Foley artists bring a human touch to moviemaking even with rise of AI

In a small study hidden within the Sony Lot of images, Gary Hecker makes art with sound.

His canvases are some of Hollywood’s largest box office successes, from the “Justice League” of Zack Snyder and the time of Quentin Tarantino in Hollywood ” Disney and Marvel’s Spider-Man’s films and the “Master and Commander” Winner of the Academy Award.

Hecker is a Foley artist, the teacher in charge of elaborating the daily sound effects that occur in a scene: chirriant doors, Sweing layers, the slap of leather reins and even the “thwip” of the Spider-Man straps.

“Foley is a key element in this magic trick that we convince the audience to create in the film they are watching,” said Rodger Pardee, professor at Loyola Marymount University. “Foley is not for explosions or reaction engines. It is for the steps of someone who runs through a forest or climbing in rock, or the swish of the layer of a superhero, that kind of thing. Foley gives you the details. It is the texture of the sound that anchor the sound mixture.”

As Hollywood is dealing with the unbridled growth of artificial intelligence capacities, and how, or if, they should be used, Foley artists remain an unconditional and deeply human part of the movements manufacturing process.

The performative nature of the ship makes it difficult for studies to use AI to coincide with the ability of artists. However, there are few people who work full time as Foley artists, and there It is currently not a university program for Foley. Those who wish to enter the field have to obtain learning with veterans from the industry already established.

Created by Jack Foley at the end of the 1920s, the sound technique that became his namesake arose in Hollywood when the industry went from mute movies to “Talkies”. The early recording team could not capture the environmental dialogue and noise, so the sounds had to be added after the film was filmed.

Foley discovered that performing live sound effects and synchronized with the finished product created a more authentic sound landscape and helped keep the public immersed in the film.

Today’s artists still use many of the same techniques that were used almost 100 years ago.

“We make the movie from top to bottom,” said Hecker. “Anything that moves on that screen, we provide a sound.”

More than 50 pairs of shoes are aligned on shelves in Hecker Studio. Some are resistant and produce thick rays, while others create the strong and sharp class of high heels. There are even a set of spurs designed by a blacksmith in the nineteenth century that Hecker used in the “unqueado” of Tarantino.

“Foley’s true art is to dominate sound,” said Hecker. “I am a type of 200 pounds, so if I am doing Arnold Schwarzenegger, I have to dig deeply, but I am doing a little geisha of ‘Memoirs of a Geisha,’ a 90 -pound girl in those small wooden shoes, I have to match that performance.”

Its sound laboratory has an improvised kitchen area full of cups, bottles, bowls, noises and sprinkling bottles of different sizes and materials. Bins of rakes, blades and mops in abundance stand next to a pile of rocks, and in the corner there is a very worn -updated shell.

It even has a stash of swords, weapons, shields, armor and chains, as well as a specially built metal tower to create unique and rich metal sounds.

The floor has a collection of Foley wells (wood, concrete, stone, gravel areas, the doors have a variety of handles, locks and chains, the cabinets are full of a collection of jackets so that Hecker can find the sound of the proper zipper and, of course, there are some coconut shells.

The Hecker accessories collection is more than 45 years in creation. He began his learning in “Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back” and has more than 400 movie titles under his credit, including “The Running Man”, “Three Friends”, “The excellent adventure of Bill & Ted”, “Home Alone” and “300”.

The Hecker partner in Sound is Jeff Gross, a mixer that transforms the clashes, noises and cavos captured in the microphone into a resonant symphony.

The Association of Hecker and Gross began in the middle of the Covid pandemic while working on the sound effects for the video game “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III”. Since then, they have worked in both “Rebel Moon” films, “Venom: The Last dance” and “Mufasa: The Lion King”, among other projects. Last year, the couple was nominated for a golden reel, one of the most precious praise in the world of sound edition, for “Mufasa: The Lion King” and won for their work in “Rebel Moon – Part two: The Scargiver”.

Hecker and Gross address one movie at the same time and generally pass from 18 to 20 days per project, depending on the sound budget of the film. The largest budget films have more time, while the smallest or independent characteristics often get much less.

While the Hecker and Gross label team operate from Sony’s lot, they work with all Hollywood studies. These companies provide six to eight reels containing around 15 minutes from the movie each. Hecker and Gross then Go Reel By Reel, adding all the steps, support sounds and environmental sounds.

The steps are the first. HECKER PISA THE STRAPPLIES, THE PARTS AND THE SIDINGS IN RHYTHM WITH THE ACTION OF EACH ACTOR, OFES OF A FIGHT OF COFFEE OF COFFEE TO ADD AGAINS TO THE SOUND OF THE SHOES, CREATING THE ILLUSION OF WALLING OUTSIDE. Then start placing layers in support sounds.

To create the metallic scraping of a sewerage cover against a paved street, for example, HECKER replants the Obús shell against a concrete slab. Gross then adds resonance to the captured sound through the computer to give it a more realistic quality.

Hecker has even developed techniques to recreate the sound of explosions, which takes the limits of what sound artists can provide study films projects.

Gross, who sits in a sound booth while Hecker works the microphone, often can’t see what his partner is using to imitate what is on the screen.

“You have to enter your head and go, ‘Yes, that sounds like this,'” he said. “And then I will stand up and look towards the stage and I’m like, ‘Are you using a shopping cart and a toothbrush?'”

And Hecker skills are not only in physical performance. For decades, he has lent his voice to gorillas, aliens, dragons, monsters, horses and even Hollywood lions.

It is useless, snuggled and growl to give life to the “Shrek” dragon, the aliens of “Independence Day”, the zombies in “Dawn of the Dead”, the giant gorilla in “Mighty Joe Young” and, more recently, a pride of lions of “MUFASA: The Lion King”.

“It was really great to make all my breathing and snoring them and efforts,” said Hecker about working in “Mufasa: The Lion King.” “The actors make the character’s voices and tell the story, but these lions are moving throughout the film, and there is nothing there. Therefore, everything had to be personalized and realized. So I would do it, and then Jeff would help me make it sound like a giant flesh lion.”

Hollywood is at a crossroads. New AI Technology offers studies the opportunity to reduce balloon production budgets, but the copyright law and a desire to maintain human art in films have led to tensions.

The Dual 2023 The strikes of writers and actors were partially extended due to tense negotiations with studies on rights, payment and use cases for AI in cinema and television.

These conversations were revived as a result of “The Brutalist” winning a better actor victory for Adrian Brody, even when his performance was altered using the IA voice generation technology, and in the midst of fears that President Donald Trump’s White House could reverse the protections of the copyright to the companies of AI.

When it comes to Foley Sound, Hecker and Gross they are not too worried about the AI ​​programs that take their work.

“The actions of the actors, between movement and detail, AI cannot do that,” said Hecker. “And an artist expresses himself acting and doing these things, you know, with a light touch, a hard hand, emotion, that kind of things that I do not believe that AI can reproduce.”

Pardee de Loyola Marymount said that companies are already working on software programs to try to create Foley Sound, but “the results lack these very subtle and specific variations.”

Independent studies and productions can opt for these programs in the future, but PARDEE does not expect the main studies to do the same.

Where Hecker and Gross See Trouble is in the small number of films releases that come out of Hollywood.

“Usually, we try to work in 10 to 11, but the industry is definitely changing,” said Hecker. “They are making less movies right now.”

Part of the decline comes from the production restrictions of the era of pandemic and labor attacks, but also the fusion of prominent Hollywood studies. Executives have also become more aware of the budget, thinning the amount of characteristics outside the typical rates of the great success franchise.

And the transmission will not collect the slack. Hecker pointed out that the transmission content does not have the same sound budget as films and, therefore, creators often resort to smaller foley houses.

Meanwhile, Hecker, who has obtained the nickname of “Wrecker”, is known for putting his human body at stake for Foley.

“I would do anything to get a sound,” he said. “If a guy crashes against a door, against a car, he must physically put the same intensity you see on the screen. If you don’t do it, it will simply sound good.”