Foley (sound design)

In sound design, Foley is the reproduction of everyday sound effects that are added to films, videos, and other media in post-production to enhance audio quality. It is named after sound-effects artist Jack Foley. Foley sounds are used to enhance the auditory experience of viewers across film, audio dramas, and video games. They can be anything from the swishing of clothing and footsteps to squeaky doors and breaking glass. Foley can also be used to cover up unwanted sounds captured on the set of a movie during filming, such as overflying airplanes or passing traffic.

Places where the Foley process takes place are often referred to as a Foley stage or Foley studio. A Foley artist recreates the realistic ambient sounds that are portrayed in the film. The props and sets of a film often do not react the same way acoustically as their real-life counterparts, requiring filmmakers to Foley the sounds. The best Foley art is so well integrated into a film that it goes unnoticed by the audience. It helps to create a sense of reality within a scene. Without these crucial background noises, movies feel unnaturally quiet and uncomfortable.

What is now called Foley originated as adding sounds to live broadcasts of radio drama from radio studios around the world in the early 1920s. Phonograph recordings of the era were not of sufficient quality or flexibility to faithfully reproduce most sound effects on cue, so a sound effects person had to create all sounds for radio plays live.

Jack Donovan Foley started working with Universal Studios in 1914 during the silent movie era. When Warner Studios released The Jazz Singer, its first film to include sound, Universal knew it needed to stay competitive and called for any employees who had radio experience to come forward. Foley became part of the sound crew that turned Universal's then-upcoming "silent" musical Show Boat into a musical.

Because microphones of the time could not pick up more than dialogue, other sounds had to be added in after the film was shot. Foley and his small crew projected the film on a screen while recording a single track of audio that captured their live sound effects. Their timing had to be perfect, so that footsteps and closing doors synchronized with the actors' motions in the film. Jack Foley created sounds for films until his death in 1967. His basic methods are still used today.

When Warner Brothers introduced the Vitaphone, allowing for sound to be synchronized to the moving picture, it included a musical score and sound effects in its 1926 film Don Juan.

Modern Foley art has progressed as recording technology has progressed. Today, sounds do not have to be recorded live on a single track of audio. They can be captured separately on individual tracks and carefully synchronized with their visual counterpart. Foley studios employ hundreds of props and digital effects to recreate the ambient sounds of their films.

Foley complements or replaces sound recorded on set at the time of the filming, known as field recording. The soundscape of most films uses a combination of both. A Foley artist is the person who creates this sound art. Foley artists use creativity to make viewers believe that the sound effects are actually real. The viewers should not be able to realize that the sound was not actually part of the filming process itself.