LO2 Know the techniques and processes used to create sound elements

A Foley artist is responsible for creating and recording sound elements and effects in order to enhance content, this helps to bring a production to life through making it seem much more realistic and helps towards immersing the audience. It was given its name by Jack 'Foley' as he was a pioneer in the industry, Foley artist work consists of them using a variety of props, surfaces and everyday objects in order to achieve their desired sound imitation like things such as footsteps, movements and interaction that happen within a scene. Although it may sound simple, there are infact many more elements to the job which make it a difficult skill to master, for example they have to work very closely alongside directors, sound designers and editors whilst the visual action of the product is playing on a screen. This means they have to have great precision to carefully time their movements and sound cues to match the timing and pacing of the scene in order to get a useable take. They must synchronize with all sorts of elements like dialogue and music etc. All They use is visual cues, script notes and reference footage to accurately time their performances.

Equipment and techniques consist of many things for Foley artists, some examples of techniques are as simple as things such as coconuts for steps, celery for bone breaks, cellophane for fire crackles, sponges for liquid impacts etc. The equipment on the other hand is usually quite high tech complicated items which take knowledge and skill to use effectively, these are things like shotgun Microphones, Digital audio workstations (DAWs), Headphones and more

Foley sound is classed as diegetic sound meaning its sound within the world of a film. On the other end is non-diegetic sound but that is something completely different. There are a lot of different sounds in a scene if you think about it, all which add to the story in their individual ways, things such as footsteps, rustling created by movement and prop sounds. ADR (Automated Dialogue Replacement) which is re-recording dialogue and vocal sound in a more effective place or way to achieve a better result, things like this aren't a Foley artists job and are handled by a separate department during production.

Garry Rydstrom is a famous Foley artist who has helped to create sound in some very well known films such as 'Indiana Jones', 'Jurassic Park' and 'Toy Story', 'Titanic', 'Saving Private Ryan', 'Nemo' and many more. In Jurassic park the dinosaur noises are a very prominent frequent sound and ultimately create great suspense and interest for the audience however nobody actually knows what dinosaurs sound like. Therefore it was Garry's job to create what he thought would be accurate noises for each dinosaur. The brachiosaurus is the first dinosaurs viewers see and hear and Garry created its bellows using a very clever technique which consisted of him sampling noises created by elephants, cows and donkeys and then combining them all together for the finished product.