Animated Narratives - Week 7

This week we studied the role of Sound in animation as a narrative device. We explored the use of sound as a character, as well as a component of the situation to suggest a character/location/event/action we cannot see.

I have always been fascinated with background sounds in movies as well as sound effects in cartoons. Popular children’s shows such as The Looney Toons (1930) rely entirely on sound effects to communicate with the audience. The characters have such expressive, vivid experiences without speaking a single word. I decided to come up with a story around the premise that is entirely based on non-diegetic sound, without any dialogue.

I worked on the following premise that I came up with in class: They held hands until the slow beeping of the monitor became one single beep

The story I came up with is as follows:

Title: The Final Beep

Scene 1: A man holding flowers nervously rings the doorbell - a <BEEP> sound of the doorbell - a lady opens the door and they smile at each other

Scene 2: The lady is at home when her phone BEEPs. The text reads “come out to the balcony.” She rushes out to see the man holding a sign that reads “Will you marry me.”

Scene 3: The happy couple are in the kitchen of their home, cooking together. The oven BEEPs and they see smoke coming out of it - the brownies are burnt. They both laugh.

Scene 4: The couple are in the hospital, the lady is pregnant. They hear the BEEP of the ultrasound, look at each other and smile.

Scene 5: The couple are slightly older now. They stand outside their house and hand their grown up son a new set of keys to his first car. The car BEEPS as he unlocks the car, and hugs his parents. They both look on as he drives away.

Scene 6: The couple are quite old now, in the hospital. The lady is lying on the hospital bed as her husband holds her hand. They both smile at each other through tears. They hold hands until he slow beeping of the monitor becomes one single BEEP.

The story of my work is inspired by the first fe minutes of the animated film UP (2009) by Walt Disney Pictures, that tells the entire story of a couple from childhood to old age through just a couple of scenes and no dialogue. I think it is a great example of crisp yet evocative storytelling.

Through this activity I tried to evoke emotion in the audience without any dialogue. I was able to explore the use of sound in animation as a narrative device through interactions between the characters and a single BEEP sound.