NYS Grade 8 Practice Test 3

The Sound of Footsteps

¹Grace Lindell: Most people have never heard of a Foley artist. How do you explain your job?

²Dana Kirkwood: I usually say that I'm an actor whose audience never sees me. When you watch a movie, almost every small sound you hear—footsteps, the rustle of a jacket, a cup set down on a table, a door latch clicking—was probably not recorded when the scene was filmed. It was added afterward by someone like me, standing in a studio and performing those sounds while watching the scene on a screen. If I do my job well, you never notice it. You just believe what you see.

³Lindell: Why aren't those sounds recorded during filming?

⁴Kirkwood: On a film set, the microphones are aimed at the actors' voices, and the crew tries to keep everything else quiet, so footsteps might be faint or missing. Many films are also released around the world with the dialogue replaced by other languages. If the footsteps and clothing sounds were recorded together with the original voices, they would disappear when the English dialogue was removed. So studios need a separate track of music and effects that stays the same in every version. Foley is a big part of that track.

⁵Lindell: Where does the name "Foley" come from?

⁶Kirkwood: It comes from a man named Jack Foley, who worked at a Hollywood studio in the early days of sound film, starting in the late 1920s. Movies had been silent, and suddenly audiences expected to hear them. Foley and his team figured out that it was easier to perform sounds live, in time with the picture, than to hunt for recordings that matched. That basic idea hasn't changed in almost a hundred years, which I find kind of wonderful.

⁷Lindell: What does your studio look like?

⁸Kirkwood: It looks like a junk shop that got organized by someone very fussy. The floor has what we call pits—square sections filled with different surfaces. There's concrete, gravel, sand, dirt, a patch of wooden boards, a section of tile, even a shallow tub we can fill with water. Along the walls there are shelves of shoes, hundreds of pairs, and bins of props: old telephones, keys, chains, umbrellas, leather bags, every kind of fabric you can imagine. And there's a large screen where the scene plays, so I can match exactly what the actor does.

⁹Lindell: Is it true that Foley artists use strange objects to make familiar sounds?

¹⁰Kirkwood: Absolutely. The sound something makes in real life often doesn't sound right on film. A real punch, for instance, is a dull little thump, and audiences would be disappointed by it, so we might slap a leather jacket or hit a raw piece of meat instead. When a character walks through snow, I squeeze a small leather pouch filled with cornstarch, which gives a squeaky crunch that sounds more like snow than real snow does. Snapping a stalk of celery makes a convincing breaking bone, which is gross but useful. A pair of leather gloves flapped quickly sounds like a bird's wings. The trick is not to ask, "What made this sound?" but "What will make the audience believe it?"

¹¹Lindell: How did you get into this work?

¹²Kirkwood: I played drums in my school band from sixth grade on, and I think that's the real root of it. Foley is all about rhythm and timing. If an actor's foot hits the ground and my footstep lands a fraction of a second late, the audience feels that something is wrong, even if they can't say what. After high school I studied audio production, and during an internship at a sound studio, someone needed an extra pair of feet for a crowd scene. I spent the afternoon walking in place on a gravel pit, and I was hooked.

¹³Lindell: What's the hardest part of the job?

¹⁴Kirkwood: Honestly, it's footsteps. People think the props are the hard part, but footsteps are most of what we do, and they're surprisingly personal. Everyone walks differently. A nervous character takes quick, light steps. Someone who's exhausted drags a little. A villain might walk slowly and heavily, with a lot of weight in the heel. Before I record, I watch the actor over and over, and I try to walk the way that person would walk—not just copying the timing, but matching the mood. Sometimes I'll change shoes three or four times before it feels right.

¹⁵Lindell: Do you ever worry that computers will replace Foley artists?

¹⁶Kirkwood: People have been predicting that for years. It's true that there are huge libraries of recorded sound effects, and editors use them all the time, especially for things like car engines or thunder. But a library can't watch a scene and respond to it. When an actor hesitates in the middle of a step or shifts her weight in a chair, I can respond in the moment, the way a musician follows a conductor. I think there will always be room for that kind of human performance, because audiences can sense when sounds are alive and when they're just pasted on.

¹⁷Lindell: What advice would you give a student who's curious about this career?

¹⁸Kirkwood: Start listening. Really listen, everywhere you go. Notice the difference between the sound of your sneakers on the gym floor and on the sidewalk. Notice what a grocery bag sounds like when it's full and when it's empty. Then try to recreate a few sounds at home with whatever you can find, and record them on a phone. You'll be surprised at how much you can do with a dish towel and a box of cereal. Most of all, be patient. A two-minute scene can take an entire day to get right, and the goal is for no one to ever realize you were there.