Let’s Talk About Foley!
First there was a big explosion but surprisingly little screaming. Then plasma went flying hither and yon, which were created expressly for the occasion. Then slowly the heavy metals began to cool and form stars, rock bands, groupies, and later galaxies.
Wait. That’s too far back. Lemme sum up.
Foley (or live sound effects) has been around as long as storytelling and ancient theatre, but it really grabbed people’s attention and became an “art” in and of itself in the twenties with the advent of radio and specifically radio theatre (and even more specifically sound effects artist unions).
There are a number of places online to read about foley (and live sound effects), but my favorite places are:
http://www.marblehead.net/foley/
http://www.old-time.com/sfx.html
http://www.audiotheater.com/sfx.html
http://www.insideskywalkerranch.com/
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Today’s Vocabulary Word: Foley. Courtesy ROX.com.
It’s a matter of specifics, but basically sound effects manually performed and recorded for a film soundtrack are called foley. (Usually in the credits we’re waaaaaay down below screen after endless screen of CGI artists.) Sound effects manually performed live before an audience during an audio play are called ... wait for it ... live sound effects. (Think Fred Newman, the sound effects man on Prairie Home Companion.) I like the economy of the term foley: foley artist, foley recorder, foley, foley, foley. And I consider the two terms interchangeable, but some industry types get snippy about being confused with those other people who also manually perform sound effects. I’ve done enough ... work ... in enough different media that it truly does not matter to me.
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Near the beginning of the last decade of the last century, I came to IU, lived at Collins, and almost immediately got involved with an improv comedy troupe that had been working out of Collins since the eighties. Alas, I got in on the tail end of it: Even though it was called “Collins Improv,” by then I was usually the only resident getting up to horse around. That got my foot in the door, though. I was really a hanger-on at best but persistent enough to become “one of the guys.”
bubbas_brain was one of “those improv people” (also not living at the place) and a top-notch audio engineer. He brought his client at the time, a local studio owner (and Firesign Theatre fan), to an improv one night, and said owner was blown away (“You guys are good” was the operative phrase). WFHB was just about to go on the air for the first time, studio owner planned to host a radio theatre program thereupon, and so: “Would you guys be interested in doing something on the air for my show? Wanna come play in my studio?”
Hilarity, &c., ensued.
At this point I fell off the radar for a while due mostly to scheduling conflicts (I was trying to graduate, wait tables, and play in a band at the time), while the troupe continued to congeal, write, and record. By the time I reappeared, the group had become a not-for-profit with a juggernaut of an audio-only studio production called Hayward Sanitarium. Would I be interested in helping out with this thing? Sure! I’ve got two years to kill....
Armed with bubbas_brain (actually he was armed with me; it was pretty symbiotic), virtually no experience, and my own even temperament, I jumped into this ... thing ... that eventually landed on NPR Playhouse in 1994. I learned just about everything I know about audio from bubbas_brain, including live sound effects, and we spent many, MANY late nights smashing melons, axing windshields, pushing cars into ditches, rubbing branches against windows, chasing people with boom mikes, and being harassed by state troopers (and getting it all on tape) all in the name of art. I produced and directed (solo and/or co-) eight half-hour episodes; another couple of young bucks produced/directed episodes 9 and 10, with bubbas_brain overseeing them as well.
If you’re interested, check it out here:
http://www.haywardsanitarium.com/
Then around 1996, the Sanitarium closed its doors, with some inmates still locked inside and many more running loose, literally and figuratively. It was never finished. I continued doing some live radio theatre stuff with the group, and a few studio projects here and there. But eventually “the whole LMP gang” broke up too.
It was then that I met John Pearson and started MATRIX, December 1998, and took a sabbatical from things audio for a while.
But I kept my fingers in it, and while I haven’t written, directed, or produced anything for audio/radio theatre per se in many years, eventually I started doing voice and sound effects work for Minds Ear Audio Productions here in B-tizzle, as well as some out-of-state freelance gigs. Occasionally this has dovetailed nicely with poetry, and the results have pleased me immensely. Eventually I was tapped to co-direct and teach sound effects at the National Audio Theatre Festivals (NATF) from 2001-2003. I then took a little break to get the MATRIX slam, among other things, up and running.
Kickin’ it old school with RLF for the War of the Worlds live in Tennessee
This June ...
MUSIC: SWELLING VIOLINS
SFX: DOOR OPENS, FOOTSTEPS IN, DOOR CLOSES, FS APPROACH TO FRONT OF MIX
... I’m going back.
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Amid my gear at NATF, June 2003
http://www.natf.org
National Audio Theatre Festivals (NATF), or radio theatre camp, as I like to call it, is a blast. I get to rub elbows with NPR engineers who essentially come out to play and do creative work for a week instead of news. I also get to teach a sound effects class with David Shinn and Sue Zizza, who are probably the best SFX people out there and are swell people in general. I’ve been away from camp for a while, so it’s going to be fun to see and work with these pros again.