Foley
Research
What is Foley?
Foley is a sound effect technique that involves creating and performing everyday sounds used in films and television programmes
What is a Foley artist?
A Foley Artist is someone who recreates theses sounds for film, video and other forms of media in post production to enhance the audio quality. They re-create sounds that a camera on set may not have properly picked up .
How do you create Foley?
Foley is created in a recording studio which is equipped with thousands of objects, textures, and surfaces the artists can use to create their sound. Before recording the sound Foley artists will often watch the entire film/Television programme and note every sound they'll need to produce n each scene.
Types/examples of Foley
The three types of Foley artists will create are:
Feet-The most common production sound a Foley artist creates is the sound of footsteps, since those are more difficult to accurately capture while shooting a scene. Foley recording studios have a variety of different types of shoes and floor surfaces so artists can recreate steps from nearly any shoe on any surface.
Movement-The sound of movement, like the sound of two people walking past each other and the sound of the fabric of the clothes their wearing, is a subtle sound effect that enhances a scene.
Specifics-Specifics are any sounds that are not movement or footsteps, like a phone ringing or a door opening.
Some examples are:
coconuts being hit together used for a walking horse, this is probably the most obvious and well known example of Foley.
Aluminium sheets used for thunder- Waving a sheet of aluminium will produce thunder-like sounds and altering your movements will add realistic variation to the effect.
Bamboo as arrows- Move the bamboo quickly past the microphone and the whooshing sound it creates will sound like an arrow flying by.
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Sound test
In preparation for making our own Foley, we did a sound test, for this we used a zoom microphone. We used it to record some everyday sounds that could potentially re create with Foley.
The task was successful and we managed to get a good array of tester sounds. Next time however I would want to try different distances between the object making the sound and the microphone to see what range the microphone would pick up.
Planning
Brief
To film a scene from a chosen genre used specifically for sounds, such as a walk through the forest, college life etc. You will shoot the scene, however the focus will be emphasizing the sounds in the scene.
You need a 30 - 60 second scene where the ideas are all around sounds, you will decide on your genre and the sounds that you need for your scene.
For this task we need to:
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Test/record foley
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Use the recorded sounds to decide on the genre of your scene
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Explain the meaning of your genre linking to your sounds
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Must include 10-20 foley sounds within your scene
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Plan your scene using a Storyboard, Shot list & Sound design
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1 of your sounds should be a line of dialogue (linked to your genre. I.E. Thriller chase scene)
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Should also plan to include music (Preferably royalty free)
Genre: Thriller- we chose this genre as it allows us to crate a reasonably quiet scene which will allow us to build tension but also enhance emphasis on the foley sounds we will add in post.
Foley planning
Here is a basic sounds list for our task. These sounds are mainly movement sounds but there are some feet sounds and some specifics such as a phone ringing. For the footsteps/walking sounds we may need to record separately in a studio after we have filmed our initial scene so we can get the timing correct and synchronized with the video footage. Instead of recording with a microphone in natural areas where those sounds would occur.
Shot list
The list contains 11 different shots we will be filming, this may vary when we actually go to film if there are any inconveniences or problems with the shot list we may have to add/subtract some shots, but the majority should stay the same. Each shot should be held for a minimum of three seconds
Storyboard
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This is the story board for our foley scene, it includes the shot list and basic pictures of how each shot would look like, this does not contain all the shots of what we plan to film but rather the main/important ones. It tells the story of the scenario we will be creating.
-The first image shows how the scene will open up, in this case with a wide shot of someone sitting at a table.
-The second picture shows a close up of what the person is doing, here they are doing some work on a laptop
-The third picture shows the person receiving a mysterious phone call/threat and this will be a close up shot of the persons face.
-The fourth and fifth pictures show different angles of the person running towards an exit
-The sixth picture shows the person opening the exit door to find someone is behind it waiting for them
Similar to the shot list if we think something needs to be changed whilst filming there may be some shots added/taken away
This is the finished project. I am pleased with how it went
First I uploaded all our raw footage and placed it in the order i desired. I also deleted most of the sound as it was to be replaced with Foley. As you can see in this screenshot I kept a slight bit of original sound as this is where there was a phone call in the scene and I made the decision to add in the 2nd persons audio rather than record the conversation separately and try to sync it up with the lip movement. In this first section i also added the title graphic at the beginning so for my next stage i could just focus on the addition of the Foley.
Here, once I recorded all my Foley I added it into the timeline on premier in the order I wanted. unfortunately most of the Foley was recorded with my iPhone instead of a zoom microphone as we had no access to one at the time so the audio quality may be slightly weaker. An example of some Foley i recorded was footsteps...
Finally I added some sound effects I wasn't able to re create from freesounds.com an example of this would be a ringtone for a phone as I was already using my phone to record and didn't have a 2nd phone to use for the ringtone. During this stage I also added some eerie background music to bring the piece together. (shown in green)
This video shows me recording some footstep sounds for the Foley of the project. Off frame I was watching a video of the edit with no sound, this helped me get the timing of the footsteps correct with the visuals.
Reflection cycle:
Plan
What were you asked to make?
Our task was to create and produce a short scene using Foley to enhance audio quality
Did you understand the instructions?
Yes, as part of adding Foley recordings to our video we needed to include background music and a sound effect of our choosing
What did you do to prepare?
To prepare we created a sot list, storyboard and a Foley plan of what sounds we were going to record, how we were going to record them.
How well did you and your team communicate?
I think we all played our part in this project, unfortunately one of the team members was ill during filming and while that was slightly inconvenient we still managed to work our way around it by having covering their role with someone else.
How did you decide who was doing what?
Initially we asked if anyone had any preferences in roles and then through that we compromised so everyone was happy.
Do
What skills did you need to demonstrate?
Obviously as a group project we had to able to be organised and communicate well, but other than that as we didn't have long to complete this task we had to be efficient whilst recording video and sounds to make sure we didn't waste any time and so that we had more time to edit while also making sure everything was of a good quality.
How well id you work together as a team?
We worked great as a team we didn't have any disagreements and everyone's voice was heard and listened to evenly.
What difficulties did you face?
Our main issue in my opinion was that during the recording of sounds we didn't at the time have access to the zoom microphones as planned, instead we had to use a phone to record, this was fine and worked well it just meant that editing took a little longer than planned as we had to separate the video from the audio and delete the video we didnt need.
What was the biggest challenge to successfully completing the task?
We didn't have any particular big issue that we needed to overcome, in my opinion the most difficult aspect of the task was figuring out how to piece it all together during the editing process as there were many different parts that we needed to remember to include
What new skills did you develop with the software?
How to use a microphone was a skill I learnt as you had to figure out the right distance to hold it from the source of the sound, as if it was too close it would be too loud and the quality would be terrible if you then tried to digitally quieten it and the same goes for the other way if it was too quiet and you tried to digitally increase the volume.
If you could change one thing about how you worked what would it be?
Being able to use the zoom microphones instead of a phone
Review
Did you successfully complete all aspects of the task?
Yes, we managed to film and edit our scene to a high standard fulfilling the brief
What did you most enjoy during the task?
My favourite part was recording the sounds to use as Foley and also the actual editing of the video as i enjoy being able to create a piece of work proudly from scratch.