After a stellar run on the festival circuit, Colombian director David Carrizales dropped us his first animated short film, a lighthearted ode to human commonality built on a wordless soundtrack of bodily-generated noises.

David Carrizales: “I initially thought of doing an animation project displaying all the sounds generated by the human body: burping, farting, snoring, applauding, clearing your throat, laughing, etc., with the rule there would only be one of each.

“The main reason behind the project was to show that all human beings are the same and always have been. In Colombia there’s this saying: ‘Todos comemos, cagamos y dormimos.’ Which translates into: ‘We all eat, shit and sleep.’.

“So after compiling a comprehensive list of sounds, I set another rule: all the foley had to be real. Meaning the sound effects for the scene displaying the snore had to be a real snore (not a fake nor an acted one), and so on.
 

“The main reason behind the project was to show that all human beings are the same and always have been.”

 
“And when I started to plan how to record the different sounds it became really apparent that most, if not all sounds generated by the human body embody a social meaning. Easiest example: a fart, which can alter many social situations and dynamics, despite it being something we all do since we’re born.

“This gave the project a more interesting and broader scope in that the goal wasn’t just to think of a sequence to display each sound. For instance: a hand slapping a face became about who was slapping and who was being slapped.

“Art direction and finish wise, I aimed at having as little aesthetic and stylistic bells and whistles as possible so only the strictly necessary was shown in order for the scene to be clear and legible and the focus could remain on the sounds and characters generating them.

“After searching and searching, I opted for the classic look and feel of traditional newspaper comic strips. Even though that is a stylistic decision in itself, I felt that approach was as minimal as I wanted it to be whilst still allowing us to add the necessary amount of detail both facially and anatomically.”
 
 

 
Production: Binalogue
Director: David Carrizales
Writer: David Carrizales, Álvaro Moreno
EP: David Carrizales, Marcus Stenbeck
Art director: David Carrizales, Álvaro Moreno
Editor: David Carrizales
Producer: David Carrizales, Marcus Stenbeck, Alejandra Martínez
Animator: Leire Villar, Álvaro Moreno, Nicolás Petelski, Jorge Artola, Samuel Alegre
Illustrator: Álvaro Moreno, Leire Villar, Jorge Artola, Samuel Alegre
Graphic Designer: David Carrizales, Álvaro Moreno, Jorge Artola, Joaquín Castaño
3D: Iván Pardo, Alejandro de Los Ríos
Animation interns: Ana Sebastián, Fumiaki Kobayashi, Illustration interns, Ana Sebastián, Miguel Ángel Campubrí

Audio: Aural
Sound design: Claudio Bonaldi, David Carrizales
Mix: Claudio Bonaldi
Foley: Claudio Bonaldi, David Carrizales, Rafa Coelho, María Paula Farfán, Laura Martínez, María Reig, Marcus Stenbeck, Esteban Testolini
Additional Sound design: Esteban Testolini
Music: Claudio Bonaldi