foley

foley

foley

/ˈfəʊli/

N. [as modifier] Relating to or concerned with the addition of recorded sound effects after the shooting of a film. [source]

  • What is now called Foley is a range of live sound effects originally developed for live broadcasts of radio drama in the early 1920s… [Jack Donovan Foley] and his small crew projected the film on a screen while recording a single track of audio that captured their live sound effects. Their timing had to be perfect, so that footsteps and closing doors synchronized with the actors' motions in the film. [source]

  • Jack [Donovan Foley] estimated that he walked 5000 miles in the studio doing footsteps. He characterized the footsteps of stars in this manner: "Rock Hudson is a solid stepper; Tony Curtis has a brisk foot; Audie Murphy is springy; James Cagney is clipped; Marlon Brando soft; John Saxon nervous… Women are the toughest to imitate… their steps are quicker and closer together. I get winded doing leading ladies. Jean Simmons is almost, not quite, the fastest on her screen feet in all of Hollywood. She's topped only by June Allyson. I can't keep up with her at all." [source]

Tricks of a foley artist listed include “corn starch in a leather pouch” to simulate crunching snow and walking on balled up audio tape to simulate the sound of dry brush and grass. I always thought it seemed like a cool, problem-solving job.

But foley is also a handy metaphor, and offers an interesting way to describe an underlayer of sound:

Construction began in May, and summer played out against the foley of jackhammers.

photo by David E. Scherman for LIFE Magazine, 1944