Foley (filmmaking)

Foley is a term used to describe a process of creating sound effects for enhancing a soundtrack of a film, video or multimedia work. The term foley is also used to describe a place, such as foley-stage or foley-studio, where the foley process takes place. "Foley" gets its name from Jack Donovan Foley, a sound editor at Universal Studios.

A foley-studio usually consists of one big theatre with a desk inside or at least two separate rooms where at least one serves as a control booth or a recording room and the other room is used as a foley-stage where the sound effects are actually created. The separation of foley-stage and the recording room is very desirable as some foley effects, such as smashing watermelons, can become very messy, however it works far more effectively for communication purposes to have the room as one rather than separated, as this allows the editor, mixer, and technician to be more involved in the creation process such as mic positioning, prop- and surface-preparation.

The need of replacing or enhancing sounds in a film production arises from the fact that, very often, the original sounds captured during shooting are obstructed by noise or not convincing enough to underscore and supplement the visual effect or action. For example, fist-fighting scenes in an action movie are usually staged by the stunt actors and therefore, such scenes do not have any sounds that are normally associated with fist fighting. It is therefore necessary to enhance such fist-fighting scenes with artificially created sounds that mimic fist fighting.

People that work in a foley-studio are sometimes called foley artists or foley-technicians.

ee also

Major companies offering foley services include:
* Pinewood Studios [http://www.pinewoodgroup.com/gen/default_post_production.aspx Website]

[http://www.filmsound.org/terminology/foley.htm]