If you were to ask me to list the key elements that make a short film successful online, near the top of the essentials would be the importance of a strong opening. Internet audiences don’t wait around, they wanted to be hooked in early doors or else they may well drift off to check their social media feed or skip to another video. Sorayos Prapapan’s Death of the Sound Man may be a slower-paced festival favourite, but with its opening shot of a man fellating a hot dog sausage, you’re bound to be intrigued from the start.

Following sound recordists Burt and Nicky, as they perform their seemingly routine tasks of capturing audio for a short film, although that opening sequence suggests the nature of their work to be a little “risque”, the rest of their tasks have the air of mundanity to them. Recording sounds of sleeping animals at the zoo, peaceful atmos at a lake and the perfect sound of a flapping flag (turns out an American flag is louder than a Thai one), we get an insight into their world as they discuss the Thai governments mishandling of funds and the difference between foley and sound effects.

Employing deadpan comedy throughout, Prapapan’s subtle approach is effective in ensuring the messages of the film are never forced down our throat (that opening scene is still on my mind!), but instead left to ruminate and seep into our thoughts long after viewing. Quizzed about his use of comedy to tackle deeper issues, by Criterion’s director of programming (and former S/W writer) Penelope Bartlett, the director playfully responds “Maybe it’s because I’m Thai.”

Prapapan goes on to expand on this by explaining that the people of Thailand are “really good at making serious issues funny”, before adding that this is partly because “if we express our political frustrations too loudly and angrily we could get locked up for it. The government likes to ignore us and pretend that we’re all happy. And this is nothing new. I grew up watching a lot of Thai comedy, and the funniest stuff was always related to politics”.

Having visited Thailand a few times in my life, there is something intrinsically Thai about Death of the Sound Man. From its leisurely pacing (the country and its inhabitants seem to operate at their own pace) to that dry humour, as a short it manages to capture the spirit of a nation, whilst also maintaining an engaging level of reliability, with its tale of two employees just doing their best. Not bad for a film under 16-minutes in length.

At the time of its completion (2017), Death of the Sound Man was Prapapan’s fourth short as a director, he went on to complete another three since then and is now working on his debut feature Arnold is a Model Student. He also continues to work as a sound technician and foley artist (easy to see where the inspiration for this short came from), with another selection of shorts under his credits for this work.