Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1261193
12 I M PS E . O R G SYN C SOU N D "W hat's Foley?" I asked. I was just the first assistant on a feature film called Goonies. I had only been on the show for one week when he walked into my editing room and said, "Do you want to cut Foley?" I thought he was kidding! I was hired to be the first assistant! Why would he ask me to cut anything? "I'll do it! Thank you so much! What's Foley?" A week later, I was "cueing" Foley on Goonies. I had never dealt with Foley before. I didn't know where to begin. One of my editors said, "Just cue everybody walking first. Then cue everything they do." That was 1984. I have been a Foley supervisor ever since! I absolutely LOVE Foley! I made it my career! I get such a kick out of Foley, especially on the dub stage! First you cue it. Figuring out all of those nuances is like building a jigsaw puzzle. Once you're in it, it becomes addicting! You have to build Foley, like building blocks. Every piece affects all of the other pieces. You have to learn how to READ THE SCREEN! What on earth does that mean? You have got to look all the way around the screen to read what is happening around the actors and how it contributes to the story. Whether it's simple footsteps in grass, or a lady in a parking garage wearing stilettos! Whether it's simple hand pats, or the debris caused by a tornado. My most complicated experience was on Twister. I had to create three categories, footsteps, props, and tornadoes. Tornadoes cannot be recorded on a Foley stage, but Foley records the RESULT of the tornado. All of the debris and everything it hits can be recorded on the Foley stage. Foley also does debris from crashes, explosions, and many other disasters. Foley records the RESULT of many actions. Foley is Sound FX recorded live in sync to picture. The main job of Foley is to replace what's missing in production, augment Sound FX, and replace production for foreign films. Foley is recorded live on a Foley stage with two performers called Foley artists. They perform the CUES while watching the screen to get the performance in sync. The Foley mixer sits in a booth outside the Foley stage recording all of the cues. A REEL is 20 minutes or less. If a project is over 20 minutes, that will create two reels. A feature film is usually 5-6 reels. Each reel is defined by its timecode. R1= 01:00:00:00 R2= 02:00:00:00 R3= 03:00:00:00 R4= 04:00:00:00 R5= 05:00:00:00 Labeling each reel is very im- portant to the Foley stage, as well as the dub stage. The industry standard is as follows… TITLE, REEL, VERSION, ELEMENT, ACTION. • What is the name of the project? • Which reel is it? • What date did you get it? • What element is it? Foley or dialogue or Sound FX or ADR, etc. • What action are you taking? Cueing, edit, spot, changes, etc. Opposite page: Screen captures showing the different picture images relating to the Academy Leader. Top: Picture Start at the beginning of the 8-second countdown at 00:00. Center: The single-frame 2-Pop at 00:06. Bottom: The first frame of picture at 00:08. Read the Screen THE SECRETS OF FOLEY CUEING PART 1 BY SOLANGE S. SCHWALBE MPSE One of my editors said, "Just cue everybody walking first. Then cue everything they do." That was 1984.