Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1475048
32 FA L L 2 0 2 2 I C A S Q U A R T E R L Y it. They will even research the period of a production to decide if, for instance, cardboard was invented at the time of the story. This could result in them setting a wood box down instead of a cardboard box for accuracy. Once they're tracking, Gary can react to what he hears in the booth and ask Mitchell for something high-end or booming to add detail or impact. They always work together to make sure the Foley will read in the scene and live in the story. These sort of adjustments happen often in their flow, and Mitchell will quickly pull another item from the shelves on the stage to craft those nuances. Many Foley decisions are made purely for efficiency's sake.Organizing passes to knock out similar props over a whole show, working on an extended surgery instrument pass to utilize multiple tools and textures, or even dealing with things as basic as working on one character's feet across multiple scenes keeps the flow speeding along. Ideally, Gary and Mitchell like to have about a day for every 20-22 minutes of show, but they have some shows where they do an entire 42-minute episode of feet and props in a single day. With ample time budgeted, they play back everything in context against production or the temp mix to be certain that it works well for the final mix. With less time, they lean on their experience and mutual trust to know how the material will play and what elements will actually be featured. Both Gary and Mitchell share that they really love finding moments in a show that are "Foley moments"—times when the story is going to be told almost entirely by the material that they are cooking up! Those moments will often take more recording time, sometimes 20 to 30 minutes for a 15- to 30-second cue. However, the time spent making sure those big moments sing is well worth the chance to clearly tell the story with sound. The goal is to handle the more mundane Foley efficiently in order to buy extra time for moments that require extra care. The focus of a Foley moment can range from a piece of training equipment in a karate drama (wood impacts, cloth, swish, metal jangles, and flesh impacts to create a fully dimensional sound), to the sound of slushy ice for packing organs in a medical drama (crushed ice, water, a pillow with a snow-like slough, and shammy cloth for organs moving). One project they are currently cueing has a puzzle box they need to create. They are planning layers of wood, metal, and cloth movement to combine with specific moments of latching and impact to sonically illustrate both failed attempts and the solving of the puzzle. While it takes time to craft these multiple layers, Gary and Mitchell find these challenges the most creatively satisfying parts of the craft. Gary and Mitchell have developed an almost psychic efficiency in their years of working together. Mitchell noted that Gary can call in, "Let's try one more take on that" and he will instinctively know that the last pass didn't hit the mark, so he'll adjust to give Gary something subtly different on the next attempt. Gary seconded that observation by noting that Mitchell's adjustments are usually exactly what he was missing in the previous pass. Every genre poses a particular challenge. A modern world-roving adventure is a constant search to discover and create the multiple surfaces being walked (tile, hardwood, resonant wood, dirt, concrete). A period romance demands research into types of shoes, accessories, and tools that would have been in use during that era. A medical drama requires a box filled with medical tools (including a wrench to feel just a little "more real than real" in terms of weight and metal), plastics, and squishy sound creators to fill out surgeries. A martial arts drama involves an array of materials for impacts, swishes, and active motion. It's clear that for every show, Gary and Mitchell love researching the world in which the story lives so they can be confident that they are representing every detail accurately and evocatively— with an array of material exhaustively collected based on that research. The materials Gary and Mitchell collect are defined simply by whatever works to tell the story. Sometimes they are literal and sometimes they are something completely unexpected. Literal objects like leather, metal buckles, and fist punches are combined for martial arts; shammies, beaded pillows, cloth bags, cabbage, raw meat, and celery are sometimes layered in to cover the low and high end on impacts and to ensure a sound that will cut through while still having body and depth. Whatever the material, the goal is for them to create an emotional effect. Something as simple as squeezing a bead-filled cushion layered on top of a footstep can make it feel like a character is slipping along and having a harder time moving forward. At the end of the day, the goal on the stage is to craft Foley that is both complete and completely evocative.