Foley

Foley is a process used in film making. It refers to recreating daily sounds like that of flowing water, footsteps, ringing bell, among other things as part of post-production process. The sounds can be of real-world objects like thunder or even of those with fantastic origins like the roar of Godzilla. 

The people who help with this process are called Foley artists. It was named after Jack Foley, who was a sound effects artist. This adding of effects was being done in the early 1920s for the radio shows. 

Foley is necessary as the sound recorded on the set is not very clear. This also helps in adding specific sound effects for emphasis, like rustling of leaves, which adds to the atmosphere of the scenes. The foley artists work on three categories- foot sounds, movement sounds and prop sounds. 

Foot sounds are majorly how the footsteps sound when a character is walking. It considers the kind of footwear, character’s weight among other factors. Movement sounds consider every other sound made by characters movement apart from foot. Like cloth rubbing while walking or crossing legs. Prop sounds refers to sounds made by things that are in scenes, like doorbell, cycle bell among other things.

The work of the best foley artist typically goes unnoticed. So, the next time when you hear the sound of horses galloping in movies, remember the sound may have been created by the foley artists by clapping coconut shells behind the scenes.

(Author Notes: This article was written as part of creative writing workshop assignment, to write exposition. I got to know about the process of Foley through this video. I got the idea to include "clapping coconut shells" part from horse riding scenes of the hilarious movie "Monty Python and the Holy Grail".)