This is a short animated film for British DIY chain B&Q, telling the story of a father and daughter that are entombed in their dusty old house and the journey they go through to break free and change their lives for the better.

The brief was to create a fantastical/magical sound design that would help elevate this touching story, articulating the emotion through sound. All sound was created from scratch.

Getting the correct tone was the challenge. During testing, it was made evident that a traditional cinematic treatment didn’t do justice to the animation. 70’s UK children’s TV animation was a strong stylistic sound reference. There’s a lot of silence and lofi sounds attached to the characters’ movements in those shows. We were keen to emulate this approach, although a complete lack of sound felt too sparse for how visually rich this spot was, so we sought out a sonic middleground, paying homage to that era but with a modern edge. As the film progresses, the sound gains higher definition, in line with the narrative.

Finding the right foley was important, using smaller lofi sounds to represent the movements, like crumpled paper for footsteps, unexpected sounds that gave character, later transitioning to more expected sounds like the clatter of tools as the house pushes upwards. The track used is ‘Pass Them By’ by Angnes Obel. The artist and label kindly gave us permission to add to the track with sounds and orchestration to drive the emotion and tie the song more to the narrative. We recorded extra strings, piano, choir harmonies and orchestral percussion to help articulate the family's joy in breaking free. Also layered in were arpeggiated retro sounds, created in line with the 70’s references, to add to the character and lofi sensibility. So our sound treatment starts small, but slowly explodes into crashing waves of orchestration and magical sounds congruent with our characters story arc.