Vimeo Short Film of the Week: ‘The Sound of Your Voice’

Short films matter. Vimeo wants you to know it. So do we. That’s we’re taking a weekly look at some of some of the short film world’s best and brightest. This week, we bring you Hunt Beaty’s quietly anxious drama The Sound of Your Voice.

The Plot: In the isolated confines of a recording booth, a voice-over artist is haunted by a bad breakup.

The Film:

There’s been a handful of great short films lately centered around the world of voice-over artists. While there appears to be no limit to voice-over stories to tell, most of those films play the burgeoning short form sub genre for laughs. Hunt Beaty is the first filmmaker we’ve seen to fully embrace the unnerving quiet and isolation that can exist within the soundproof walls of sound booth. His new film The Sound of Your Voice is proof of just how eerie that silence can be.

Beaty utilizes a haunting sound design to bolster that unease. The Sound of Your Voice is the sort of film that dwells in muted tensions, focusing on the simple sounds of everyday life to enhance its underlying anxiety. Make no mistake, The Sound of Your Voice is a surprisingly tense little film. But it’s not the sort of tension spawned from the on-screen action. To be honest, not much actually happens in this film. Instead, Beaty builds a potent sense of menace behind a relentless string of increasingly disturbing text messages and voice mails from a former lover.

As such, much of the film’s underlying anxiety is spawned from the performance of Stacy Weckstein. The actor bears the weight of each ominous message with a tortured weariness that effectively underscores the character’s pent up anxieties. Her taut, virtually wordless performance is augmented by the astute editing and crisp, claustrophobic photography of Editor/DP José Andrés Cardona, the melancholic music of Vito Cacciapaglia, and a particularly effective selection from Andrea Litkei and Ervin Litkei. That Litkei track is just one of the carefully observed details that make Beaty’s film such an engrossing experience. And those details are what make it even more engrossing on second viewing.

Meet The Crew: 

Directed by: Hunt Beaty Written & Produced by: Hunt Beaty, José Andrés Cardona, and Wesley Wingo Starring: Stacy Weckstein, Harry Bainbridge and Yuval David Cinematography by: José Andrés Cardona Edited by: José Andrés Cardona Music by: Vito Cacciapaglia

We hope you enjoy The Sound of Your Voice! Believe it or not, this is Hunt Beaty’s first turn in the director’s chair, and it’s one of the more impressive debuts we’ve ever featured here in CutPrintFilm’s short film corner. It’s also got us seriously excited about where Beaty goes with his next narrative project. While there’s no word yet on what that project might be, you can get a teaser of Beaty’s commercial work over at his Vimeo page.            

While you’re kicking around, be sure to check out some of the thousands of other short films – animated, live action and documentary – team Vimeo has curated for your viewing pleasure (via desktop or mobile device … SWEET!). You’re sure to find something interesting, and you may just stumble across your new favorite filmmaker.