Foley Sound

NICK ASH

NICK ASH

Well-known member
Hello,

I have a scene of a female running through a junkyard and as she comes to a stop she leans her back against an old tuck. She does this three times, all leaning on different trucks.

My question is does anyone have any good ideas on recreating this sound of her leaning against the trucks?

Thank!
 
What kind of sound are you looking for?

The sound of her clothes up against the truck?
Her spine cracking
A creaky old hood
A truck collapsing as she leans against it
Her breathing heavily
Her shoes in the dirt
The truck suspensiion
 
Without seeing the video is is nearly impossible to say.
My first thought is: why does it make any sound at all?
Are the old trucks teetering back and forth and ready to fall down?
At most I would think you might hear a low-level metallic "creak".
I would think the footfalls would be much more prominent in the soundscape.
 
Recording Foley is one thing. Placing the subsequent sound into the soundtrack is a whole other thing altogether and it's the realm of sound design. For example, one can easily come up with a sound of metallic creaking as the truck teeters and record that as Foley - but then find it completely inadvisable to actually use that sound in the soundtrack, because unless it's a deliberate effect where the teetering truck adds to the drama, it can be unrealistic, wrong, and actually counterproductively unintentionally comical - 'unrealistic': stacked and compressed cars/trucks in a junkyard are not so unstable that a woman briefly leaning against it would cause it to shift and make a sound - you'd get a big "WTF??" from the audience if they saw that; 'unintentionally comical' - now you propose to do it three different times and it may cause the audience to burst out in laughter... just picture it: she runs, leans: WEEERKK!! runs, leans: WUUURKKK!!, runs, leans: WIIIIRKKK!! - and the audience goes BWAHAHAHA!!!... not what you want in a thriller, unless you're doing comedy. Now, doing it once if you can see the whole stack rocking when she leans against it and you make a point of that to add tension, then yes, TOGETHER WITH THE VISUAL, that can be an effect... if you do it once - doing it more than once immediately turns it into a cheap overused effect. In other words, make sure that you use sound judiciously and for specific purpose to add film realism (which has nothing to do with actual life-realism!), or enhance the drama - which is the realm of sound design. Foley is just the raw materials of sound. What you do with those materials forms part of the experience the audience has when watching a movie.
 
Foley is one thing.. S/FX is a whole other world. So.. It depends.
For instance, I once used a sped up car pass-by for a person abruptly turning. Was it 'real' sounding?.. no way, but it worked.
 
OldCorpse said:
Recording Foley is one thing. Placing the subsequent sound into the soundtrack is a whole other thing altogether and it's the realm of sound design.
Click to expand...

Actually no. Foley is recorded in sync with picture and is not generally considered part of the "sound designers" work.

The larger point about what you actually want in there for sound is quite valid though.
 
Richard Crowley said:
My first thought is: why does it make any sound at all?
Click to expand...

In big feature work anyway pretty much everything makes a sound.

Foley would cover the actual contact sounds, body hitting truck, cloth and maybe some metal stress, and of course FS coming and going.
SFX might well cover the truck sounds, especially on a lower budget with little Foley time booked.

Trucks have suspensions, and when they get some added weight they often groan a bit, there are also often lose connections with cars in a junk yard. Various parts that rub against each other etc. Those are all the practical reasons you might cover the sound. The subconscious reasons go to character and what is going on in the film and what you want to make the audience feel.

Right off the bat the audience is going to want something there with the contact, even if it's only the hand on body "slap". But if she is running away and "hiding" then having the truck at that point make a sound that gives her position away just became a plot point.

Any editor on a big film would cover the sound. It might not get into the final mix for a variety of reasons, often music conflict, but it would be there in the tracks.
 
Paul F said:
What kind of sound are you looking for?

The sound of her clothes up against the truck?
Her spine cracking
A creaky old hood
A truck collapsing as she leans against it
Her breathing heavily
Her shoes in the dirt
The truck suspensiion
Click to expand...

I would think "Yes"...
;~)
 
NICK ASH said:
Hello,

I have a scene of a female running through a junkyard and as she comes to a stop she leans her back against an old tuck. She does this three times, all leaning on different trucks.

My question is does anyone have any good ideas on recreating this sound of her leaning against the trucks?

Thank!
Click to expand...

As others have pretty much said, with out knowing what the "concept" is for this sequence and with out seeing actual footage there is not a lot people can say that is helpful. Why is the sound important for your story and what sound is that that is important?

What else is playing at the time? Chases are often big music moments, if this is one then don't spend a lot of time on sounds that won't ed up in the mix. Assuming it's not drowned in music then what the audience hears needs to be orchestrated. When do you want them on the outside looking in VS in the characters head hearing what she is hearing? Switching between those perspectives can be a very powerful tool to manipulate the audience.

As a general note you would build up the "sound" by covering all the little bits. Kind of like someone mentioned above, what is moving, why, and what does it sound like OR what do you need it to sound like? Once you track each bit through you will end up with the sound scape.
 
People have no idea how much foley goes into movies and television. It's such a part of our natural lives that we don't notice it..when you grab a door knob or something like that..but if you don't cover that stuff, even basic fabric movement, then something sounds "off" and you won't be able to pinpoint it. Cover everything. It's easier to pull out what you don't want than to be on the mix stage and go "hey, can we add something?".
 
Foley Police.gif
And remember to Capitalize or the Foley police will get you...

;~)

Actually I would change your comment to be "... hom many sound effects are used...". Foley is generally just a small part of the SFX in a film. Doors for instance we almost always did in FX not with Foley. Mostly I think because FX editors are cheaper.
 
Right, but I am talking about everything the body touches. That's what I was taught Foley is, anyway. A door close is a hard effect. A hand grabbing a door knob is Foley.
 
Never heard it described that way but yes that is pretty much true, and a good "in a nutshell" description. A lot of features in the $30m - $60m don't book much Foley time so we were often covering stuff that could/ should be done in Foley. They would cover cloth and FS and then get to whatever made the hot list in the time that was left. The up side of that cheapness (for editors and assistants anyway) was that we ended up doing a lot of WIFO (a contradiction in terms - WIld FOley) and that was a lot of fun. Animation can be an exception, some animated films do a LOT of Foley.
 
Noiz2 said:
Never heard it described that way but yes that is pretty much true, and a good "in a nutshell" description. A lot of features in the $30m - $60m don't book much Foley time so we were often covering stuff that could/ should be done in Foley. They would cover cloth and FS and then get to whatever made the hot list in the time that was left. The up side of that cheapness (for editors and assistants anyway) was that we ended up doing a lot of WIFO (a contradiction in terms - WIld FOley) and that was a lot of fun. Animation can be an exception, some animated films do a LOT of Foley.
Click to expand...

Foley on animation is what sells it. On Drawn Together we did full on Foley, and for the Uncharted: Drake's Fortune video games we did full on Foley sessions. It really make those things pop.
 
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