It was only a matter of time before UK Locations MD, Lauren York, realised her lifelong ambition of setting up an independent production company.
If you’ve met Lauren, you’ll know she doesn’t mess about. She does her research, she breaks down her goals, and she finds exactly the people she needs to help her reach those goals and make her ideas come to life. And what an idea this was.
A production company that opens doors
Thanks to a highly talented and well-connected team and Art of Truth’s unique position as sister company to one of England’s leading location agencies (ahem, that’s us), Art of Truth is a production company with unparalleled access to an abundant source of hidden voices and untold stories – able to get inside the lives, minds, and inner workings of the nation’s most hard-to-reach people and places.
But the ‘art of truth’ isn’t only about telling authentic and diverse stories of life in the UK; it’s about bringing in equally diverse teams of people to do it – by opening the doors to the industry through offering internships and mentoring to underrepresented groups, and by using the company’s own success to create more work opportunities for current and future film and TV makers outside of London.
Art of Truth sets out to produce original, unscripted (think Gogglebox and The Undateables) and scripted (mainly comedy) TV for the major broadcasters and digital channels.
A force for good
Part of the alumni of the 2021 Goldman Sachs Growth Programme, Lauren has an acutely clear vision for Art of Truth’s evolution as a business too, placing full emphasis on the ‘triple bottom line’ (profit, people and planet) and aiming for B Corp certification, meaning everyone involved with the company will benefit from its success, but not at the expense of the planet. As part of this, Art of Truth will adhere to the guidelines on green production documented by the industry-funded body, ALBERT – which UK Locations is also keen to help its clients adhere to.
Meet the dream team…
On the core team with Lauren are Development Executive, Alison Foster and Executive Producer, Matt Drury.
Alison has over 15 years strategic and commercial business experience in TV, film and digital, working for companies such as Leopard, Tiger Aspect, Love Productions, Barcroft, BBC Factual and Little Dot Studios.
Alison has set up and led a range of different factual and factual entertainment development departments across the TV and digital sectors. As an Executive Producer, Alison has established original content departments, acted as creative lead and troubleshooter for projects, recruited teams and set budgets for departments and new business pitches.
A passionate advocate for finding and developing new talent, Alison delivers Art of Truth’s training programme and coaching the team to fulfil their ambitions.
Matt is an RTS-nominated director and executive producer with 20 years’ experience in the television industry and a raft of hugely popular programmes to his name, including documentaries Diary of a Mistress (C4), My Big Fat Wedding (C4) and Prince Charles: The Royal Restoration (ITV1), as well as several series of the BBC’s Great Canal Journeys, and Channel 4’s 2021 hit, Second-Hand for 50 Grand.
Matt began as a producer of live current affairs set-piece debates. He later went on to film, produce and direct numerous one-offs and series across the genres of current affairs and popular factual for the BBC, ITV and C4, among others. Most recently, as executive producer, he has originated, developed and nurtured to commission factual series for BBC2 and C4 which have become returnable.
With a strong passion for original storytelling, Matt has a gift for unearthing unique, untold tales and finding bespoke ways of telling them.
The future’s golden
Fully aligned with the spirit of Art of Truth and Lauren’s vision for the company, the team are already cooking up some TV gold. Earlier this year, Art of Truth MD, Lauren, was awarded an ‘unscripted TV development’ bursary from the Pat Llewellyn Fund, which is overseen by Women in Film & TV (WFTV) and sponsored by the BBC, Channel 4, ITV, ALL3Media and the Welsh Government – allowing the team to develop some of their most promising ideas and pitch them to the UK’s biggest broadcasters.
We can’t say much more at this point, but we can tell you that Art of Truth is on a mission to tell regional stories that global audiences want to see. Stories that are engrossing, thought-provoking, and life-affirming. Stories that embody the Art of Truth.
Do you have an interesting story? Contact: lauren@artoftruth.co.uk