research into sound effects

What is a foley artist?

A foley artist is someone who mimics the sound in the scene with a variety of props as the sound cannot be captured well enough on set.

What difference does foley make?

In amateur films like ours the sound often isn't professional enough to match the scenes within the film. This is because there is often something thin about the sound if artificial sound effects are used (or none at all), the action lacks aural depth which effects the strength that a scene portrays.

Why do sound effect problems occur?

This may be due to the film makers not adding foley to the soundtrack of the film to put emphasis on the sound and make it more thick. For example, if you have a character walking alone on a dark night, you will want the audience to hear the footsteps to increase the speed an danger of the scene. Therefore, features like these can be added in post production by specialists in foley.

Why didn't we use a foley artist?

As we are amateur film makers we couldn't afford a foley artist as we are running on a low budget to make the film. Therefore we had to use artificial sound effects bought off the internet to create the different environments we wanted to portray in our film. This meant that the sound in our film would lack aural depth as it will lack the hollowness it needs to create the fullest effect.

What is an example of an artificial sound effect used in your film?

Throughout the opening sequence we used ambient sound effects to make the film feel more real, cold and alive as the chirps of the birds allow a sense of realism and makes the audience believe and connect to the story more.