Bringing books to life for deaf children

Aardman, the studio behind Wallace and Gromit, partnered with Huawei to build StorySign, an app that helps deaf children learn to read. In the app, an animated character, Star, signs along to popular stories, and it launched in 13 countries at once.

Aardman came to us with an unusual brief. Star had to sign in each market’s own sign language, which meant casting native-signing deaf actors for 13 versions, all female, petite, and available to shoot in London within two and a half weeks.

This was more than a translation job; it was casting and coordination against the clock, in a field where the right person for each role is rare to find.

Our job was to find 13 native-signing deaf actors, support them on set, and ensure the shoot ran smoothly.

1. Specialist castingWe sourced thirteen deaf actors, one for each sign language, all matching a specific physical and availability brief and ready to shoot in London within two and a half weeks. Finding native signers to that spec, at that pace, was the heart of the job.
2. Support on setWe placed qualified sign language and spoken language interpreters alongside the actors, so communication between the cast and the production team stayed clear and accurate throughout the shoot. That kept a complex, multi-language set moving.
3. Beyond translationWe cast 10 deaf actors for the launch advert and localised it into 10 sign languages. We also sourced interpreters for a trip to Lapland, where deaf children and their families met Santa with full sign language support.