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Sound Design article

This article is evaluating the existing method to create Foley sounds. Foley sounds are sounds already existing in the everyday life but recreated manually with a mechanical action for its same use in a movie or an animation. They are more of a sound coming from a certain object or a certain action than sounds recorded in field recordings. The Foley sounds were first created by Jack Foley who came during the early nineteen hundreds from Long Beach New York (Theme Amant, 2009, p.4). He was one of the first people to have been in charge to create sound for silent movies in the early twenties for Universal Studios. He was therefore the first ingenious person of his kind to invent brand new ways of creating and adding sound in the film industry. This was the foundation of Foley sounds and his fame continued to spread until the end of the sixties. The most famous and well known method to create Foley sounds is really well explained by Burtt (2009) where he describes how to use simple sounds out of their original context to integrate them into a particular use in a professional movie or animation: how to create sounds; how to establish an atmosphere within an animation, with effects and/or sort of voices; how to create a certain texture to a sound intending to different reactions from the public. A short visit to the Disney workshop for sound effects shows various mechanisms that are used and stored for this purpose. For example, Burtt (2009) wishes to create a new sound for a futuristic laser gun shot (blast): he decides to build up an installation composed of a slinky stretched from head to foot on a ladder apparatus, and by taping the top of the slinky with a stick. By the time the sound travels along the slinky to the ground where are placed the microphones, the high frequencies are recorded first then followed with the mid frequencies and then the low frequencies. This method gives a real unique sound that can be easily modified at will by taping at different places located along the slinky, more or less further to the ground. Also, when recording acoustic for the Foley stage, you have to make sure that the room is treated with the proper acoustic materials and insulation (Theme Amant, 2009, p.54). One of the problems found in most recordings can be electrical hum: this can close the Foley stage down for many hours to find the source and get rid of it. This can cause to waste precious time and money in the film industry. The top rule is to make sure that the Foley stage can work with electrical (Theme Amant, 2009, p54). Foley sounds are also created by a simpler method that does not involve such complex mechanisms. For example, a Foley artist will use soft slippers or Ballet shoes on his feet while choosing which surface or grounds he will use depending on the type of sound he wishes to record. Such simple tricks permit a sound producer to obtain the wanted sounds with no loss of time or no expensive appliances and requiring a minimum of editing digitally (which sometimes allow a sound to sound purely realistic). Burtt (2008) describes how he sometimes records sounds outside like in a quiet forest as recording in the studios gives a dead sound effect. This way it gives the recorded sounds decay, a bigger delay at the end of the sound. It is said that “sounds need to live in a space” (Burtt, 2008). Also, when working in the studio, Burtt (2008) explains that “some poor recordings can be your friend” as some captured sounds can be distorted or not perfect when recorded, but it adds colour to the overall sound and makes it more realistic and quite unique. It is “not about getting the right sound perfectly recorded, it is about getting the right sound at the right moment, and what feels right.” B. Burtt (2008). Therefore when recording or creating Foley sounds you need to think about what sound you are expecting to obtain; find a way to create it either by building an appliance or by using the right props; isolating or organising the perfect environment where to record; find the “perfect” way to obtain a sound realistic enough. When working in a professional environment, more factors are to be taken into account than just recording practically sounds: you need to define a kind of sound, a feeling wanted to be brought up by the sound, how much time and money will have to be invested into its realisation, and the time line (deadlines). The best method is for sure the cheapest; the one you can use more than once, the one that you can record at any time with the most realistic effect. It was from the genius creativity of one man that came a whole fantastic way of working in sound workshop that is now legendary and used in all professional and amateur sound productions.

References Theme Amant, V. (2009). The Foley Grail: The Art of Performing Sound for Film, Games, and Animation. London: Elsevier. Burtt, B. (2009, May 04). WALL-E Special Features Animation Sound Design: Building Worlds From The Sound Up. Retrieved October 15, 2010 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8A6z8QkVHk4&feature=related. Burtt, B. (2008, May 22). Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Sound for Film Profile with Ben Burtt. Retrieved November 15, 2010 from http://soundworkscollection.com/indiana-jones-and-the-kingdom-of-the-crystal-skull.