What is foley sound?

Foley sound is the reproduction of everyday sounds for use in filmmaking. A lot of films use this method to create sound effects, it goes un noticed by the audience. This helps to create a sense of reality in the scene as without them the film would feel un-natural and uncomfortable.

This video shows very good examples of foley sounds. Usually, in the film industry, foley sounds are created by mimicking the sound in a recording studio. Since we do not have a recording studio we had to take our camera and use an attached mic to record the sound.  This is our results -

Some good examples of foley sounds are:

• 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 great whoosh
• An old chair makes a controllable creaking sound
• A water soaked rusty hinge when placed against different surfaces makes a great creaking sound. Different surfaces change the sound considerably
• A heavy staple gun combined with other small metal sounds make good gun noises
• A metal rake makes a great fence sound (it can also make a great metallic screech when dragged across a piece of metal)
• A heavy car door and fender can create most of the car sounds needed but having a whole car in the studio is better
• Burning plastic garbage bags cut into strips make 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 great squishing noises
• Frozen romaine lettuce makes great bone or head injury noises
• Coconut shells cut in half and stuffed with padding makes great horse hoof 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 great body punching sounds

All of these examples of sounds were taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foley_artist