The Audio of Sockb4by

Over this weekend, I finally got a chance to watch the newest installment of the short movie series known as Sockbaby. This is the first installment of the movie series I have watched since I started taking this course and what I have learn has given me a new appreciation for the work that Doug TenNapel and John Soares are doing.
At first, I thought the re-recording of audio in the Sockbaby series was merely the result of the no-budget work being done on the film. I assumed that they were forced to re-record and replace audio because they lacked the audio equipment to properly capture the audio outside of a studio setting. However, I now believe that the audio is a carefully constructed part of the film and one that the filmmakers have gone to great lengths to create.
I could talk about the audio effects or Foley artistry that takes a prominent role in the film due to the amount of visually active scenes but I would like to focus on the dialogue instead. Nearly every piece of dialogue is re-recorded and re-dramatized in the film. This is not purely to recreate the dialogue in a more audible or understandable tone but also to help establish both character development and support world creation.
In the realm of character development, we are very rarely given any direct background information on the characters. We are given nearly no information about the protagonist, Ronnie Cordova; yet, we are led to define the character, if not even establish his unstated background, from the way we speaks. His roughened, almost strained, voice makes us think about similar voice work in older cop shows and films from the 1970s. The same development holds true for secondary protagonist, Burger. Every time he moves the sound effects of his movements are matched with the sound of hydraulic or actuator motors. When he delivers his dialogue, he speaks in flat, monotone, and almost mechanical way.
Indeed, the re-dubbed dialogue seems to focus less on what is being said and more on how it is said. As TenNapel has stated in an interview; “"Vernacular is a big part of the Sockbaby series...the way they talk is part of the "why" of the show.” I think when I view any installment of the Sockbaby series from now on I will focus more on the auditory aspects than the visual.