Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1535880
80 M PS E . O R G I guess my point is, would you rather have me record more beautiful sounds and additional layers to help elevate the sound experience of your project or have me fix cues, and deal with challenges and obstacles like this, just to find us rush through, chasing time and not be able to honor the project the quality it deserves? So anyway, after the category props, we move on to props that require more time to build or a combination of other things to sound right. Gear mvmt for a carriage, armor, guns, rifles, and many more would be in that category. Then we go over random props that don't get repeated in that episode or film. All the one-time props will be in the Props 1, Props 2, etc tracks. 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" pass as well, because now 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 at the corner of the stage for a cue, and it's causing this action to have a metal ringiness over it! So we learned to do that last, or if we use it earlier in the day, then we move it away outside the stage to its storage area. After years of doing it I've developed a very good ear for hearing tones or noises, and know exactly why or where it's coming from. Of course, you also need to know your room and familiarize yourself with how it sounds. Ok, now that everything is done, 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 that specific episode or film to make the right genuine sound for what we see, so during the CLOTH we take notes and have someone get the shopping list for us by the time we are done with the rest. We also do the wet sounds last, because it creates a mess, and if it requires 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. So 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. 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 are. I constantly pay attention to the artist's tone of voice and their mood or responses, and if I hear any sort of frustration signal 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, I stopped the session immediately and went to the stage and started empathizing with them as a listener and I said you know what, forget about this session, let's take a break and I'll make you something. I had some flat-bread, some cheese, and tomatoes, and made a little pizza in the toaster and brought it to the artist and said; Here, this is a special snack for you to cheer up! That smile made my day too, and after that break, we worked with laughter and positive energy and even finished earlier than we thought. I had to work with bipolar and very negative personalities as well during the years, 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 how to handle challenging personalities with empathy and professionalism. So there's a lot more to it than just