Barton Fink Foley Recordings Session 1

On Tuesday I was in the studio recording Foley for the Barton Fink sound design clip. For this session I was trying to get the walking done as well as other movement sounds of his jacket and suitcases. For this to work I set up a Pro Tools session with the video imported into it and put it on the monitor facing into the recording room of the studio, so I could walk in time with the actions in the film. I set up a C414 mic, on a stand facing down, next to my feet and positioned it to get a good overall sound between the two feet while doing the walking. Some parts of the studio floor were not ideal as they had squeaky floor boards and hollow bass tip-up areas so I moved the mic around until I found the section that suited the visuals in the clip.

To make it easier to carry out the Foley in time a couple of the other sound design students were working with me. This made it easier to cue up the section I would be acting out so I could be set up and ready. I would have a section of the characters walking highlighted, usually between motions of walking where he started and stopped or when there was a cut in the visuals which caused a big change in the characters pace. This made it much easier to watch the cut up section a few times to get a feel for the characters way of walking, including speed, what foot he placed first and force of his foot falls. I did this to ensure it felt like these were the footsteps of the character. I set up Pro Tools so as to have a count in which made it easier to time my first footsteps with the character.

After this I also got the movement sounds of the character. This included knocking and rattling cases along with his movement and making clothes rustle when necessary to the audiences proximity to the character. As well as this I recorded a few of the other environmental sounds such as fans, fluorescent light hum, doors opening and closing and bell ring to sync up with visual props on screen. I recorded an underlying background ambience too so as to have a room tone for the film and stop there being any silence between the sounds that coming and going on screen, due to the fact this can be disorientating to the audience.

There are minor amendments to do to the Foley footsteps as they do not sync up perfectly. I will edit the clips and align them more with the visuals but so far they sound as though they suit the world of the movie. I will be mixing them in the coming weeks to get the right levels for each layer and drawing focus to what I feel are the main points, and sounds that should be accentuated to go along with the visuals. As well as this I will be adding processing and effects to really put the sound into the world.