Introduction to Foley and Sound Effects for Film 

Foley is honestly one of the most interesting arts in Cinema. It is amazing how much sound can be made from everyday objects and when properly handled in mixing can become something exotic.

I saw some Foley artists in a documentary a few years back and they said that after you have seven voices singing together, people can’t tell the difference with the sound no matter how many voices you add after that. He specifically mentioned the famous Coca Cola commercial where a whole bunch of people are singing “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing” on a hillside. He said there were only seven foley artists actually doing the singing for the ad.

This is a great intro to sound design! A friend just finished a horror film and I praised him on his sound design for the film. The sound effects he uses (all recorded wild and added in post like: crackling campfire, twigs breaking in the woods, leaves rustling, along with his music ques) made the film scary. He's a veteran film maker but most new film makers overlook the power of sound in a film.

Back in the 1970's I used to create my own "radio shows" on cassette tape. Rain (running shower), Gunshot (ruler hit on table), Thunder (thin sheet of metal), etc. I really enjoyed this episode.

Thanks a million times for sharing your knowledge here, for free, for us. Cheers!

been recording foley all week for my new short film. sometimes even directly watching the footage and replicating the sounds. its been really fun!

This video is EXACTLY what i needed. I'm post-processing a short-film for college and... well... almost every single sound is recorded "out of set". Thanks for the nice video.

Hard to believe such people, channel exists which shares knowledge not only free of cost but also explains it in the most interesting way and to the point.

Great vid! I recently had the pleasure of working with a professional, former Hollywood, sound designer on a horror short that I directed. The shot was 100% MOS and no dialog. He built the sound from the ground up with a mix of library sounds and Foley. It was really awesome watching him put it all together, and the final product really sounds amazing. Since then, I've been trying to put a lot more effort into that sort of thing. Sometimes the subtlest of sounds can make a huge difference in a scene.

I LOVED the short movie! The writing inside the book was HYSTERICAL. Amazing use of irony too!

Your videos are fantastic man, hope you never stop making them. Love the high production value you give to them.

This is why I sometimes find it easier to concentrate sitting at a busy restaurant than a library. At the library you hear every little detail, but at the restaurant it's just a whiteout of noise

Interesting that you use one of Carl Stalling's cues as you cartoon example since he began accompanying silent movies. He started out as a pianist in his hometown theater working his way up the organist and conductor at the Isis Movie Theatre in Kansas City. There he helped the young Walt Disney develop procedures for making musical cartoons.

Most enjoyable and informative. Many thanks.

Must confess that I never knew about any of this .. and thanks for a superbly done video, loads of info that I can boldly walk with!

Sarah Monat and Robin Harlan, the duo foley who is the one who making foley for film and TV similar to Paramount Studios and Sony Pictures Studios!

These videos are a godsend. Clear, concise and give the perfect amount of information to get you going. The terms are introduced and further research can be done. Please keep up the good work - very impressed!

I'm working on an audiofilm project: No visuals, just sound, music, dialogue, and narration. Watching this for a good refresher.

There's a long running (since 1951) BBC radio soap called The Archers which runs in 15 minute episodes and is billed as 'an everyday story of country folk'. Some 20 or more years ago one of BBC radio's comedy series did a sketch, quite a long one as I recall, the premise of which was that when the cast of The Archers had gone on strike for the day the producers created an episode entirely using sound effects. I recall two things about it. It involved one of the characters having sex with a sheep including sticking the sheep's back legs into the character's rubber boots and also a number of lambs being born. Remember this was radio. No visuals. Magic.

15:20 Thank You John Hess for making this great tutorial

That's awesome that you cited Track Stars! Probably one of the most entertaining behind the scenes short films of foley artists at work.

Also, Dennie Thorpe and Jana Vance, the duo foley walkers for the one who did at Skywalker Sound.

This is wonderful. Because of channels like this we need the expensive and ineffective education system less and less.

the names of the books was a nice touch

Mr. Hess, This video on Foley effects was over the top awesome! I bow to you folks who produce such 'to the point' video's about film making aspects! BRAVO! Great work! sbf

Amazing the effect Foley has on productions. Thanks for the post.

