A Foley Makes It Sound Just Right

By Dan Mayfield
Of the Journal After watching Ellen Heuer work, you'll never watch a movie the same again. Heuer is a foley artist, one of a handful of specialists who make movie sounds � all the sounds for a movie that aren't picked up by microphones on set, which is most of them. In a garage wired up with high-end recording gear in the Albuquerque area, she makes the sounds for Wildfire Post Production that help a movie feel real. They are created in a soundstage later by a foley artist so they're just right, and can be everything from the leathery crunch when someone sits in a car seat to the sounds of buttons and switches, footsteps, doors opening and closing, or shutters banging in the wind. Foley is one of the great secrets of film. The art is still named for its inventor, Jack Foley, who famously rattled keys in front of a microphone to re-create the sound of an army's armor rattling in "Spartacus." Heuer started as a dancer and choreographer, and she was approached by a foley artist who was looking for a nimble assistant to work on a film. "I was choreographing 'Finian's Rainbow' and Susan the Silent. She doesn't speak; she only dances what she has to say," Heuer said. While working on the show, she was asked to do the same sort of work as a foley artist. "I said, 'I think I could do that,' and it took off," she said. "I trained myself. I can just hear these sounds." It's certainly a gift to be able to see a scene on a TV screen and decide what sounds it will take to fill it out. She uses her dancer's sense of timing and movement to walk in time with an actor on a screen or to slam a door. It's a tough job because when it's done right, you don't even notice. When it's done poorly, everyone notices. When a film is made, almost all of it is rerecorded in a sound booth later, sometimes even actors' words. Effects, like gunshots and explosions, are added later from a computer. But the actors' footsteps, and even kisses, are done by foley actors. Sorry to burst your bubble, but those wonderful sounds of actors smooching is really somebody like Heuer making out with her own palm in front of a microphone. She even makes the sounds of actors rolling around in sheets, by rubbing two pieces of nylon or cotton together. "I did the sounds for 'Showgirls,' and I don't want to tell you what some of those noises I had to make were," she said. Heuer is one of the best in the business. It was the state's film incentive program that brought her and the company Wildfire Post Production to New Mexico. Josh Reinharddt opened the Albuquerque studio for Wildfire Post Production in the spacious home he grew up in. He came back to New Mexico in October after working on films like "The Road." He cut all the sounds for the shopping cart in "The Road," and maintains a library of standard sound effects, like slamming doors, gunshots and waves crashing, on a Macintosh computer. He has a video link to Heuer's garage so he can see what she's doing while he records her. But, he said, she often hides, and he doesn't know all of her tricks. "Josh is the one that makes it sounds real," Heuer said. She has worked for some of the biggest names in the business, and on some of the biggest films. For "Avatar" she created the "ahhss" sound of the Na'vi's tail docking with other animals. And for the scene where Jake Sully falls off the trees to the rainforest's mossy ground, Heuer made all the sounds of him hitting leaves on the way down. She couldn't say how she made the sounds.

And she can't say how she made the sounds for other high-profile movies, like "Star Wars Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith." But, she did say Skywalker Sound has a specific device that creates Darth Vader's heavy boot walking. She wouldn't say if it was boots, or shoes, though. However, Heuer does still keep the pair of shoes she used to make Jessica Rabbit's footsteps while filming "Who Framed Roger Rabbit," along with about 60 others on a rack. She's re-created everything from herds of buffalo and explosions, to the simple sound of a Kleenex falling on the ground, for films. "It's things like that that ground you in the reality of a film," she said. Sometimes, though, she has to think out of the box. When she was working on the sounds for "Back to the Future," she had to make up sounds for the DeLorean's doors, and the Flux Capacitor. For "The Perfect Storm" she spent several days in a wave pool shaking a big piece of metal to create the sound of waves crashing against the ship. But these days much of the work a foley artist does is for animated films and video games. "I was at Skywalker (Sound) for so long and did animation. You can't hide," she said. "I like to do video games. They'll cut a lot of effects."

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• foley
• sound
• movies
• effects
• Ellen
• Heuer

[XxBioshockxXgod13]

Was that Jason Stathom at the end?

[davdud101]

Very interesting! Thanks!

[loubrownpants]

Thanks for uploading this!