(soft whimsical music) (quiet pattering)
- [Narrator] In Hollywood, everything is magic
and make-believe...
- [Woman] Gloves with paper clips are dog paws.
- [Narrator] Even what you hear.
- We are storytellers with sound.
Over here we have a feather duster
we use for bird-- (feathers fluttering)
bird wings.
We bring sound into the story,
and we can create any mood with that sound.
- [Narrator] When you watch a film,
much of what you're hearing was created...
(feet tromping heavily)
From footsteps on a snowy path
to a vicious thunderstorm.
(leaves rustling)
(thunder booming)
- [Woman] Weather is a really interesting thing to recreate.
- They make it exciting. (chuckles)
- [Woman] It depends on the elements that we're using,
and how it's filmed, and what they wanna hear.
- [Narrator] Here at the Warner Brothers' lot,
Foley artists practice their craft;
and if they do their jobs right,
you won't even notice.
- [Woman] People take sound for granted,
but you would miss it if it wasn't there.
(bag crunching)
(pensive music)
(cloth fluttering) - Foley is the art of sound.
It's creating sounds in sync with what's happening onscreen.
The art of Foley goes back to the old radio days,
where you would see the sound guys
with their clomping with their coconuts.
This is what we use for horse hooves.
They're plungers, and we stuff them
with cloth and a little tape;
and here we go.
(muffled clopping)
Jack Foley came in and he thought,
"If I do those sounds in sync with the picture,
"I've just taken a whole step out."
- [Narrator] Jack Foley's legacy in sound
began in the 1920s, as talkies swept Hollywood.
Ever since, the reproduction of sound effects
added to film in post-production
is called the art of Foley.
- The Foley stage consists of different surfaces.
- This is walking on leaves, or in a forest.
(shoes clomping)
(hissing and pattering)
For snow, what we normally use is regular play sand.
And then to add to that,
sometimes you hear that familiar crunch...
Which, we use cornstarch. (bag crunches)
Your ear hears snow; but in actuality, it's sand.
(footsteps crunch)
(solemn music)
- It's almost like a prop house.
We have collected different things,
because everything here should make a sound.
Here's a classic squeaky hinge. (metal squeaks)
Pinecones can be used for cracking ice. (faint crackling)
- You have the three people that are on the stage,
the mixer and the two Foley artists, which--
It's important that you have a team that's cohesive.
- [Red Shirt] Y'know, somethin's cracking, popping.
I don't know what it is.
- [Man] Is it this? (leaves rustling)
Sometimes it takes a little trial and error
to see what works best.
Hold on.
- We have a streamer that goes across the screen,
and when the streamer gets to the end,
that tells us when that sound should start.
(rustling)
It's an interesting dance.
There's really nothing
that we can't do here, imagination-wise.
- Right now, we're in the control room,
and it's where I mix;
and I listen to them performing to the picture.
I try not to look at them,
because I really don't wanna see what they're using.
I wanna see how it sounds.
(playful music)
(thunder crackles)
- All sound is two elements hitting one another.
- With rain, if it's hitting a puddle,
or if it's hitting someone's face,
that's all gonna sound different;
so those are very specific little things
that we have to watch and look at.
Okay, Mary Jo.
- [Mary Jo] Here we go.
(liquid pattering)
(high-pitched chirping)
(distant thunder)
- Wind is interesting because
it's usually what the wind is blowing through.
- Alice is gonna use the Batman cape to create the sails,
and I'm going to create the boat
actually going through the water.
Okay, let's go.
(fabric fluttering) (water splashing)
- If we're doing a boat going through waves,
we would use the big tub that we have
to get that slapping sound,
or churning up the water a lot in the tub with our hands.
It's a lot of sound, like--
Like a lot of things artistic, is very subjective;
so, I have to make that judgment call.
There's a great moment when you get the perfect sound;
and they don't always know it, but I do.
- How was that, Mary Jo?
- [Mary Jo] Sounded great.
- When there are multiple weather elements involved,
we might do all the specific things first,
and then go back and do maybe a general sound.
We have a shot here of a hiker coming down the waterfall,
so I'm doing the sound of the carabiner and his rope,
and his equipment. (metal squeaks)
How was that?
- [Mary Jo] That was cool.
- Great.
(water sloshing)
(water splattering)
- So, I'm gonna play it back all together,
and see what we've got. (keyboard clacking)
(water splashing) (metal squeaking)
- We really layer everything
so the mixers can mix how they wanna hear it;
and we do things also that are a little over the top,
because we have to fight with music, sometimes dialogue,
but hopefully when you hear it at home,
it'll sound just like it should be natural.
(water splashing) (metal squeaking)
(electronic beep)