I enjoyed listening to Limetown, hearing it as a precise ballet of sound bites and music that enhanced my imagination’s emulation of the story as it unfolded. The overlay of helicopter and emergency responder sounds on the news reports gave me the uncontrollable feeling that the story was more real and personal than any “based on true events” movie could project on me as a viewer. But since I have to pick just one instance when I appreciated the sound design, I’ll focus around minute mark 2:50.

As the man at this point is giving us his testimony of the situation, he is interviewed with ample situational noise. Cameras flash, people discuss their hurried concerns in the background, and the reporters feed their questions. The sounds grab your attention to the emotions of everyone in the vicinity of the interview as if you are there; however, as the man finishes saying “everybody’s just…” the sounds wash away instantly. His voice is captured into a “reverb” filter (from what I can tell) and he says “gone,” as his voice echoes in solidarity. I went from feeling and visualizing the emotions of everyone around him to imagining just his face in confusion and desperation. Eyes wide, forehead wrinkled. I know the effect was intricately chosen to show the weight of the word, which builds the theme of the episode: gone, everybody’s just gone. And that’s all we know!

Honestly it would have been a great ending to the episode, but I did enjoy how this bit prefaced the story’s explosion from a local tragedy to global news. It’s as if the sounds imploded on themselves with the word gone, and then exploded as the clip resumes sounds at the three minute mark with global news sound bites.