Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1335892
FROM FOLEY TO FEATURE FILM BY DAN BLANCK, RYLAN MORTENSEN, AND ANDREW GARCES F ootsteps. What's the big idea? I'm walkin' 'ere. It's a tricky bugger to get right when fi lming a scene, but you may not think so at fi rst. Let's say you have three actors walk into a scene, but all you can pay attention to are their footsteps: one of them is a Academy Award winner, the other is IMDb's bottom 100, and the last is a distorted mess. Unsurprisingly, this would grate anyone's ears and completely take them out of the scene. Jack Foley hated this kind of stuff! So he responded by making an industry-standard practice out of fi xing it, and it's named after him! So what is Foley exactly? It's not JUST making foot sounds, right?? Foley is the process of overdubbing and adding sound effects to a fi lm, in sync, so as to enhance or replace the original audio. In other words, a Foley artist's job is performing and recording sound effects that sound more true to life than the original fi eld recordings. By imitating the environment in which a sound would come from, a Foley team gains great control in what sounds they record into a scene. For example, someone walking on snow can be imitated by corn starch in a leather pouch. Or perhaps if one needs to enhance the sound of a campfi re, crunching cellophane imitates the defi ned crackle. Foley artists are artists indeed because they recreate these everyday sounds and implement them into a fi lm to dramatize and add realism. The result often sounds more realistic than the original recordings. Case in point, in Jack Foley's last fi lm, Spartacus, the original fi eld recording for the Roman Empire marching to battle sounded like "pots and pans." The production team feared they would have to spend the extra money on a reshoot of the scene, but Jack Foley ran out to his car, grabbed a ring of keys, and jangled it in rhythm with the marching army, recreating the shuffl e of metal armor as it walked across the screen. The sound effect, essentially free in cost, added power and immersiveness to the scene. This is why recreating sound effects is the standard practice, as opposed to catching realistic fi eld recordings. The Process So? How is it done? The actual process seems to be elusive to those who are not in the industry. We had the help of two big names in the fi lm sound industry; Solange Schwalbe and Midge Costin, who clarifi ed much of it. Solange and Midge are not only pioneers of women in sound for fi lm, but educators who have also fostered the careers of many successful talent in today's industry. Solange Schwalbe has been working in sound editing and supervising since the '80s. She's worked on sound for more than 170 feature fi lms, including classics such as Twister, The Goonies, and Black Hawk Down, to name just a few. Midge Costin was a sound editor and supervisor for a number of classics as well, including Crimson Tide, The Rock, and Dead Again. She also recently directed the documentary Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound, which details the history of sound in fi lm and features many of the most prolifi c fi lmmakers of all time, including Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Robert Redford, and many others. If there's anyone who understands the fi lm sound industry front and back, it's these two. First, it's important to understand that Foley is only one of seven different elements to sound for fi lm. Altogether, we have dialogue, ADR (automated dialogue replacement), sound effects, backgrounds, Foley, music, and sound design. Foley is not the only department that takes care of sound effects. They specifi cally work with sound effects recorded in-sync with the fi lm. As far as Foley goes, there are two key types of sounds that need to be recorded: footsteps and props. As defi ned by Solange Schwalbe, "A footstep is a human being, upright in motion. Defi nition of a prop: everything else." The reason for the distinction is because footsteps on their own need to be recorded in such a specifi c, particular manner. A character in a fi lm can often be identifi ed based solely on what they sound like when they're walking. The sound of a character's footsteps changes based on the character's build, the shoes they're wearing (or that they're not wearing), their gait, and the surface they're walking on. This goes to show how specifi c these artists need to get to achieve the right vision. "This specifi city goes a long way to intrigue a viewer," says Midge Costin. "People aren't SYN C SOU N D Foley artist Dennie Thorpe has performed Foley on over 280 major box offi ce feature fi lms. Photo courtesy of Midge Costin Photo courtesy of Midge Costin