Matthias Hoegg and Not To Scale created this short film for Random Acts season on Channel 4, to great applause. UPSTAIRS is a light hearted short film about how much we know, don’t know, or even want to know, about the lives of our nearest Neighbours. An inexplicable sound from the flat above leaves our main protagonist, Jeff, sleepless and anxious to find out the truth about what is really going on upstairs.
Matthias spent 2 months at Not To Scale offcie in London animating the film mostly by himself with a little bit of help from other animators for a couple of scenes. Everything was designed in Photoshop and Illustrator, and animated using a combination of Flash, After Effects and Maya.
Matthias Hoegg,
Director
Although it’s not quite autobiographical, I definitely took some inspiration from years of living in tiny London flats surrounded by unknown neighbours and their strange sounds at night. I wanted to capture the eery situation when you can’t help wondering what your neighbour gets up to when their noises keep you up at night without ever getting a definitive answer.
