Part 1 of 2
When thinking of movie classics,who could forget the Chariot Race in the movie Ben Hur? Two hundred hoofs pounding down on the hot, dusty earth in a grueling race with Charlton Heston, Stephen Boyd and others. But how did the audio mixers capture the sound of the chariots speeding perilously around the track? Along with the snorts of the exhausted horses? The jingle of the metal on their leather bridles and bits? And the snap of the whips? They didn’t. Foley artists created the sounds in a studio.
As talkies hit the stage in the early 1930’s, producing good sound was a challenge to every director. If the sound were off, a re-shoot could cost the director tens of thousands of dollars, today, millions. In 1960, after Stanley Kubrick viewed the rushes of his classic Spartacus, he all but panicked. The audio for the slave scene with dozens of bone-weary men on a forced march in heavy leg irons was unusable.
Kubrick began calculating the cost to return to the shoot location in Italy with the rehire of the principal actors and extras. Then, the Universal Studios sound mixer Jack Foley saved the day—and the budget—with “footsteps,” a key chain and a bowling ball!
Jack Foley began his career at Universal as a stuntman and scriptwriter moving into sound when talkies hit the screen. Foley divided his sound treatments into three categories: Footsteps (hence the nickname Foley “walker”), Movement (clothing) and Specifics, all other sounds. His original sounds, as they still do today, either replaced poor quality sound, created new sound or augmented existing sound for depth and richness.
Foley artists, often dancers who understand the relationship between sound and motion, watch a movie many times until they live the part. The subtle sounds are choreographed as they choose from junk they’ve collected for their audio qualities. Foley “pits” used for footsteps are 2’x2’ areas filled with sand, gravel, dirt, marble, wood flooring or plywood. The Foley walker first decides on the correct surface then chooses from a selection of perhaps 20 pairs of shoes ranging from Western boots, moccasins, flats, high-heels, wing-tips and loafers. In several Clint Eastwood movies, the Foley walker wore a mid-heeled woman’s shoe that fit the macho man’s footsteps to a “T.” Our Foley lips are sealed, Clint.
To be continued... stay tuned
