many of the big studios will be contributing advice on this exact question. Blue Zoo is also rolling out some new ways of helping artists in this situation which we will announce shortly.
Has the government done enough?
It’s an impossible situation for the government, they are working on a sliding scale between slowing down the spread versus economical damage; both of which have dire outcomes. They also have to prevent panic buying which could cause huge problems, so their advice has been with all of these in mind.
So we have followed government advice, but also gone further. We can do things which would cause financial damage if done at scale across the UK, but if done inside our studio would cause minimal impact. For instance, stopping guest visits and social-distancing.
Are there wider implications to the virus and how should the creative world be preparing for those?
At this stage who knows? There will certainly be economic impact, more so in advertising where companies now have more limited income. But this may be balances by animation being in more demand as live-action films sets become locked-down and prohibitive to use.
But we should be thankful Animation is not a consumer facing business, like travel or hospitality. So we have limited impact due to being shut away in dark rooms by habit!
Has the studio implemented any actions that might help other studios?
Don’t be afraid of flagging up to your client if you think you will struggle, they are only human too and likely to be going through the same situation. We are in unprecedented times.
When it comes to our team, we always focus on being truthful, open and keep communication going. As soon as you’ve lost any of these three you will struggle to bring everyone together, and at times like this we need everyone pulling together so we can look back with pride at how we all dealt with it, and got through it together.
For further advice on the Coronavirus you can visit the NHS Website or the World Health Organisation.