Foley Artist John Roesch has been one of Hollywood's top Foley Artists for over two decades.
Photo credit: American Public Media
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I am beginning a new addition to bizofshowbiz with this post. I'm going to talkoff and on about the numerous side industries that have come about from the show business world. There are an extraordinary amount of unique vocations and businesses that exist that we don't hear about too often.
In this first post on the subject we'll talk about "foley artists." What in the world is a foley artist? The name comes from stuntman director Jack Foley who invented the discipline in the 1920s when movies changed to "talkies." It is the talent of creating the various sounds that you hear in all the movie productions we watch.
With the advent of high-tech digital equipment and computer generated animation films, you'd think that the sound artists would become extinct. The opposite has actually happen as their numbers have doubled in the last ten years, with most of them living in the Los Angeles area.
Why it is so needed in this environment is because of the need for ambient sound. The foley artists still work in the lo-tech way they always have, seeking to come up with all sorts of sounds for the purpose the movies require.
A number of Hollywood studios have made improvements to their foley soundstages for the purpose of makings sounds and noises the old way. They want the real sound not synthesised ones.
With the proliferation of the global box office market, it has created opportunities for more foley workers. When the film is dubbed into foreign languages, the original dialogue must be removed. When that is done, all the sound in the movie is removed with it, which then must be reinserted into the picture.
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