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www.postmagazine.com 22 POST NOVEMBER 2016 here are Foley artists. There are Foley mixers. And then there are Foley teams. A good team is about give and take. It's about collaboration and creative respect. "It's like being in a band, every person colors the outcome of the sound and so you want everyone to have their own gifts but still come together. You have to have the same taste and sensibility," says Foley artist Dawn Lunsford, who is a part of the Technicolor at Paramount Foley team. She and her team — along with the Skywalker Sound Foley team, and the Foley team at The Sync Tank, discuss their team dynamics, and how they worked together to tackle recent projects. SKYWALKER SOUND FOLEY TEAM — MOANA The new Skywalker Sound Foley stage has been in operation for less than a year but already Foley artists John Roesch and Shelley Roden, and Foley mixer Scott Curtis, have fused into a true team. Renowned Foley artist Roesch, who helped design the new stage on the Skywalker Ranch (http:// www.skysound.com) in Marin County, CA, says, "Both Scott and Shelley are professionals who have been in the business for many years, so the inte- gration up here at the Ranch has been pretty seamless." Roesch is the first Foley artist to re- ceive a Motion Picture Sound Editors Career Achievement Award, recogniz- ing his essential contribution to sound on over 500 projects, from Academy Award-winning films to AAA game titles. His Foley partner Roden has performed Foley on over 100 films, including The Blind Side and Up in the Air, and Foley for games like Halo 5: Guardians. She has also received Emmy nominations for her series work on shows such as Fringe. Behind the glass, Foley mixer/editor Curtis brings his award-winning expe- rience to the team. His credits include Oscar-winning films like Whiplash and Interstellar, AAA games like The Last Of Us: Left Behind and Halo 4, and also series like HBO's True Blood. A mountain of experience and minimal ego makes for a supportive team. Roden says, "We work in a very collaborative way with each of our opinions having equal value and con- sideration. In this way we achieve the highest quality possible." Curtis agrees, adding that respect is what makes this Foley team work so well. "We respect each other's opinions and the experiences that we all bring to this. We all come from different backgrounds, doing the same thing, but we can now apply our different experiences into this one unit," he says. The Skywalker Foley team recent- ly completed work on Disney's new animated feature Moana, in theaters November 23rd. Directors/writers John Musker and Ron Clements present the tale of teenage heroine Moana, who sets sail on a mission to save her people. On her adventure, Moana meets the demigod Maui, who helps her find her way. Set on Pacific islands and its surrounding ocean, Moana's sound is richly organic. Sand, shells, grass, leaves, wood, bone and yes, coco- nuts, were all utilized to create the Foley. The characters are all barefoot, and clad in outfits that incorporate organic elements, like grass and leaves. The challenge for the Foley team was to design a discernible son- ic palette even though nearly all the sounds occupied a similar frequency range. "Differentiation was a chal- lenge," says Roden, who performed all the Foley for Moana's character. Roesch chose to perform Maui's Foley. And together they handled the props to create a plethora of sounds for all the wooden boats, ropes and rigging, water, trees, a large crab character, a tribe of coconut-based Tiki people, and much more. To help make each sound dis- tinct, the team employed a range of THERE ARE NO 'I'S IN FOLEY TEAM, BUT THERE ARE DEFINITELY A BUNCH OF EARS BY JENNIFER WALDEN Moana's sound is described as "richly organic."