Foley That
May 14 , 2010

With Workaholics Anonymous cut and color-corrected, the Rab crew adds some final touches to the audio mix, utilizing the powerful art of Foley.

"As we watch the film a few times, we'll start to pick up on scenes that could use more sound effects," said Director Robert Bartolome. "Maybe we missed a footstep here or there...or a door closing, etc. Maybe an on-set sound effect is muffled or soft. We'll list everything that needs to be re-recorded, and then we turn to Foley."

Widescreenreview.com defines Foley as "the art of recreating incidental sound effects in sync with the picture. While watching the movie the Foley artist generates sounds by acting out the events with special props and materials. Common sound effects created by Foley are footsteps, body movements and the handling of small objects." It is named after one of the earliest and best-known Hollywood practitioners of the art, Jack Foley.

Assistant Mixer Joel Martinez commented, "You have to be pretty creative to figure out how you can make the specific sounds you need. It takes a lot of trial-and-error. Today, we had to re-create the sound of coffee cups being put down on a few different types of tables. We also recorded footsteps on a bunch of materials, like rugs and concrete."

Next week, the crew takes care of another important audio process. In the meantime, keep checking allworkaholics.com for new updates!

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