Foley Sound

In the post-production of a film, TV show or videogame, Foley artists use ordinary objects to create extraordinary sound effects. Foley is a sound effect technique used to record audio that syncs to the on-screen action and brings the soundscape alive. The sound of breaking bones, creaking floors, squeaking doors, footsteps, falling bodies, fire is very often a Foley sound effect.

The use of Foley dates back to the early 1920s when radio studios created sound effects to add realism to a radio show. This technique was adapted for films by Jack Foley (hence the name) during the change from silent cinema to talkies at the end of the 1920s. Born in New York in 1891, Jack was at the forefront of the film industry when sound was introduced to motion pictures. Rumour has it, he reversed a burp and looped it for the effect of creating a comical motor sound in Frank Capra’s Submarine (1928).

Foley artists throughout screen history have continued Jack’s tradition of using peculiar and surprising actions and objects to create soundscapes.

Find out about some of the Foley sounds used in E.T, Avatar and Inside Out!

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)

Everyone knows E.T. is sweet and cute, but did you know that the sound of the alien's movement is the product of playing with jelly, popcorn and liver? When director Steven Spielberg requested that E.T. sound "liquidy and friendly", Foley artist Joan Rowe went on a quest to the supermarket. “It’s hard to put words to sound," she says. "I walked through some stores and listened to the movements of the packaged liver in a flat container. It had a ‘cheery little sound’.”

It became one of the sounds of E.T.’s squishy body and movements. Fellow Foley artist John Roesch recalls, “The liver would go bad, so Joan would have to pick up more every other day. The guy behind the counter eventually said, ‘What the hell are you doing?’” As well as raw liver, Rowe and Roesch used Jell-O to ensure E.T. also sounded ‘funny’ as requested by Spielberg. “Joanie and I went to lunch, and somebody ordered Jell-O,” Roesch explains. “And as the bowl was thrown onto one of our trays, and it was wiggling away, we just looked at each other and started laughing. Joan went home and cooked up a huge pot of Jell-O, and I took my T-shirt and taped the neck and the arms, turned it upside down, and poured all this Jell-O into it.” And the result of all this playing with food? The film won two Oscars for sound, including Best Sound Effects Editing.

Avatar (2009)

To create the sound of the Mountain Banshees in James Cameron’s Avatar, supervising sound editor Christopher Boyes scouted out the "strangest creatures you could ever imagine". Also known as ‘ikran’ in the Na’vi language, Banshees are Pterodactyl-like aerial predators used by Na’vi for travel and hunting. The clucking, trilling and cries of these creatures' vocals came from a mixture of two to three-day-old baby swans, horses and reptiles. You can see how both specific and random the hunt for the correct sounds can be. Boyes said the swan’s sounds were so unique that it’s impossible to tell they were birds when heard as a recording, much like it would be hard to know the Banshee's guttural breathing was horses and reptiles.

In the following video Christopher Boyes talks about the sound of the Banshees starting at 2:55.

Inside Out (2015)

Family-favourite animated film Inside Out, directed by Pete Docter, invites audiences inside 11-year-old Riley’s mind. Ren Klyce was recruited to create an experimental soundscape and was tasked with producing an ethereal, organic soundtrack to help people associate with what it sounded like to be in a little girl’s mind. To create the sound of this world inside Riley’s head, Ren Klyce recorded crabs walking in the sand. Supervising sound editor Shannon Mills recalls “one of the biggest surprises was something Ren did, that put some microphones on the sand and recorded these crabs. This became the ambiance of the mind.”

“It was just a very strange, interesting sound that had movement and character, but it didn’t stick out,” Mills explains.

There was also a focus on textured sound, for example recording kelp underwater to add to scenes associated with Riley’s memory. Inside Out is a great example of Docter creating sounds associated with emotions like sadness, darkness and happiness, which demonstrate the scope of invention and respective challenges Foley artists tackle during postproduction.

Want to get hands-on with Foley sound?

Check out the sound design resource we created with the Australian Children's Television Foundation (ACTF).

Visit ACMI's Foley studio

And did you know that ACMI has a Foley studio in our centrepiece exhibition The Story of the Moving Image? When you visit, you can create your own amazing sound effects to scenes from Round the Twist (1990–2001) and Li’l Elvis and the Truckstoppers (1997–98)? You'll be able to take your creation home on your Lens.