Sound and Foley artists

                        What is Foley?

Foley is a special technique for manipulating sound and adding louder, more prominent sounds with more clarity to a film or televised production, It was named after Jack Foley who created the whole idea of the process. Foley effects are added during post production so that they finalize and empathize actual sounds from the production and make them seem diegetic and loud. Common Foley sounds include sounds of door knobs, keys, doors opening, footsteps, food/cutlery, violence (punching/hitting) and glass breaking.

A 'boom operator' has a predominant and singular job to only record dialogue in the media production, however every other sound is included by the Foley artists. It would be un-effective to simply film and try to empathize these sounds during the acting because it would take the focus off the acting and make the sounds seem forced and un-realistic. The Foley artist maintains complete control over the intensity of sound, fading of sound, volume of sound and type of sound..for example a door that may not actually creak could have an intensified Foley sound if for example it is to be used in a horror movie. 

Foley artists are the responsible personas for the sound effects. typically, they have a Foley stage or room with variations of common surfaces, props, terrains and everyday objects that can create the most normal or abnormal of sounds. The Foley artists cleverly synchronize a sound they can make with an action in the film (for example a sound of hailstones could be empathized by tipping lentils, or a sound of wind empathized by a whirly tube or a broken window empathized by breaking a glass, the sound of a punch could come from hitting a side of beef, or the sound of a broken bone could be made by a carrot of celery). Alot of Foley sounds are modernly created instead with a electronic device or keyboard because this can be much cheaper however for my movie opening i think creating a temporary Foley stage would flaunt creativity and synchronization with my film and i would be involved in every aspect of the film to make it seem like a real movie making production.

Foley is used in all film genres however for each genre it holds different purposes...for example in comedies sounds are enhanced for comedic effect to make accidents or situations seem more empathized and amusing, in action films Foley over runs all dialogue to make chases, cars, fights etc more dramatic and in horrors slight uneasy sounds are made louder and more daunting. 

Foley can also be used to enhance comedy or action scenes. Watch most comedy films and you'll notice that many of the sounds are enhanced for comic effect, and sometimes the Foley sound is the joke. As for action, most fist fights do not involve the actors really hitting each other, and even if they did we would not be able to record a satisfying punch sound. By punching and variously molesting such objects as cabbages, celery and sides of beef, Foley artists can record unique and much more 'realistic' action sounds.