The latest sketch from The Beans was released yesterday, entitled “Bear Hands.” When I received the rough cut of this short, I really didn’t know what to make of it. In talking with the director, I came to realize that it’s really just supposed to be awkward and absurd; this I can handle. For some reason, I was just feeling a quirky funk groove, so I picked up my bass, ran it through a fuzz/wah, and plugged away. The score part of this sketch really didn’t take very long. But when I was done with the music, something still didn’t seem quite right. Sure, I added the sound design elements of some generic football game going on in the background, and found a funny excerpt to use (from a real game, where player #69 is flagged for “giving him the business”), but we needed other elements to complete the sketch. So the director called me, and asked that I put in animal noises and other elements to build the awkward factor. He wanted a different animal sound to happen whenever you see a close-up of the “bear hands.” I took this and ran with it, and also added some voiceovers of my own (with a creepy reverb/delay to imply either an inner monologue or a “big brother” effect).
The end result had the director laughing over the phone, which is always a good thing. From this sketch, I learned that the sound design elements can create a score of their own, since my music really just acted as a header/footer to the sketch.
http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/05660112b3/bear-hands