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foley ideas
In the past I’ve only used these forums for software specific questions but I’ve run into a problem with foley recording and I don’t know where to turn.
I shot a short horror film and am now cutting and mixing it myself in final cut pro. In the movie there are two major horror effects and neither sounds like the real thing in the production audio. Does anyone have suggestions for foley ideas for the following two actions???
-A guy gets his arm chopped off with a butcher knife in one swing a little above the wrist.
-A girl cracks her skull open on a tile floor.
Ideas???
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3 Replies
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-A guy gets his arm chopped off with a butcher knife in one swing a little above the wrist.
That’s the old “hatchet into a rack of ribs trick layered with crushing a chicken ribcage after you’ve cooked the bird and removed the flesh” trick.
-A girl cracks her skull open on a tile floor.
That’s the old melon drop layered with a maul cracking open a melon, and layer in more crackle by cracking an egg into a frying pan then mic the crushing of the shell with your hand. Either time stretch or pitch it down.
Regards,
Ty Ford
Want better production audio?: Ty Ford’s Audio Bootcamp Field Guide
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That’s the old “hatchet into a rack of ribs trick layered with crushing a chicken ribcage after you’ve cooked the bird and removed the flesh” trick.
And you get great stock to boot 🙂
John
MacPro 8-core 2.8GHz 8 GB RAM OS 10.5.5 QT7.5.5 Kona 3 Dual Cinema 23 ATI Radeon HD 3870
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Final Cut Studio 2 (up to date)Pro Tools HD w SYNC IO, Yamaha DM1000, Millennia Media HV-3C, Neumann U87, Schoeps Mk41 mics, Genelec Monitors, PrimaLT ISDN
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You’re getting more into the sound design field when attacking complex, unreproductible sounds like that. Go crazy with the layering of different sounds, keeping only what you want from each.
In my mind, without seeing picture, the arm would be a combination of the chicken carcass smash, some kind of snappy vegetable (probably a cucumber) being cut slowly by a knife (really close-mic’ed to get that “smooch” sound), some kind of liquid squirt and, of course, a resonating metal sound to emphasize the blade.
The skull is more straightforward. In my experience, head injuries get more of an “ouch” reaction if the sound consists mainly of a “thump”. A real heavy, dry “thump”, with a bit of crackle in there. If you go too far with the crack, it’ll sound fake very fast. Aim for the sound you’d hear if it was your own head hitting. That’ll be more terrifying for the listeners.
Above all, Have fun. This kind of sound design is what makes this job the best.
JC Boulay
Audio Z
Montreal, Canada
http://www.audioz.com
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