Sound. Part 4. Foley.

Sound in Theory.

In this post I want to write about two sound effects in more detail. These two sound effects are the ones I've paid the most attention to, but have also caused me the most hassle. Both sounds came from the Torture sequence.

First, the victims CHAINS. When it came to recording the sound of the chains I used the same chains we used as a prop in the shoot. These chains were big and heavy. When recording sound I thought using chains would be the best and obvious choice.

I recorded the chains in many different ways. Shaking them, hitting them together, banging them against wood, rustling them. On previewing them they sounded as I thought they would, like chains.

However when I put them in the sequence they didn't fit. I tried many ways to fix this. I had a continuous rustle, but that sounded like a loop, it had no depth or space just a continuous track sitting in the middle. Also it had no weight or sync with the rhythm of the actor. I then tried using a combination of the chains being banged together, to try and pick out the action. Although this worked better, the chains didn't seem to have the right weight. They sounded more like a jar of coins, rather than heavy chains.

This is what I was trying to explain in my previous post, sounds aren't always what they seem. The obvious choice for creating a chain sound would be to use chains, but as proved this isn't the case. I was advised to try and use a bag of bolt or even something as heavy as metal tools. I was unfortunately running out of time and thought it would be easier to amend the sounds I already have. On reflection its taken me a week or so to correct the chain sound, and even now it still isn't great. Whereas if I'd of recorded the sound again it would have possibly taken me a day or two to get the equipment, material and record it. We live and learn.

The way I solved this problem was to ask. Annabeth advised me to build up the individual chain sounds I had recorded. Annabeth also said that slowing down the sound would give it more weight. It does this by lowering the pitch.

It was very tedious doing the chains this way, but although its not perfect it was a mass improvement. I basically watched each clip and put in a chain sound when the actor moved.

Second, the Blood Splats. I think this was the sound that made me want to give sound design ago. I had the idea that hitting fruit and veg was a good way to create the sound of a hammer smacking a face. The fruit I layered up were, a lettuce. a mango, a grape fruit and a potato. I also tried a chicken, I thought hitting a chicken with a hammer would give a authentic sound. However it sounded hollow and the bones were too weak.

The lettuce had a great crunch to it. The mango and grape fruit both had a thick texture, when I hit them it gave a nice bassy thud. When you ripped the skin of these fruits it almost sound like human skin being cut. I cut both fruit in half to hit the soft centre and this gave a squelching wet sound. When I stuck the knife into the potato and twisted it the potato cracked, this sounded like bones.

I layered these sounds up to create one splat. During this mixing stage I bought the Fight Club Blu Ray, which had a special feature about foley. One of the areas it concentrated on was create the punch sounds. I was really happy to find that the sound artist came across many of the same problems and solved them the way I did. He mentions that the chicken didn't work, but he filled the insides with walnuts and that gave a great sound. When I listen to Fight Club now the hits sound very much like my own, which I feel is a great achievement. I thought mine sounded cartoony, but they do in Fight Club and thats our perception of sound. I've never hit someone, or seen someone hit somebody that hard its broken there face so I wouldn't know what it sounded like. I can only imagine it. There is a vast different between real sound and movie sound. Movie sound is much more exaggerated.

In the post stage I once again slowed down these sounds to give them weight and it them sound more brutal.

The hardest part to these foley sounds is to give them depth. The easiest way is to add reverb. Reverb puts the sound into a space. Reverb isn't my favourite effect and I feel it cheapens the sound, I'd like to discover away to achieve depths in other ways.

You can see footage of me hitting fruit and veg in my hand in.