Words: Saam Das
Watching 'Beverly Hills Cop II' the other night reminded me about a brilliant little video on the art of foley - which is the way sound effects are produced for film and television productions. Watch the video below, which features foley artist Gary Hecker explains the art and runs through examples from the recent 'Robin Hood' and '2012' features.
Hecker has had an amazing career and worked on hundreds of films, from the likes of 'Coming To America' and 'Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure' to 'The Tourist' and 'Sucker Punch'. In the embedded video, he demonstrates how he creates the sound effects that are lost in the making of the film - everything is recreated artificially barring the dialogue.
Jack Foley was the man accredited with the technique but he also was responsible for creating the closed captioning symbol for television. During his career he apparently never once received on-screen credit for his work and even now, the art of foley is still rather unheralded considering its importance. Hopefully people like Gary Hecker will receive more recognition by the end of their career.
Soundworks Collection originally released the featurette and they also have a nice selection of videos on the sound design of many recent popular films, including 'Inception', 'Scott Pilgrim vs The World' and 'The Social Network'.
For a more comprehensive look into foley, visit marblehead.net/foley.
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