The Magic of Making Sound: Foley Artists in Hollywood

 The Magic of Making Sound

What we hear while watching movies may not be exactly what it seems. Foley artists use sound effects engineered in studios to add missing sounds to films. In many cases, they enhance or add sounds lost or not caught the first time around. This is especially important for outdoor scenes. As you can see in this video, many sounds that we hear during films are remade in a completely different way. The video shows us that horse hooves/trolling is remade with plungers filled with cloth and wrapped in duct tape. It is definitely not the more glamourous side of Hollywood. This manipulation of sound is an illusion that viewers are subject to. Our eyes are tricked into thinking we are hearing what we are seeing. This is not the case when Foley artists recreate the crunch of snow with sand and corn starch. This perception is fooling our auditory senses and connecting visual and auditory cues. Something as simple as watching movies incorporates multisensory perception.