Jack FoleyApril 12, 1891 - November 9, 1967

By Georgia Daly

• ‘Foley’ is a key word often used in the study of film to describe the reproduction of everyday sound effects to enhance audio quality during the post-production stage.

• Foley is used to describe a place, such as a Foley-stage or Foley-studio where the Foley process takes place and this word derives from Jack Foley himself who in his time, was the developer of many sound effect techniques used in filmmaking.

• Despite the modernisation of recording equipment and techniques since his time in the business many of the same time honoured ‘tricks of the trade’ are still used now.

Common Foley tricks:• Corn starch in a leather pouch makes the sound of snow crunching• A pair of gloves sounds like bird wings flapping• An arrow or thin stick makes a whoosh• An old chair makes a controllable creaking sound• Burning plastic garbage bags cut into strips makes a cool sound when the

bag melts and drips to the ground• ¼” audio tape balled up sounds like grass or brush when walked on• Gelatin and hand soap make squishing noises• Frozen romaine lettuce makes bone or head injury noises• Cellophane creates crackling fire effects• A selection of wooden and metal doors are needed to create all sorts of

door noises but also can be used for creaking boat sounds• A heavy phone book makes body-punching sounds• Acorns, small apples and walnuts on wooden parquet surface can be used

for bones breaking• Canned dog food can be used for alien pod embryo expulsions and

monster vocalizations

• Although born in New York, Foley moved to Los Angeles soon after he finished school and secured his first job there as a stuntman. Whilst there, one of his colleagues on set introduced him to California’s Sierra mountains which Foley fell in love with. He later on moved to Bishop (during WW1).

• He served his country as part of The American Defense Society, a group guarding the water supply of Los Angeles to prevent sabotage-poison being put into the water. He also raised his family in Bishop

• When the farmers of the Owens Valley sold their farms to the City of Los Angeles for water rights, the people of Bishop faced a bleak future however Foley soon convinced the town's storekeepers that Bishop had much to gain by luring filmmakers to the area, bound by snow capped mountains, beautiful valleys, and a scarcity of people which made it ideal for westerns.

• He mounted a publicity campaign to attract the studios northward and was very successful. Foley then became a location scout for numerous productions.

• Jack Foley started in the motion picture business in the silent picture era and lived through the exciting times when overnight the industry converted to sound moving pictures.

• He got his break when the post-production work on the now famous film ‘Showboat’ was re-done to add sound in because it was a music.

• Universal rented a brand new and exciting Fox-Case sound unit called he vitaphone to record music, voices and sound effects for the film.

• Foley along with a few others took classes at the university of Southern California in order to introduce to the new technology.

• There was one sound stage where the orchestra, singers and sound people including Foley put all sound in real time to the film. This would be done in one take while today due to improved recording methods, we can record in smaller segments as well as edit them.

• Foley experimented by adding footsteps, hand clapping, any props he could muster and background voices to the film.

• This incident set Jack on his path as an expert in this new field of film making which at the time had no name.

• Because of his multiple talents such as director, actor, writer, stuntman, and cartoonist, he was deemed the person who has the perspective to develop this job.

‘Showboat’ extract:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMoSIU--DOs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrbgY6ajTgo

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