Some may be surprised at the amount of work it takes to record background noise in a film. While many steps are taken by sound recordists to avoid recording background noise, many of these noises are added back into the film during post-production using a process called Foley.
Foley is the act of adding in, or enhancing, sound effects in a film. These sound effects can include footsteps, background conversation, even a pencil scratching on paper. Foley can be done either by Foley artists in a studio, or through electronically stored sound effects.
Without Foley, a film sounds empty and hollow because the sound recordist will have recorded dialogue only and excluded everything else. However, our films need more than this for the picture to come alive. We need to hear sound effects like footsteps, clothes rustling, paper folding, doors opening, etc; but we need to be able to control those sound effects so they don’t obscure the dialogue. By excluding these sounds during filming and adding them in post-production, we can control the timing, quality, and relative volume of the sound effects.
Check out the original video by Third Man Films at https://vimeo.com/170948796.
