Montreal art director/motion designer Joanna Goldman takes on the surprisingly racy story of the birth and evolution of the humble Graham cracker in this personal explainer/mini-doc created while on maternity leave (during nap times).

Joanna Goldman: “The idea for the film sparked when I stumbled upon a Wikipedia article diving into the wild backstory of the Graham cracker. It got me hyped to visually bring its history to life. I teamed up with my good friend, Jessie Lowenfeld, who’s a whiz at writing and editing, to help shape the story.

“I toyed around with different visual styles until I settled on the collage look which involved hunting down photos of mannequins wearing clothing from Mr. Graham’s era and giving them my own spin with bold colors layered on the black and white photo.
 

“I rigged up a super budget-friendly setup with just my phone, a cheap tripod, a piece of white cardboard, and available sunlight.”

 
“Initially, I tried to do the animation digitally but I switched to stop-motion as it just felt more authentic to physically unfold printed copies of the characters and objects. I rigged up a super budget-friendly setup with just my phone, a cheap tripod, a piece of white cardboard, and available sunlight.

“The cauldron scene was its own challenge. I ended up modelling and animating it in 3D, bringing it into Photoshop to give it the same treatment as the other elements, and finally incorporating it in 2D with the rest. Looking back, it was a blast breaking down a captivating story, squeezing it into a bite-sized animation, and getting creative with the art direction and animation styles.”
 
 

 
Director/animator: Joanna Goldman
Co-writer: Jessie Lowe

VO: Mark Nemcoff