As established in the diegetic and non-diegetic sound analysis, film crews often hire or use someone called a 'Foley sounds artist'. Foley artists concentrate on sound effects in films, recreating representations of real life sounds in a studio to later be layered over to emphasis the 'real' stereotypical sound. One prime example of this would be when a protagonist is wearing chain mail amour. A Foley artist will replace the default SFX with a recreated sound, using items such as large bike chains being rattled to establish the armour.
Why are 'Foley artists needed'?
To put it simply, it is a result of noise and convention. Noise is unwanted sound and it is especially important in the production of a film to ensure that every sound is relevant to the scene at hand. Secondly sound suffers the same consequences as camera shots; without applying methods such as the rule of thirds, it results in a sum of dead space. Sound is the same. Without emphasis on sound audiences begin to degrade in the idea of verisimilitude and may lose interest in key elements in the film like a character drawing his sword.
When in post production and planning of a film sound is broken down into sub sections known as layers. Each layer consists of a different type of sound. Normally these layers are between one and five at one point in the production which are:
- The soundtrack [background or mood music ]
- Dialogue
- Ambient / Background noise
- Sound effects [artificially created ]
When a Foley artist is developing sounds to integrate into a scene or shot, often they will follow one of the following;
Sound Enhancing
Sound enhancing consists of replacing or adjusting sounds found in the raw footage of film. Normally this method will be used in circumstances where limitations are met normally due to legality issues such as health and safety. Scenarios such as explosions, gun fire and fight scenes.
Mood / Background Music
Mood / background music is used in all genres of film to portray the setting and mood of a scene. Furthermore it can be used to elaborate emotions or increase / decrease the tension buildup in a scene keeping the audience emotionally invested.
Dialogue
Dialogue is used to communicate between each of the actors characters, normally developed using a script; sometimes on the actors improvisation. In a lot of circumstances it is found that dialogue is actually not recorded on seen, as it is later recorded in a studio where it can be manipulated and clearly recorded with professional boom microphones. Nowadays it is essential that films include dialect otherwise it lacks verisimilitude.
Narration
Narration is a voice recording normally in a recording studio that is layered over the top of a scene that introduces either the characters, plot or location established in the opening shots. Used less in thrillers, narrations can be used to express backstories or flash-forwards.