Introduction to Foley Design (Film Post-Production)

Understanding Foley in a way gives you the ability to understand sound at a more

detailed level. At least the way you can manipulate sound. I remember when I

joined SAE Dubai and I was doing my foundation course where every other degree

was introduced to me in small depth. I had to study the basics of Film, Design,

Audio, Animation, and Games.

As the weeks progressed my time for Audio was introduced to me and my three weeks classes began. My lecturer was Alex Foley (irony at its finest) and he spoke

about the history of sound to all the beautiful things we can do with it. He showed

the possibilities of various things around us and how it can trick our minds in

thinking completely different things. In a nutshell, he gave us examples of Foley

design.

One that stood out was the sound of rain and the sizzle of frying bacon. Showing a video of pouring rain and the sizzle of frying bacon is quite amusing once you realize the

thought-experiment behind it (Foley, 2018).

In this blog, I will discuss the introduction/history to Foley design, how it can be

created, what are some examples that Foley artist have used during filmʼs post-production.

One can define Foley with the help of the Oxford dictionary,

(Foley, n.d.)

History

Manipulating sound has its dates, it can be approximated to the late 18th to 19th

century which is around the time Vaudeville — a theatrical genre — was

introduced. Foley, as we know in movies and animation today, was not always

portrayed like that. Musical instruments, on the other hand, were the ways to give

the audience a sense of emotion or “cues” for gags (Ba Dum Tss!) (Filmmaker IQ,

2014).

The evolution of sound took place and Broadcasting Radio and Talking Pictures

were the new means of introducing sounds to the audience as they listened. Note,

Foley as itʼs meaning and definition was not mentioned at all during the early

stages of sound-design (Filmmaker IQ, 2014).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZ43UC5tIOY

(Handy, 1938)

In fact, the introduction to the process of using “Foley” during a film was set in

motion at around the year 1928 to 1929 with the movie Show-Boat, a silent

musical broad-way play which was made by Universe Studios. Universal Studioʼs

arranged an orchestra and singers to re-create the musical, however, recording for

the gestures and effects were not accurately in sync and that is when Jack Foley,

a Universal Studio employee came in and decided to re-record live-sound design

for the film on one single track. There are a few historical viewpoints that I have

missed out but feel free to check links below that send you to videos and papers

about Foley (Trento & Götzen, 2011).

(Schmidt, 2012)

How can Foley be created?

There is no real shortcut but one can list a few guidelines to help themselves

understand the surroundings and keep an ear open to new sounds during the

post-production stage. During the movie the sound and recording engineers are

focused on recording the dialogue more than the surroundings. The effects and

nuances of the surroundings are very likely to be done during the post-production

stage with the help of the director and the writer's vision (Sound Ideas, n.d., para.

3).

During the early stages of Foley, individuals were put in a room with the necessary

items and as each scene progressed the artists used the materials to create the

sound instantaneously. There was no advantage of overdubbing each scene or

sound. Such an act was supposed to be done with the utmost precision, timing

and concentration (Filmmaker IQ, 2014).

One of my favorite videos that show two Foley artists working together,

https://vimeo.com/170948796

(Short of the Week, 2016)

The amount of detail and thought given to this makes my jaw-drop with

excitement and astonishment. There are of course rehearsals between various

Foley artists and basic understanding of sound & space. Usually, a good way to

make sure that the environment that the Foley is being created is the same as the

environment depicted in the movie is by capturing a few minutes of the surrounding

while or during the filming stage. This specific sonic or the acoustical sound of the

area can later be embedded into the Foley design making it seem even more

precise, smooth and natural as the viewers get lost within it (Filmmaker IQ, 2014).

There are recording studios with specific types of flooring's, different types of

flooring materials like sand, stone, gravel. Different walls to attack and get the

sound desired (Trento & Götzen, 2011). A Foley studio can be used for almost any type of movie or animated film.

(Foley Walker, n.d.)

What are some key examples in Foley design?

