Task 1 

What is Foley?

Foley is the art of adding sounds within post production. Sounds what the mics can't be pick up while filming are then filmed separately within a recording studio where they use objects and voice actors record the audio. So the editors can put the sounds in the footage so it seems less man made and more natural. Such if you were filming someone walking you wouldn't be able to hear the footsteps so they would have to be added through post production. They record sounds such as melons being stabbed instead of stabbing and walking on sand instead to use for the sounds. 

Foley was named after its creator Jack Foley in the early 1920’s and has been called the art of Foley ever since.  Jack Foley’s idea was to create the sound effects off screen and add them into post production by syncing them to what is happening on screen. Such as recording the audio of a someone walking on sand within a studio and then play it over a piece of footage such as someone walking on snow in the Artic because the sound is almost identical so when the viewer watches it over they hear the sound of walking on sand when the footage is showing them walking on snow so that people watching it will identify that sound so the peace of footage will look more natural.

Foley can be made by using a number of different ways depends on what sounds you are trying to make. But how they make Foley is by having a studio where they record the audio of whatever they need a sound of. They’ll have all sorts of equipment in their to make the audio they need. The room will also have a number of mics to pick up the sounds what are being made. The room will also have a screen what’ll show the footage they’re meant to create the sound effect for so they know when to make the sounds and how long it will last. They also do this because it gives them more insight on what sounds they have to make and how they want it to sound. During this their will be a mixer in the next room who is recording the audio and mixing it so it suits the footage better. They do sometimes do it differently than this by going out to record the audio but if they do this the mixing of it will have to come later on. They do also use voice actors within a studio; this is mostly used for animations and narrators. Some example of Foley working well is, within the lord of the rings film they used many different ways in order to get the sound/ audio they wanted. Such as within lord of the rings there is a scene where an army was cheering and chanting so in order to get the audio for that they decided to go to an American football match at half time and set up mics around the stadium and had the lines shown up on screen and had the audience say the lines over and over again in order to get the required sound effects but because it was a football game there will always be people drinking and messing around so only around 4 seconds of the audio was actually useable. During lord of the rings they also needed sound effects for a monster within the film and one of the sound designers had the idea of making by going out and recording the sound a donkey makes and edits the sound with the use if the mixers in order to get the sound they wanted, the problem was that a donkey doesn’t make sounds on command so they had to set up the mic ext to the donkeys pen and waited their all until they had enough of the audio they wanted. Also for the scenes where you hear people stomping/ marching on stone. The sound you are actually hearing is a stone slab being hit repeatedly with a hammer; they did this in an open area where they can have more of a natural echo effect. There is also a lot of combat within lord of the rings but all of the combat is obviously fake within a film so any sounds you are hearing at the time of combat within the film is Foley. Lord of the rings has a lot of arrow attacks and the cameras can’t pick up those sounds so they had to create those sounds. How they created is by going to a field during the night to make sure not to disturb anyone and recorded the sound designers firing arrows into targets, they recorded the audio of the arrows flying through the air , them hitting the targets and them pulling back the arrows on the bow. They then layered the sound on top of one another in editing to get the sound they wanted. Lastly within lord of the rings there is a scene where they are in a haunted marsh land and because it’s meant to be the land where these people sound are trapped they had all of the sounds the swap makes being vocal, such as whispers, wind whistling and howling a long with more boggy sounds. Having them start off low in volume but as the main character starts to get stuck with a trance the sounds become louder and louder.

In conclusion Foley, the art of creating audio and sound effects for films  but can affect how people are meant to be feeling, they can use more slime effects to make people feel more uncomfortable, while lighter sound getting heavier and heavier makes people feel more suspense full. Scenes such as fight scenes and people walking down the street can feel not right without the small sounds such as footsteps and punches so foley is very important because it can make a film feel more complete and is a useful skill to learn.