At first, this film appears to be a movie trailer for a modern day telling of the iconic British children’s book; The Wind in the Willows. The opening shots fills the viewer with nostalgia as we see Badger, Toad, Ratty and Mole enjoying sunny spring day. The voices of the characters are all iconic British actors, such as Stephen Fry and Alison Steadman. Suddenly Toad’s bike crashes and the film takes a dark sinister twist. Along with the films characters, the viewers discover how polluted, desecrated and over developed the British countryside has become. Sir David Attenborough then delivers a stark fact; that “Britain has become one of the most nature depleted places on the planet”. The film then ends with a sense of hope, as Badger and friends grab their tools and Sir David Attenborough says “It’s not too late to save our wildlife, but we must work together”.

Creative: The Wind in the Willow’s is the most iconic British childhood story. Written in 1908, every child in Britain for over 100 years has been brought up on the book, both at home and at school. The Wind in the Willows, is about four anthropomorphized animals, Badger, Toad, Ratty and Mole and their adventures in the lush and plentiful British countryside. In the original, all four are male, something we changed in our updated and retelling of the story.

Social: Last year, the British Government published its 25 Year Environment Plan. For all the bright ideas and positivity, the plan lacks legislative measures that underpin and legally enforce a better deal for nature. The film is inspiring people to speak out and ask their politicians to take action – whether it be by meeting them in person, sending them a message or joining a mass lobby on Westminster.

I needed to create a piece of music that the audience would believe was from a feature film soundtrack, in order to convince them it was a trailer. The music ranges greatly, with influences from early 1900s Elgar and Vaughan Williams, travelling to more contemporary cinematic and speed metal. There are 5x cues: 01 nostalgic theme 02 energetic rock 03 dark designed desolation 04 melancholic cello 05 growing positivity with a reflection of the first theme. It was important to get high energy in cue 02 in order to end it and create the sparse, brooding dissonance for the middle. The 3rd cue is made up of a blend of swelling, drawn out clashing orchestral notes, with synthetic layers and machine sound effect loops blended together to create the despair and desolation / contemporary tonality. All orchestral sound was scored and recorded with live musicians.