Creative Media Essay - Foley Sound Effects

Essay

CIU110.3 Creative Media Essay

Unit CIU110: Critical Thinking in Creative Media

Mandar Pachpande

SAE Institute

Dubai

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the Bachelor of Audio Production

Student Details

Name: Mandar Pachpande.

Student ID: DUB11283

Unit Code: CIU110

Date Of Submission: 9 December 2014

Word Count: 1709

Unit Lecturer:  Dr. Hernandez.

Which is better real sound on location or Foley sound effects.

Foley effects are sound effects added to the film, television and radio during the postproduction work. Almost every motion picture and TV show contains Foley track. The technique is named after Jack Foley. He was born in Yorkville N.Y. 1891, and was raised in the Seagate section of Coney Island. He invented this art. Jack started working in motion picture industry when there was no sound in films. He started working in silent era and lived through the exiting times when the industry converted into the sound moving pictures. Jack Foley started working with the Universal Studios in 1914 when Warner studios releases their first film which was having sound, The Jazz Singer. Universal Studio was knowing that they need to get on the bandwagon and they called for employees who are having experience in radio and that’s how Jack Foley became a part of sound crew and invented this art during the postproduction of Showboat, a musical made at Universal Studios. Jack Foley created sounds for films until his death in 1967 (Foley(filmmaking)). His methods are still in used today. With the passing year and with the many Foley artists such as John H. Post, Ken Dufva and David Lee Fein this art became popular in motion picture industry. This art has progressed because of the modern recording technology. Now a day’s sounds do not have to be recorded live on single track of audio. We can capture sound on individual track and can synchronized carefully. Mostly Foley sound effects use in films because it helps to create a sense of reality within the scene without crucial background noises. The person who creates Foley sound effects is called “Foley Artist”. Using many different props-car fenders, chairs, plates, glasses and just about anything found at the side of the road he creates the Foley sound effects. They include sounds such as footsteps, cloths rustling, crockery clinking, paper folding, door closing and slamming, punching hitting’s, glass breaking etc. Foley artist can replace the original sound completely to make a richer track. It can be used to cover the unwanted sounds captured on the shooting sets i.e. overflying airplanes or passing traffic. Most of the time people get confused between Foley and Sound FX. These both things are different. Sound FX deals in engines, explosions, blasts and natural sound like dogs and birds, where Foley deals with things like footstep that are not repeated because each footstep sounds different (Trash, 2008).

Foley artist usually perform Foley on a Foley stage. Foley stage is an area with props and variety of possible surfaces in Foley studio. Foley sound effects are excellent substitute for sounds that production mikes often miss. Effects like horse ridding or an effect of saddle when rider mounts his horse, are difficult to record at real time on location. So they create such effects in Foley studio. To get the perfect effect they have to become a character with whom they are synching effects or the sound will lack and it will not sound natural. Many of the Foley artists can see the object and imagine what type of sound it can make. The Foley crew includes the artist and technician who records and mix the sound. Major part of the Foley studio is Foley stage. Where all the unwanted junk, metal laundry tubes, metal trays, cans, hubcaps, bedpans, knives etc. are kept. One can find a various walking surfaces in Foley studio for recording footsteps (Foley, 1997). In motion picture Foley track is used for many reasons. For example, when shooting a fighting scene the swords are often made of rubber or wood. With that sword we can’t get a sword effect and we cannot use real swords because it’s dangerous. Another example is when character in film or TV breaks the bone. Obviously, we can’t break someone’s bone to record the perfect sound. So this sound need to be create artificially (Trash, 2008). The person who records the dialogue “boom operator” he excludes the other sound effects and only records the dialogue. By excluding other sound effects and adding them to postproduction work, Foley artist gets the complete control over the timing, quality and volume of these effects (Mavros, 2000). Once shooting of the film is done postproduction work starts and at that time Foley artist runs the film to get the idea of what type of sound is needed and gather the material and prepare for use to get the desired sound effects. First they practice it and when they get the perfect sound they watch film and add sound effects at the same time (Foley(filmmaking)). Occasionally if the footage contains dialogue that is not clear, it needs to be replaced by dubbing. Dubbing is comes under Foley sound. To put a clear dialogue in film, actors have to go to a Foley stage and then they have to re-record the dialogue for the particular scene. This process is called ADR (Automated Dialogue Replacement). After the re-recording is done Foley artist match this clean recording with the original recording, so it sounds natural. Sometimes, to dub a film in other languages they use ADR.

Foley is an art and by mimicking, sound artist create actual sound in recording studio. There are lots of little sound effects in any movie scene. This process is long and time consuming. There are three major categories of Foley: Feet, Cloth and Other effects. Each of these tracks is added to the multi-recorder and synchronized with the picture (Foley(filmmaking)).

Footsteps are one of the important parts of any motion picture, because of this sometimes Foley artist called as “Foley Walker or “Foley Stepper”. It is hard to record footsteps when shooting because boom operator only records the dialogue. Another reason is often you get noise when you replace an original dialogue and at that time actors footsteps needs to be redone. Recording footsteps is difficult; it takes lot of practice to get the exact feeling. Foley artist don’t get much room on the Foley stage because the microphone needs to be fixed besides him. To record footsteps one can need many shoes of different kinds, some cowboy boots, and pumps, hard and soft shoes also a cotton cloth pressure-sensitive tape. As long as you get the clean recording it doesn’t matter what the shoe looks like. Having a proper surface is also important while recording footsteps. Wood, concrete, metal and gravel are several surfaces. A Foley stage is specifically built for these surfaces. Creating the right sound of footsteps can greatly enhance the feel of the scene. When you record the mike should be six feet away from Foley artist when scene is indoors and when its outdoors it should be three feet away from artist. This actually gives mike to breath and gives roomy sound (M.P.S.E., 1995).

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