From the beginning of the project it was clear that music and sound were going to be key in creating the sense of intimacy required for such a personal story.

From a sound perspective there was a clear narrative arc to this piece. Firstly, we have to start as if we’re in Simone’s head and build a sense of overwhelming pressure. Second, there is a release; a letting go of this pressure.

Third, as we explode into the air visually we simultaneously enter into a reflective, dreamy state with the sound, before building upwards to a huge emotional climax. Finally we repeat the technique from earlier where we suddenly cut out of this huge moment into reality again. We were tasked with bringing the viewer on this journey, from feeling claustrophobic, to reflective, then hope, before slamming back into the real world; back into the every-day grind of a pro-athlete.

Our sound approach to this job was to keep as many organic and human elements as possible in the sound design.

In our opening sequence we have voices building and overlapping in a crescendo to imitate the pressure that Simone would be feeling.

For the whole middle section we wanted the sound to flow seamlessly from one vignette to another with no clear start and end to each scene. This helps maintain a dreamy quality to this section.

As we build to our climax we have huge crowd sounds that act as a riser to overwhelm the viewer building up with the music to a huge moment.

Finally when we are dropped back into the gym we cut back to real sounds from the gym; athletes training and talking. For the first time in the film the sound is completely diegetic and establishes us back in the real world.