I love your videos, great quality, great insight and a very enjoyable exposition.

Absolutely brilliant and hilarious Foley short you made!

Thank you for this video . I just finished my first year of sound design in university. I really need to catch up with all your videos this summer. I have been a full time student but all the informations you are sharing now are a discovery for me (and I am a focused student) 🤷‍♀️. We do not receive this kind of explanation where I am studying but projects are directely put into in our hand and we just need to submit our work, while discovering the software that we are using 🤷‍♀️🙈. There is not enough classes per semester where I am studying, I noticed. But I already enrolled for this year, so I will stay on the course because I always finish what I have started. You are helping me receiving strong information (within this video, but not only this one). So far I have watched 3 video that you have done related to sound, just today. Thank you for making this knowledge accessible, I truly appreciate it. I hope that I will have my degree in two years now. A sound student. ✌🙈🔈🔉🔊

Thanks for the video. I love how you put so much information into such a limited amount of time.

Thanks a lot! Great content that I was looking for and so professionally done!

Definitely an enjoyable watch. Thank you for the info!

Radio plays back then were realy fun.

You almost got all the sounds, now to work on the mix ... :-))

Love your videos; well written, exactly the right amount of detail. If I were a film tutor I'd just point students at your channel at leave it there!

This channel is great. I learned so much in this one video!

Just perfect. Tank you for all this knowledge.

Super handy cheers! Loved the short film

Bravo. Enlightening and ingenious, and v generous to make this for us. Loved the book titles in the short. And all the Foley guys in 1930s in suits and ties. Thank you.

YOU ARE AMAZING!!! Thank you so much!!!

Very interesting and funny movie you did. Thank you a lot for sharing!

Great short!

It would be fantastic to see a piece of film, with the sound done in three different ways - each giving a completely different tone and feel to the film. Just to see how far its treatment can change the context of a piece of video.

GReat job guys. Tanks for sharing

Thanks for this amazing videos man!

Hey, thank you for this! You just earned a new subscriber! I look forward to more vids! :)

Thank you for the best info . i am very interesting about every single word u are saying . inscrutable information

As always, A+.

haha 7:33 "but it was his knack for sound where he really made his name"

Awesome John

u r a great teacher..nice

Very helpful info.

Great vid, yet again!

I really like your videos.

Your own video was really, really funny! Great work!

This was excellent! Quick questions. what program can you use to look at video and tweak audio as you showed in 11:47 and 12:39? I know the sound is Adobe Audition but can you also watch film that following the same time, that is is it running together with playback audio and recording? What do you suggest someone buy if they have a budget and want to buy a professional grade shotgun mic for Foley recording as you used? I'm going to check out RODE mics, but, are there more you can suggest? Thanks for the information.

THIS IS AMAZING

Great vid - thanks!!!

really interesting video!!

Love it!

Great stuff!

Thanks, John! High quality content. Can you tell me what is the best free audio library for sound design (films)? With no copyright issues. Thanks.

Not me concentrating on the Foley of chalkboard scribble on the white board in the video 😂😂

A slight correction on the history of radio and Foley. His real name was Dave Foley and it was actually a 90s TV show called NewsRadio. Dont worry, common mistake.

One of the developers in the forefront of this technology is a company called Blue Ripple Sound and the good news is that the core software to experiment with this is free, with the caveat that it only works with certain DAWs at the moment, although one of these is the ridiculously cheap, but amazingly versatile Reaper.

Recording sound effect and adding them into the video in post production is one way to add sound effect to video. The other way is to use pole and boom mic and capture the actual audio as it happens. The problem with pole and boom mic is you can not get so close as to be in the scene. That is the advantage of recording the audio effect and then adding them to the video in post production. The software advertised in this video Adobe Audition CC: multi-track editor that allows you to punch in recordings in specific moments in the video.

I think Foley would be a dream job and I've always been fascinated by it. When I worked in radio advertising, I was meticulous in my choices of sound effects and even created a number of them when I couldn't find any in our sound libraries. There was no training involved, but I had a natural instinct for it. I've also been a musician and composer since I was a child, and have written, acted, and directed for the stage. I'm even doing a series of videos (to be released on RU-vid soon) where I get to utilize a lot of Foley techniques, including music cues. So, how does someone with no actual paid film experience but a lot of associated training in other fields find work as a Foley artist? Whom does one talk to? Is it a really closed shop?

