SOUND EFFECTS DESIGN for Film
by Gary Boggess

I'm a musician and music composer. Because of my ear for sound and my experience working with video and film, I also work as a sound effects designer. All of these fields are very interrelated. In today's films, virtually ALL of the sounds you hear are re-created, using little or none of the original sounds recorded on the set where the action took place. In most films, even the dialog gets rerecorded! This is called ADR or Automated Dialog Replacement... where the actors watch the film and re-say their scripted lines. All of this is largely due to language translations and the world wide marketing of films... and to accomodate various ratings ie: G, PG & R. By replacing all sound elements. They can then replace ONLY the dialog to any language without replacing the sound effects and music. Another benefit to the film is that the film soundtrack has ONLY the sound effects and related sounds
the producer or director wants... and therefore the film's sound is maximized for dramatic and artistic impact.

First, Foley is an art, derived from sound effects editors/sound designers.
Foley is the practice of reproducing the complex sounds of human movement, or the sounds of complex subjects or events.
Most sound effects is done in editorial, and the sound effect designer uses prerecorded sounds. Working with a video tape,
the sound effect (SFX) editor chooses sound from CD SFX library. These libraries often are comprised of 500 discs. The editors also may have a personal tape or CD-ROM library of SFX they've collect themselves, via on location remote recording... where they actually take a tape recorder out to a specific location having the sounds they want, and record them. I did this type of work for the latest film "BATMAN & ROBIN," where I collected ICE and SNOW sounds for the character of MR. FREEZE. I then sent the raw effects materials to Los Angeles to the studio where the SFX editors edited these sounds into the film. When they do such editing, they often manipulate the sounds, and may also stack the sounds on top of each other to create BIGGER THAN LIFE effects for the scenes they're working on.

Foley, is about the effects that cannot be created or assembled from prerecorded libraries. The reason is because Foley mainly concerns the sound made by the characters of the film... sounds such as WALKING, MOVEMENT OF CLOTHING,
MOVING AROUND etc. These sounds are very specific & complex, and thus cannot be cut from pre existing sound effects materials. SO.... people who work as Foley artists work in a studio set up for such work. Usually this includes a big screen and a room FULL of household items, bicycles, basketballs, bats, glasses of all types, boxes containing various surfaces to walk on, such as stones, cement slabs, dirt, sand, straw ... etc etc. The room thus is capable of creating EVERYTHING that makes NOISE, usually limited those items commonly used by people. So the the Foley artist watches the scene on the big screen and mimics the actions of the actor's movements, often using a prop. These sounds are recorded, and then later, the sound effects editor CUTS these sounds into place. The sounds are then mixed in with the other SFX groups to create the entire sound effects track for the scene. In Hollywood, Foley artists can make anywhere from $80 an hour to $1500 a day, depending on how fast and accurate they are in retreating the required sounds.

Sound Effects is basically the following categories:
For Example, imagine a Star Trek-like scene, where the Starship is being attacked... and the Crew is on the bridge waging war...

HARD EFFECTS -
These are sounds you SEE happen. They are (SFX) sound effects cut from the library of prerecorded sounds.... things like SWITCHES, RADAR BLIPS, DOORS OPENING/CLOSING, SCANNERS, LASER GUNS, BODY FALLS/.PUNCHES PHONE HANG UPS AND PICKUPS,
THINGS HITTING OTHER THINGS (impacts/explosions/debris) etc. etc. These sounds can be very complex and very original... and often are sounds that don't exist in reality. The sound designer can be very creative, taking many sounds, and mixing them together to create ONE big dramatic sound event.

WALLA -
These are people sounds such as crowds or various sized groups of people... you may have prisoners or concert audience... depending on the scene. You may have laughter or mass hysteria. Walla in this scene may be the CREW on the bridge screaming or moaning fearfully, as the Starship gets bombarded by enemy attackers.

BACKGROUNDS or BG's -
These are sounds that are not necessarily connected to the visual elements of the film... you may not actually SEE the items or things making the sounds, but you expect them to be there. Such as in a city scene... you'd expect to hear traffic, horn beeps, fire or police sirens, car-bys, people walking on sidewalks, the hustle bustle of shoppers etc. In this scene, the BG's would be the RUMBLE of the Starship, the outside sounds of space, the outside sounds of lasers hitting the Starship, TELEMETRY, the activities of CREW members there but not on camera, the sound of an (off camera) generator failing and threatening to blowup.

FOLEY -
These are the sounds of the MAIN (on camera) CHARACTERS... as they act their parts, walking around, sitting in leather command seats, picking up items, reaching in pockets, walking/running, falling around, jumping, fast/slow movements of objects with they're hands. Reaching for switches and pulling or pushing things. Foley may also include activities too difficult to assemble via the HARD EFFECTS approach... such as a card game in a Western... here the card shuffles, pickups, put downs, pick thrus etc. would be re-enacted and recorded WHILE watching the film's scenes. Foley may also include sound elements lacking in the SFX LIBRARY or sounds that require special manipulation... such as a phone getting smashed with a ball bat, while being dragged across a floor of broken glass and metal, all while being dialed!