The film contains no dialogue, and only a single piece of written text.
The film uses a sequence of 184 still images rather than motion video. This 'picture story' technique is inspired by 'La Jetee' - a film made almost entirely from still images by Chris Marker in the 1960s which was the basis for Terry Gilliam's 'Twelve Monkeys'
Director Ben Slotover believes that High Definition video at 29.97 frames per second constitutes an intolerable information overload to the brain, which is why 'Shhh' designed to run its 184 frames over 4 minutes and let the viewer's brain fill the gaps in by itself.
The noises from the walls were made by vibrating the back of the human tongue whilst singing through partially open lips. The 'clicking' noises were made by forcing air trapped by the back of the tongue against the roof of the mouth.
Although the LP Heinz uses to kill the beetles at the end of the film was shot using the Beatles' 'White Album', it was digitally changed later to the 'Sargeant Pepper' album because 'Sargeant Pepper' was thought to be more instantly recognizable by the most people.