Awesome video, thx :D

bruh this dude look like the guy that stole woody

So cool

Aprendi nesses poucos minutos mais do que nas aulas que tive, kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk...Valeu!

All the sound related books

Really interesting :)

I’m learning

Since FilmMaker IQ is doing videos on sound, I think they should do a history on movie soundtracks. Just a thought.

Hey Filmmaker IQ, I have a question. When recording dialogue on set, if the microphone picks up some faint sound (say cloth) while the dialogue is being delivered, how do I prevent that sound from clashing with the foley sound when making the mix?

Hehe gotta love Monty Python. Funny thing is though, apparently they were all supposed to have actual horses but they ended up not being able to afford it so they used that as an opportunity to make coconut gag so it actually ended up working out better because it was so funny :p

When you mentioned Foley I think of Red Foley a country singer of years ago.

5:05 - that made me laugh so hard.

this video is for me too. I subscribed...

After recording my raw sounds I was wondering is there any kind of new 9.1 digital surround wireless headphones system etc... or anykind of digital surround wireless headphones system where I can edit audio in full rage 3D? Please Help To use to place my sound in 3d space

Thanks I did look up some Surround Sound systems and I didnot know they had tall speakers like to cover more area that so I put away funds when I can Thank again for advice and done with that for now 👍🏻😀 Ok Question about Live Foley Now I do have questions about live Foley for used within a Adobe Addition CC 2017 can You help please ?

w0W!!!

I am want to use this this sound desgin reason looking for a solution

14:17 “Rainbows are like PONIES!”

6:13 I'm a bit confused here. How did Jack Foley (or the sound engineers that failed to sync SFX before him) add sound effects to a movie that /already/ recorded a musical score and some dialog using Sound-on-Film without multi track recording? Did they record a separate sound effects track to a Sound-on-Disc to be played alongside it? But then wasnt Sound-on-Disc inadequate for syncing sound effects as opposed to straight musical scores.

About helping with software I understand I been over at Lynda.com and learning the basic of Adobe Audition CC 2015 Ok I get back to You Sir about any questions that is concerning foley , sound design or sound effects Have a great day😀God Bless

To really be startled by how much music and sound effects means to a production, Listen to a radio drama in rehearsal. They sound bizarrely unnatural!

Hi, I have a request...can you please advice on how to do mobile ring tone like effect in a movie. I mean, i have a song with me on my system and i want to use it in video as a mobile ring tone. It sounds silly :) but i want to avoid recording it separately due to lots of ambiance noise. I hope you understood my doubt.:) Thanks

I understand but I live in a apartment so I am sure how I could hook up a surround sound Do You have a video on how to use psychoacoustics to trick one ears and mind or do you know of a good plugin of software where I can bring in all my separate sounds place them in all areas in audio spatial space?

would like to do some live foley work to movie picture can Audition or Logic Pro X do that? And what do I need and what are the steps to To get me started?

I have been trying to master Foley but I still don't understand how to use this with dialogue. I absolutely don't want to use ADR so is my only option to cut away from Foley to the live mic recording once dialogue starts?

antholey filmtano here, and its time for a new movie score

You do Rode Mics pround!

love the channel, but the foley on the intro doesnt sound right...the big reels sound like steel beer kegs rolling and the little reel sounds like an old cart wheel...if i re do it and it sounds better, would you guys give me a job? corner office would be sweet

i like learn video

If the original audio (Dialogue audio), already have a sound effect that needed (like closing or opening door). Should record the sound effect?

what is meant by musical cues？is IT a clip of ost that serves a given function？

Hi! Congrats!!! Nice video!! I'd like to know how to make my voice sounds like I were under the water, in distance, on the telephone, using a mask, high above the mountain , inside a coffin, behind the door, in a church robot voice.. etc. How to modifying the sound of the voice according to the ambient/atmosphere? What kind of software should I use? How can I learn to make voice effects? What name of the person who work with sound effects? I would like to learn all about this to improve my fandubs! :) Thanks.

👍👍👍