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RitM: Poor Man’s Foley

No sound effect is called for in Rain in the Mountains that sounds like a watermelon being split with a sledgehammer. But we had a spare watermelon and sledgehammer.

Read more about Foley on the Cheap...As with the ADR recording, the last few days' Foley sessions are not being recorded in sync with picture. True Foley is a way of recording sound effects, especially footsteps and clothing rustles, that are diegetic, or related to what is being seen on screen. It's named after a guy named Foley, as legend has it. This guy was great at using a small studio with all different kinds of footwear and surfaces to create sound effects that were more real than reality. Spooky, I know. Be glad I didn't tell you around a campfire.

There are lots of philosophical approaches to sound effects. Some people want the sound to be absolutely literal. I heard tell that Ang Lee made the sound designer for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon break into a Nebraska greenhouse in the middle of the night to record the sound of a particular type of bamboo. On the other end of the spectrum, it is a common practice for Hollywood sound designers, according to a book I just read, to mix in animal sounds with non-animal things. Oliver Stone's movies are especially known for this. Listen for the lion roars in Any Given Sunday.

What Joel and Christine did is watch through all the dailies and make a list of sounds to record, just like a Foley artist might do for an already-cut scene. Then they went out and recorded the sounds. Individual footsteps on gravel. Walking footsteps on gravel. Running on gravel. Individual footsteps on pavement... etc. They noted on their list what tape the sound was on and at what timecode. They will use these tapes to build a sound effects library that will hopefully cover 99% of the sounds. Will it sound just like a Hollywood movie, done by a professional foley artist? Probably not. Will any audience members notice? Only if they are bored by the story.

RELATED: Poor Man's ADR

META NOTE: My days in Washington state have come to an end. Posting will be sporadic as I bounce around the country. Bear with me.

About J. Ott

John Ott is a writer, filmmaker and futurist. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook and Google+.