Blog Post #7

 Sound Research

    Have you ever wondered how certain sounds within a movie are created? Many of them are created by a Foley artist. A Foley artist use items to make different sounds for different actions or props. For example, when a superhero cape blows in the wind, you won't hear it that well. With the help of Foley artists, they will record them shaking and waving cloth to make it sound like a cape flying in the wind. Making your sound for your movie is easy, you can take household items and use them to create epic sounds. 

Above: Here is a short video of what its like to be a foley artist and how they create sounds.

    

    When it comes to Foley artist Ben Burtt is the best. As mentioned in Blog Post 6 Burtt is my favorite sound designer and has worked on "Star Wars". Burtt created the sounds R2-D2 makes in the movies. I was very surprised to find out that all he did was use a keyboard and a microphone. He used different pitches on the keyboard and changed the wave of the modulation of the waveform, to create an iconic sound. While researching more about the sounds Burtt created for "Star Wars" I found the sound used for a lightsaber was just project motors. I would have never guessed that was the sound used to create lightsaber noises. 

Above: This video shows and explains how Ben Burtt created the sounds for "Star Wars", and gives you a look in to what its like as a Foley artist.

    Researching sound design has opened my eyes to creating sounds for my film and has been super interesting to learn about how sound within movies is created. Learning sound design has opened another career interest for me and I hope to continue to learn more in-depth about the process of creating sounds and applying them to movies.