From different videoʼs and my experiences in real life I have a listed a few examples

below:

1. Cracking celery or carrots can be closely related to the crunch of breaking bones (Filmmaker IQ, 2014),

2. Hitting a spoon on a wooden block can create the sound of heels being tapped (Loughman & Ahern, 2009),

3. Hitting a certain type of cloth can create the ambient movement of a person wearing a certain type of dress (Jewel et al, 2014),

4. Cutting a wet cloth can be related to cutting fish (Jewel et al, 2014),

5. Frying bacon can be used to create the sound of rain (Foley, 2018),

6. Achieving microphone feedback from a tube TV can create the iconic light-saber sound (William, 2015),

7. Breaking pistachios/walnuts can be used to achieve the sound of cracking skulls (William, 2015),

8. Hitting a beef can create the illusion of punching a person (Stearn, 2017),

9. Placing shredded newspaper into a plastic bag and jostling it can create the sound of a person walking on grass (Stearn, 2017),

10. Crinkling cellophane can create the sound of ambient fire sound (Stearn, 2017).

Listening to sounds around us is a good exercise to indulge oneself in learning about objects sonically in our daily lives (vice versa). Post-Production sound extensively revolves around Foley design and there have been tons of movies and television shows that have used such designs.

REFERENCES:

Filmmaker IQ. (2014, Nov 17th). Introduction to Foley and Sound Effects for Film

[Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Jznye0iqYE

Foley. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/foley

Foley, A. (2018). CMPP3 Introduction to Audio [Lecture]. Retrieved from SAE

Institute of Dubai Course Name: Audio Engineering.

Foley Walker. (n.d.). Foley room 2690 ft² (250 m²) [Image]. Retrieved from http://www.foleywalkers.com/our-studio/

Handy, J. (Producer). (1938). Back of the Mike [Motion Picture]. United States: Jam Handy Organization (JHO)

Jewel, D., Jewel, A. Belnick, M. (Producer). (2014) The Secret World Of Foley

[Motion Picture]. UK: Pinewood Studios, Third Man Films

Loughman, E & Ahern, M. (Producer). (2009). Mr. Foley [Motion Picture]. Ireland:

D.A.D.D.Y.

Schmidt, K. (2012). Just one drop: Lyric Opera's Show Boat [Image]. Retrieved from https://www.chicagoreader.com/Bleader/archives/2012/03/13/just-one-drop-lyric-operas-show-boat

Short of the Week. (2016). The Secret World of Foley [Video File]. Retrieved from

https://vimeo.com/170948796

Sound Ideas. (n.d.). What is Foley? Retrieved from https://www.sound-ideas.com/

Page/what-is-foley.aspx

Stearn, M. (2017, Jan 23rd). What was that? The top 15 Foley SFX from everyday

household objects [Blog Post]. Retrieved from https://blog.storyblocks.com/

inspiration/foley-sfx-everyday-household-objects/

Trento, S. & Götzen, A. (2011). Foley Sounds vs Real Sounds [PDF]. Retrieved from

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/

236268063_Foley_Sounds_vs_Real_Sounds

William, O. (2015). The secrets behind 44 classic cinema sound effects. Retrieved

from https://www.empireonline.com/movies/features/cinema-sound-secrets-foleyartist/

APPENDIX:

Academy Originals. (2016, Jun 13th). Foley Artists: How Movie Sound Effects Are

Made [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=U_tqB4IZvMk

Foley Artistry. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://filmsound.org/foley/

Götzen, A. D., Sikström, E., Grani, F., Serafin, S. (2013). Real, foley or synthetic? An

evaluation of everyday walking sounds (PDF). Retrieved from https://

www.researchgate.net/publication/

255962684_Real_foley_or_synthetic_An_evaluation_of_everyday_walking_sounds

Great Big Story. (2017, Jan 12th). The Magic of Making Sound [Video File].

Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UO3N_PRIgX0

Riso, A. L. (2018). Introduction for Foley and Sound Effects for Film. Retrieved

from https://www.bunkermusik.com/introduction-for-foley-and-sound-effects-forfilm/

Ryan. T. (n.d.). The Power of Foley, Sound Design & 5 Great Examples. Retrieved

from https://tarproductions.com/the-power-of-foley-sound-design-5-greatexamples/

TEDx Talks. (2016, March 21st). The Beautiful Lies of Sound Design | Tasos

Fratzolas | TEDxAthens [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/

watch?v=jDy5j0c6TrU