Foley Artistry

If you view the credits of most movies, you will note that there is a "Foley Artist" listed. The Foley Artist is responsible for producing all the background sounds that give life to films - the rustling clothing, creaking doors, and background sounds. Jack Foley, who worked for 33 years on Stage 10 at Universal Studios, is the inspiration for this term. His story is told on NPR's Lost & Found Sound: Jack Foley: Feet to the Stars.

The Folger Shakespeare Library includes a lesson plan entitled "I Will Hear That Play": Using Sound to Enhance the Text by Sarah Hicks on using sound to enhance text, with a discussion of Foley artistry; useful handouts are included.

Students were introduced to Foley Artistry in Technology class. As they listened to vintage radio broadcasts, they focused on identifying background sounds. A good site with short mystery radio tracks is 5 Minute Mysteries Old Time Radio Shows from MysteryShows.com.

They next used the project resource packet's Foley Artist Worksheet to identify sounds they wished to create and what they would use to do so. They used Audacity, an open source program which is free to download, to record sounds and play them back, keeping track of their successes.