Technical: Foley (Callum Doona)

Foley is the reproduction of everyday sound effects that are added to film, video, and other media in post-production to enhance audio quality. These reproduced sounds can be anything from the swishing of clothing and footsteps to squeaky doors and breaking glass. The best Foley art is so well integrated into a film that it goes unnoticed by the audience. It helps to create a sense of reality within a scene. Without these crucial background noises, movies feel unnaturally quiet and uncomfortable.

Foley is created by the sound artist mimicking the actual sound source in a recording studio. Often there are many little sound effects that happen within any given scene of a movie. The process of recording them all can be tedious and time-consuming. Foley art can be broken down into three main categories: Feet, Moves, and Specifics.

Feet

The category entails the sound of footsteps. To produce the sound of walking down a staircase for example, two Foley artists stomp their feet on a marble slab in a recording studio while watching the footage. Foley studios carry many different types of shoes and several different types of floors to create footstep sounds.^[4] These floors, known as Foley Pits, vary from marble squares to gravel and rock pits. Creating just the right sound of footsteps can greatly enhance the feel of a scene. Foley Artists are often referred to as "Foley Walkers" or "Steppers" when working in the 'feet' subset of Foley.

Move 

The “moves” category makes up many of the more subtle sounds heard in films, for example, the swishing of clothing when two actors walk past each other.^[2] This sound is created by rubbing two pieces of the same material together near the microphone at the same rate that the actor’s legs cross.^[4] Cloth is not always used and tends to be recorded at the discretion of the dubbing mixer who ultimately controls the final outcome of the audio post-production process.

Specifics

Foley can also include other sounds such as doors closing and doorbell rings; however, these tend to be done more efficiently using stock sound effects, arranged by sound editors.

Foley effects help the viewer judge the size of a space. For example, a large hall will have strong reverberation, while a small room may have only slight reverberation.Open outdoor spaces usually have no echo/reverb at all.