London, July 30 (IANS) Hollywood’s sound effect artists, who bring films to life with an unlikely range of props, including celery, polystyrene and soap, could be made redundant by a new generation of synthesised sound.
Software engineers are working on a system that would replace the traditional effects of the so-called Foley artists – who have been plying their trade ever since the ‘talkies’ hit the screens – with the omnipresent computer.
The name is derived from Jack Foley, who pioneered the technique for Universal’s first talkie, ‘Showboat’.
A team at the University of North Carolina in the US has succeeded in replicating the sound of water flowing and splashing, said a Telegraph report from the US.
William Moss and Hengchin Yeh of North Carolina University modelled the splashing and gurgling of water by building a ‘3D grid’ of sound, the same technique used in computer generated film graphics.
Moss said: ‘The physics is pretty easy.’
They believe it is just the first step on the road to a whole array of virtual sounds.
But Foley artists believe these will lack the emotion created by people messing around with different physical materials.
While largely ignored by filmgoers – because they are so good – sound effects for a range of activities from fights to love scenes are essential to how convincing the movie is.
Techniques include snapping a stick of celery to simulate breaking bones, a Foley artist sucking his own wrist to add some passion to a kissing scene, and breaking polystyrene for the sound of cracking ice.
Sandy Buchanan, who works for Pinewood Studios in UK, told The Times: ‘These newer ways of operating can remove a lot of the donkey work from what we do but sound engineering in films is not simply about creating a sound, it is about creating an emotion using sound.’
A Foley artist cannot be replaced, he argued, ‘but he will have to adapt’.
What you actually hear in movies:
Breaking bones = snapping celery
Crackling fire = rustling cellophane
Car crash = washing machine filled with cutlery, empty cans, etc
Alien squishing or trudging through swamp = hand soap
Bird wings flapping = pair of gloves flapping
Snow crunching = corn starch squashed in a leather pouch
Hooves clattering = half-coconuts filled with padding
Body being punched = heavy phone book being punched
Gun being shot = heavy staple gun
