Autistic 'Sensory Overload' Demonstrated in Striking Awareness Film

Advertising agency The News recently launched ‘Sensory Overload’, a new inspirational film to raise awareness for World Autism Awareness Month. The film gives the viewer a peek into the intense levels of sensory sensitivity a person with autism experiences on a daily basis.

Steve Cope, director at Rattling Stick, collaborated with The National Autistic Society and they brought Grand Central Sound Designer Munzie Singh Thind on board - together they created the powerful 70 second film that effectively uses sound to highlight sensory sensitivity.

The film opens with a dripping tap, a hollow echo. Accompanied by a siren sound, ticking clocks and steady barks from a dog, it is a chorus of abstract sounds narrating the story and structuring the video around a series of repetitive beats. By using the audio view as the main storyteller, the sound allows the viewer to understand the sensory experiences of people who have autism.

Says Munzie: “The great thing about this project, from a sound design point of view, was that I was brought in at the start of the creative process. I felt it was vital to start by researching the experiences of people with autism, so that I could strive to put myself in their shoes and create something that would truly reflect the challenges they face every day.

“Instead of aiming for the beautiful, I wanted a soundscape that was really annoying. The sounds were looped and manipulated to disrupt the listener. By doing this we wanted to make them feel uncomfortable and alien - the repetitive and atonal audio is meant to strike a chord with the audience, communicating the message in an unnerving manner.

“I messed with the tempo of recorded and library sounds to add that arresting factor. In order to achieve a stark contrast with the rest of the film, I cut it dead at the end to surprise the viewer, as the film cuts to a shot of Chile, who has autism in real life.”

Credits

Client: NAS – National Autistic Society

Agency: The News

Creative Director: Kit Dayaram

Copywriters: Kit Dayaram/Stine Hole Mankovsky/Oli Kellet

Art Director: Kit Dayaram

Production Company: Rattling Stick

Director: Steve Cope

Producer: Kate Taylor

Production Manager: Charlie Lodder

Editing House: Stitch

Editor: Izzy Curry   

DOP: Clive Norman

Location Manager: Toby Haak

Production Design: Stef Grieve 

Make-Up: Bev Pond-Jones

Costume: Lydia Kovacs

Sound: Munzie at Grand Central 

Visual Effects: Electric Theatre Collective