Foley's Got the Right Idea

Now that some of the necessary materials required for sound design have been discussed we can look at the individual fields that make up the world of sound design. Oftentimes these vary between video game creation and film making so both of these fields will be touch on.

One of the major issues in creating sound for film is that the main production microphones are unable to pick up the subtle detail sounds that make scenes believable. Because of this, film studios may employee a Foley editor to create the detail sounds in a separate studio environment. First termed in honor of Jack Foley, these sound editors employ creative methods in order to cheaply create unique sounds without having to go to the real source of the sound. Jack Foley first used this method of sound creation during the transition from silent movies to movies that had actual sound effects. Foley and his crew created the sound effects in real time as a projection of the film progressed in front of them. Now we no longer need to create sound effects in real time since DAWs are used to break the sound effects into individual tracks that can be used where they are needed.

Foley editors work closely with the rest of the audio team during the final stages of film production. These editors are paired with Foley artists who actually bang the boards together to create gunshots or hit pieces of meat to create punching sounds. This stage can oftentimes take several weeks to even months, yet it is crucial in order to make a film believable. One can speculate that in the future more advanced microphones can eliminate the need for these Foley editors and artists.

In my browsing I stumbled across some interesting Foley solutions:
-Bird Wings Flapping- Gloves flopping back and forth
-Earthquake- Slowed Wood Cracking
-Gore- Wet Washed Leather
-Breaking Trees- Eating potato chips

Filskov, D. (n.d.). The guide to sound effects. Retrieved from http://www.epicsound.com/sfx/index.php

Sound effects. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.brucevanpatter.com/sound_effects.html

Skillset. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.skillset.org/film/jobs/post_production_sound/article_4768_1.asp