The short animated film How Have You Been? by Polly Nor and Andy Baker touches on loss, grieving, and finding comfort amid the company and friendship of a slug-turned-demon creature. It details the story of a woman in her apartment alone. It’s clear she’s feeling lonely, so when a slug appears in her food delivery, she decides to feed it, unknowingly turning it into a demon that follows her around the house. At first, she’s horrified and annoyed, but towards the end of the film she and the demon form some kind of bond. It’s as if the woman begins to accept the grief she’s experiencing, rather than fight it. In this way, How Have You Been? takes a sensitive approach to examining the many aspects of our current world, and the loneliness that comes with tremendous loss and grief.

The illustrator Polly Nor has become well-known for her illustrations of demons. The demons signify the inner demon(s) many women struggle with in their daily lives.

The film was made during the first lockdown period starting in March 2020, and touches on the feelings of grief, loss and loneliness that many experienced during the pandemic.

We used a digital 2D cel technique for the animation. This involved hand drawing the character animation frame by frame and then digitally compositing with the hand drawn backgrounds in the computer.

Particular time and attention was spent researching and animating the dancing scene. Inspiration was taken from the track and various historical paintings namely Paula Rego's The Dance and Francisco Goya's The Burial of the Sardine. 

One of the challenges that arose was co-ordinating the production during the beginning of the first lockdown which spanned three continents – Europe, Japan and America – and numerous time zones including London, Amsterdam, Tokyo, New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco.