Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1535806
64 S U M M E R 2 0 2 5 I C A S Q U A R T E R L Y I constantly pay attention to the artist's tone of voice and their mood or responses. If I hear any sort of frustration, I try to switch the mood of the session and make a funny note of something or distract them to something positive, so they don't stay in that mood for too long. Life brings enough challenges already to all of us, we don't need to add to it. I proudly consider myself one of the happiest/uplifting Foley mixers in this industry, and the artists who work with me usually laugh a lot during our sessions. When they leave the stage, they don't feel down or low energy. I have had instances where the artist was going through a hard time, and they broke into tears. When this happened, I stopped the session immediately and went to the stage and started empathizing with them as a listener. I told them to take a break and then brought them a snack saying, "Here, this is to cheer you up!" They smiled and that smile made my day. After the break, we worked with laughter and positive energy and even finished earlier than we thought. Over the years, I have worked with bipolar and very negative personalities who really needed professional help as artists, and instead, they would come to work to empty their anger and personal problems onto me. I've learned a lot of the psychological aspects of how to handle people like that in the most positive and professional way. As you can see, there's a lot more to it than just being a Foley mixer. I was trained to be in charge of my session's energy and health. I can't have the artist being angry at something or have an attitude and then come to create delicate sounds on the stage; that's just not going to work, and it will reflect on every sound they produce! Well, except if it's breaking things, then they will do a great job naturally! What I Learned From Shōgun To me, Shōgun had the luxurious feel of a Rolls-Royce but the efficiency of a Toyota! I have so much respect for the whole crew of Shōgun, especially the Japanese team. You can see the difference in the efficiency of the production with each scene crafted so carefully without any waste of energy, dialogue, unnecessary movements of the actors, or touching props that are not story-driven. Everything was thoughtfully planned with a specific purpose in mind. It's the result of being "Sound Aware" that I'm a big advocate of when I mentor others in entertainment that are not working in sound. For instance, with actors, writers, directors, picture editors, set designers, or costume designers, once they realize the huge impact sound has on their creative thinking process, it can elevate the whole team to the next level and create a masterpiece like Shōgun. Sits and Ups After all those props and gear and hands are done, it's time to do the sits and ups, which is anytime someone sits on or gets up from something, whether it's a chair or not. All sits and ups should be cued on the same track, just like any other category props in order to streamline the process. Then, as we are doing the sits, we also do the "Hands to Car Door," since we can use the car door and not have to deal with it ringing during the day. The Foley stage can be tricky sometimes because you may be recording something dropping on the floor and you hear a metal ring, but you're not using anything with metal! Then, after a few minutes of searching and troubleshooting, you realize the car door is resonating because you had it uncovered in the corner of the stage during a cue. So, we learned to do that last, or if we use it earlier in the day, we move it away from the stage to the storage area. After years of recording, I've developed a very good ear for hearing tones or noises and know exactly why or where they're coming from. Of course, you also need to know your room and familiarize yourself with how it sounds. Eating and Chewing Moving on, it's time to do any wet/water or food-related items that require the artist to eat and chew. Sometimes we have to buy a certain type of food item for a specific episode or film to capture a genuine sound of what we see. During the CLOTH pass, we take notes and have someone go shopping for us, so we have everything by the time we are done with the rest. Wet Sounds We do the wet sounds last because they create a mess. And if they require shoes to sound wet, then we don't want to make the main character's shoe wet at the beginning of the show because it could start creaking and change the tone of the shoe. We try to avoid using the main shoes for water at all costs and only use shoes that are for that purpose. Also, some water pits make noise when you fill them up earlier in the day, so it's better to do water cues last if they have a drain attached. Pits with no drainage are usually fine, but again, it depends on your project. If it's a show all about wet mud forests, then all the main characters are going to have wet-sounding FS. There's no hard rule on what order we should work; we have to improvise and decide the most efficient way of tackling each project. Once Recording Is Finished When everything is finished, we celebrate and thank each other for the great session we had and all the sounds we created as a team. It's a very important nuance to make sure your Foley artists know you are grateful for their artistry and creativity, no matter how grumpy or tired they or you are.