Foley Evaluation

Our task was to create Foley; Foley is where you create the audio to a piece of footage. For an example where someone is walking on snow the Foley artists will record themselves walking on sound in a studio which is usually sound proof. There will be someone in the next room to mix the sounds together in order to get the best sounding audio they can create. We had to do this but on a smaller scale. We used tacams and road mic to record the audio in either the TV studio or the Music studio and mixed it and edited it within the class room on premier pro. Understanding Foley is important because it makes the word the director is trying to create more realistic and believable. It can make a scene as simple as someone walking becomes more in depth and realistic when the back ground sound effects and footsteps makes what you’re seeing on screen more realistic and believable to the audience.

The task we were given was to create the sound effects for a scene of Mr Bean. The Mr Bean scene was taken from Mr Bean holiday. We had to write up an essay about “what is Foley”, a behind the scenes documentary of how we created the sound and edited and we also had to create the sound and record them to then edit them the footage we were given. The essay we had to do research into Foley such as the history of Foley and who created the art of Foley and when it became popular in films. We also did research in Foley techniques such as how they create certain sounds and why they used those sounds over other sounds. Such as the use of smashing pumpkins for injures to the head. They use this sound because of the structure of a pumpkin and how similar it is to someone’s head, especially compared to other fruits such as melons. We created our sounds by going into the studio and filming the sounds we used either with tools such as celery and wet paper. The rooms we filmed in we’re sound dampening and we chose certain rooms like a recording booth to less the effects of echoes. Editing the footage was easier than we originally thought by getting the sound we needed and just making sure they sync up correctly. Some sounds such as the scream at the end were more difficult so we had to re-shoot it and use audio effects so it suited it better. The reasoning we did the behind the scenes documentary was to prove that we actually made the sounds and didn’t steal the audio from the internet. It also shows the examiner how we created the sounds and makes sure that everything is shown so we are less likely to miss something out. The reason why we had to create the audio instead of taking it from the internet is because it gives us experience editing the audio and doing Foley which will become useful to make future projects more realistic.

During filming and editing we had a lot of difficulties such as the all of the tascams were taken out the day we were deciding to film so we had to film on different devices such as using our phones to record the audio and using the mic on a camera but when we listened to all of the audio back their was back ground sounds which sounded very much like static so  the next day we decided to take out a Sony sound box and use the colleges microphone to record the sounds which we believe have much better quality to them. We also wanted to film the background sounds in the college restaurant but we had to wait to around 12 to 1 because no one was at the restaurant before or after that time and we needed the audio to be as loud as possible. When we a started to edit the film together we struggled getting the footage because they wouldn’t download for some reason we never found out why. So we had to search YouTube for the original piece of footage, this was simple enough all we had to do is delete the audio of the original footage. We also struggled at another point in editing where we couldn’t get the scream right. We had to re-film it, we couldn’t do anything with the sound we had because we had Mathew scream for the audio but it sounded too fake the first time so we had to film it again. Even though we re-filmed it we still had to raise the pitch with along other editing effects, we also had to cut the footage down so the scream will suit it better.  We did have a lot of good things happen as well such as creating the sounds went really well, including breaking the celery and dampening paper. When we were editing the footage and I felt like when we put those crunching and squelching sounds in the suited the footage really well and I was really happy with it, that and the cutlery dropping.

If I had the opportunity to re-do this Foley work there are a few things I would like to change and improve and be more experimental. For the squishing sounds the original sound we wanted to use was the inside of a melon to crush it in our hands to make the squishing sounds or us a peeled lemon or orange for the sound effect. Or experiment with other fruits so we had more of an option to use instead of only having one we could have also layered the sounds upon each other so we could experiment more. I would also not do so much for the audio. I feel like there are so many sounds it can make the footage feel harder to tell what you’re meant to be listening to. I feel the more simple approach and leave room for the background sounds would have gone along way compared to other.

In conclusion I felt like the Foley work is good, we had a few problems while filming and editing but I am happy with the final result, I felt like my group all have put in a lot of work into this project. I would’ve liked to do a more simple approach and use a lot less effects and sounds so the audience would’ve had a lot more breathing room. I would’ve like to be more experimental with editing and creating the sounds because if we use different tools to create new sounds so we had more of an option on what sounds we wanted to use in the final edit.