The tools of a Foley Artist

If you’re a film buff, you’ve probably heard of the Wilhelm, and if you’re not, you’ve almost certainly heard it. For those who aren’t familiar with the now legendary film sound effect and insider joke, Wikipedia has a thorough history of the Wilhelm with a sound sample, and some nut has created a fairly comprehensive collection of the scenes in which it’s been used in this YouTube clip. It’s interesting that such an absurdly out of place sound can be used so pervasively without being noticed, but that without hundreds of other sounds, even the most visually compelling film is rendered lifeless. George Lucas definitely understood the value of sound; imagine Star Wars without the triumphant music, the distinctly different sounds of the empire vs rebel fighter crafts, the lightsaber, or the voices of Chewbacca and R2D2. The owners of the patented Godzilla Roar also understand the value of sound, they’ll sue the pants off of anyone who seems to infringe. And for several decades, “eerie” meant theremin. But otherwise, one of the most impactful aspects of film goes unacknowledged, with peculiar language to go along with its mysterious subculture. That background noise of people talking? It’s called – depending on the context – “walla”, “rhubarb”, or “snazzum”. Snazzum is a special kind of walla; it’s gibberish spoken by a specific extra to sound like words, while avoiding avoiding having to pay an extra for actually “acting” according to SAG guidelines. And although we notice a lot of the “hard sound” like gunshots, airliner tires squealing, and autos (which often turn into film sound cliches), there’s another entire world of sound artists that has miraculously survived the ready availability of digital sound effects libraries: the Foley Artist, who creates all the critical ambient sounds that usually aren’t (or can’t be) captured in the original shoot. If you’re into the details of how audio effects are created, FilmSound.org has a lot of interesting background, like how sound designer Ben Burtt created a lot of key Star Wars audio and The Art Of Foley – How It’s Done goes into some interesting detail about Foley work. Did you know, for instance, that corn starch in a leather pouch makes the sound of snow crunching underfoot? And on a Hollywood trivia side note, totally unrelated to audio, did you know that Alan Smithee is dead?

The film that killed Alan Smithee: