PEEKSKILL, New York — If you walked into any of the rooms at Alchemy Post Sound without context, there’s a good chance you’d be thoroughly confused.
Some three thousand miles away from the land of movie magic is a crew hard at work.
And while you probably don’t know their faces, you’ve likely seen – or heard – their work.
They’re foley artists – some of the people Hollywood couldn’t make a movie without.
“We create sounds, and the sound of something as simple as basic as a footstep, in a movie like F1, where the cars are flying through to a guy being eviscerated, we will create the sounds of all of the actors’ movements,” said Leslie Bloome.
The art of foley, named after pioneering sound artist Jack Foley, has been part of filmmaking since the 1920s.
Now in the hands of artists like Bloome, it’s very much alive and well.
“It’s 50% of your film, without it, you have a silent picture,” Bloome said. “Everything we do is, we look at it as a texture of sound. So if somebody’s wearing a zippy nylon coat, they’re gonna sound different than a person wearing a leather jacket that’s real creaky. All these little textures are really what helps bring the movie to life.”
To put it into perspective, think about some of this Oscar season’s most talked about films.
When the blood splatters in “Sinners,” or when you hear footsteps through the woods in “Hamnet,” or the crowd erupting at the ping pong table in “Marty Supreme.”
“All these little sounds are bringing the viewer closer to the reality of what’s happening in the story,” Bloome said.
The sound category at the Oscars is comprised of a sound mixer and a sound editor.
“There’s hundreds of people like Ryan and myself who have nitpicked every single one of those frames,” Bloome said. “Whether they’re dealing with sound effects, dialogue editing, foley, we’re all involved in creating this story,” Bloome said.
So on Oscar Sunday, as the world tunes in for Hollywood’s biggest night, spare a thought or two for ** some 3,000 miles away.
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The 98th Academy Awards, hosted by Conan O’Brien, begins at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT. and will be followed by “The Bachelorette: Before the First Rose.”
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