To be honest, this is the weirdest short film I have ever watched. In general, this small piece is about a nightmare of a little girl. She is somehow is obsessed by the alphabet song. I am very impressed how David Lynch transformed such a sweet song into a horrified nightmare.

What I learned from this small work is that there is no limit to imagination in film making. Do not restrain yourself in a small cage. Think beyond what you see or what you already know.

Furthermore, the short film could not scare me without the great use of sound design. David Lynch pushes the audiences to their limit with simple sound but with high frequency. It makes me feel like the girl is screaming in her own dream. The visual is similar to the old time horror movie such as “The evil dead”. I find this type of  effect is rather gross than scary.

I always pay attention to sound design in media products, but “Alphabet” still surprised me. I find it possible to create a strong soundscape with just simple sound pieces. This will help me much in my later project. I will look into more of David Lynch’s works to see how he manipulates sound to enhance the whole story.

Reference cited:

David Lynch The Alphabet, video, Matteo Pini 2014, 6 February, viewed 8 March 2016, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJ_t1eOAipo>.