Foley Madness! How to Create Staple Foley Sound Effects
As the insanity of our editing period comes to an end, Aeternus Terrarum is starting to look in pretty good shape. Episodes 1, 2 and 3 now exist fully as rough cut edits and we're in the process of working on episode 5 as we speak.
Over the course of the past 7 days, we have also ventured into the world of foley for the first time, recording a first selection of the sounds that we require to build up the audio track. Below are a few tips that we have picked up, on how to record your own perfect foley audio.
Step 1: Soundproofing
In the world of Indy film, it is rarely financially possible to rent out a professional sound studio for ADR and Foley. Luckily, you can easily create an effective substitute sound studio in your home following these steps:
1) Wait till no one else is home (You don't want friends or family to be making any noise in the background!)
2) Find a room with muffled acoustics. You want a room with as small an echo as possible, as this will give you the best possible base to start making your studio.
3) Soundproof. Collect up as many soft objects as you can from around your house, and fill the chosen room with them. Focus on covering flat, reflective surfaces (mirrors, frames, windows), and then pad out the rest of the room, especially the walls, as much as possible.
4) Shut all windows and doors.
5) Prepare your soundbooth. The booth is what you will be actually recording sound in. This should ideally be separate from your computer an any other noisy recording equipment. One great tip we picked up from Realm Pictures from an old BTS was to make a room out of mattresses, which almost totally muffles all sound.
And at this point you will be ready to record away!
Step 2: Sound Recreation
When you record sounds for foley, often recordings of the actual sound dont sound as you feel they should when inserted as foley. As a result, you sometimes need to find alternative ways to create some sounds. We've included a list below for a section of the sounds we have already recorded, which we know work.
Footsteps Through Long Grass: Take 1/4 inch audio tape, which can then be balled up, and squashed to make sound.
Footsteps Damp Grass: We found a roll of turf works well (put it on a tray), then press down on it to create the footsteps. If extra sound is needed, lay soft salad atop the grass. for extra crunch (rocket or spinach works well)
Leaf Litter: For sound of motion over leaf litter, use balled up VCR tape, and compress once its balled up.
Flowing Streams: We intended to actually record a stream for this, however we found that it was dried up. Instead we used a garden fountain and splashed it over various surfaces. Layered together, this sounded like a gurgling stream.
Rain: An obvious one, take a hosepipe, and using a well spread spray of water, play it over various surfaces and record the noise. Use whichever ends up sounding best for the needed instance.
Fire: We have been trying to recreate a large campfire, and did this by burning a selection of materials in a furnace (A BBQ would work just as well). These were then layered up, and rendered into an overall fire sound. Materials we burnt were:
- Small Sticks, for bulk sound and pops.
- Large Sticks, for heavier wood sound and sap hisses.
- Newspaper, for roaring sounds.
- Magazines, for a variant roar.
- Cloth, for a full background sound.
- Drips of Water, these create a hissing sound.
In addition to these, matchsticks were snapped, for sharp cracks of burning wood.
Flesh Hits: A selection of flesh impacts were also created, for use in fight sequences. These included:
- Heavy Body Impacts: Take a chicken and stuff it with celery and carrot. Then slap the chicken with a spoon, to generate the sounds.
Alternatively, mash up fruit (tomatoes are good), then dropping them from height onto a hard surface.
- Chest Stabs: Take the same chicken, and stab it repeatedly with a knife. Try knives of different sizes. The carrot and celery will make sound good for organs or bones, great for stabs to the chest cavity.
- Neck Stabs: Take a knife, and stab into a selection of fruit. melon, apples and tomatoes are all good. Overlay these sounds together to create the stabbing.
- Exploding Heads: A slightly more niche sound, take a melon and hit it with a heavy hammer. You can then also take the pulped melon, and drop it from on height.
- Shattering Bones: Celery is the best option here. Snap them with your hands. Experiment with layers of sticks, as well as snapping inwards and outwards, and twisting as you snap.
- Dislocating and Shattering Joints: Take a chicken leg, and pop the joint out while simultaneously twisting. Tear bits of chicken from the carcass for squishing sounds. Celery snapping (as above).
- Soggy Stabs: For really disgusting stabbing sounds, try taking a spoon an plunging it up and down in a full jar of jam, or peanut butter.
That pretty much concludes our Foley listings up till now, though we will be posting in future with any new ones that we come up with.
Additionally, we intend to do a vidblog documenting the process of modifying these sounds after recording, to make them sound as good as possible.
Check back soon to find out more!
Sam
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