Casablanca

Dir. Michael Curtiz (1941/2)

 

 

Foley is the reproduction of everyday sounds for use in filmmaking.^[1] These reproduced sounds can be anything from the swishing of clothing and footsteps to squeaky doors and breaking glass. The best Foley art is so well integrated into a film that it goes unnoticed by the audience.^[1] It helps to create a sense of reality within a scene. Without these crucial background noises, movies feel unnaturally quiet and uncomfortable.

Foley artists look to recreate the realistic ambient sounds that the film portrays. The props and sets of a film do not react the same way acoustically as their real life counterparts.^[1] Foley sounds are used to enhance the auditory experience of the movie. Foley can also be used to cover up unwanted sounds captured on the set of a movie during filming that might take away from the scene at hand, such as overflying airplanes or passing traffic.^[1]

 

History of Foley

 

Jack Foley began what is now known as Foley art in 1927.^[2] He had started working with Universal Studios in 1914 during the silent movie era. When Warner studios released its first film to include sound, The Jazz Singer, Universal knew it needed to get on the bandwagon and called for any employees who had radio experience to come forward.^[2] Foley became part of the sound crew that would turn Universal’s then upcoming “silent” musical Show Boat into the vibrant musical we know it as today. Because the microphones used for filming could not pick up more than dialogue, other sounds had to be added in after the film was shot.^[2] Foley and his small crew would project the film on a screen while recording a single track of audio that would capture their live sound effects in real time.^[2] Their timing had to be perfect so that footsteps and closing doors would sync with the actors' motions in the film. Jack Foley created sounds for films until his death in 1967.^[2] His methods are still employed today.

Modern Foley art has progressed with the advancement of recording technology. Today, sounds do not have to be recorded live on a single track of audio. They can be captured separately on individual tracks and carefully synced with their visual counterpart.^[3] Foley studios employ hundreds of props and digital effects to recreate the ambient sounds of their films.

 

How Foley is created

 

Foley is created by mimicking the actual sound source in a recording studio.^[1] Often there are many little sound effects that happen within any given scene of a movie.^[3] The process of recording them all can be tedious and time consuming. Foley art can be broken down into three main categories:^[1]

Feet

Moves

Specifics

 

Example:

Two actors are walking down a marble staircase in a film, having a discussion while fishing in their pockets for their car keys.

 

The “Feet” category entails the sound of footsteps.^[1] In the example given the actors are walking down a staircase. What is heard are two Foley artists stamping their feet on a marble slab in a recording studio, they do this while watching the footage to make sure that their foot strikes happen at the same time as the actor’s steps on the screen. Foley studios carry many different types of shoes and several different types of floors to create footstep sounds.^[3] These floors vary from marble squares to gravel and rock pits.^[4] Creating just the right sound of footsteps can greatly enhance feel of a scene.

 

The “Moves” category makes up many of the more subtle sounds heard in films. Foley artists will have to add the swishing of clothing as the actor’s pant legs rub together as they descend the stairs.^[1] This sound is created by rubbing two pieces of the same material together near the microphone at the same rate that the actor’s legs cross.^[3]

 

“Specifics” are the extra sounds added into a scene that are not feet or moves. This means that anything the actor touches or moves must be recorded for the film.^[1] This also means that a Foley studio must have hundreds of props on hand for any scenario where a sound might be needed. Studios have collections of doors, chairs, canes, and guns, literally anything that might be used in a film. Props can make up most of the cost of a Foley studio and require more room to store than the studio space itself.^[1] In our example the keys that the actors are fishing out of their pockets would be considered specifics. These would be easily recreated with actual car keys from the Foley artists as they clink them around in their pockets the same way the actors are but with microphones directed at the keys to pick up their jingling sound.

 

The scene is only complete when a little reverb is added onto the new Foley audio and any dialog recorded at the set in order to recreate the sound of the hard, empty walls of the staircase.^[1] Reverb and echo can enhance the feeling of space in a scene. Both of these effects are subtle but descriptive to the human ear. Acoustically, these effects are how we judge the size of a given space. For example, a large hall will have strong reverberation, while a small room may have only slight reverberation.^[1]

 

Common Foley tricks

 

·        Corn starch in a leather pouch makes the sound of snow crunching^[1]

·        A pair of gloves sounds like bird wings flapping^[1]

·        An arrow or thin stick makes a great whoosh^[1]

·        An old chair makes a controllable creaking sound^[1]

·        A water soaked rusty hinge when placed against different surfaces makes a great creaking sound. Different surfaces change the sound considerably^[1]

·        A heavy staple gun combined with other small metal sounds make good gun noises^[1]

·        A metal rake makes a great fence sound (it can also make a great metallic screech when dragged across a piece of metal)^[1]

·        A heavy car door and fender can create most of the car sounds needed but having a whole car in the studio is better^[1]

·        Burning plastic garbage bags cut into strips make a cool sound when the bag melts and drips to the ground^[1]

·        ¼” audio tape balled up sounds like grass or brush when walked on^[1]

·        Gelatin and hand soap make great squishing noises^[1]

·        Frozen romaine lettuce makes great bone or head injury noises^[1]

·        Coconut shells cut in half and stuffed with padding makes great horse hoof noises^[1]

·        Cellophane creates crackling fire effects^[1]

·        A selection of wooden and metal doors are needed to create all sorts of door noises but also can be used for creaking boat sounds^[1]

·        A heavy phone book makes great body punching sounds^[1]