What Is Foley?

Foley is the art of performing everyday sounds, such as footsteps, cloth movement and object handling, in a studio and recording them in sync with the picture. Named after Universal Pictures sound pioneer Jack Foley, it replaces or reinforces sounds that location microphones miss, giving films and adverts their tactile realism.

Foley in Practice

Foley artists work on a stage filled with props, surfaces and pits of gravel, watching the picture and performing each sound live: heels on concrete, a jacket rustle, ice in a glass. Jack Foley developed the craft at Universal Studios from the late 1920s, when the 1929 musical Show Boat needed live sound effects added to compete with the new talkies. The discipline he founded is now standard in every film mix and constantly requested in advertising post-production, where close-up product shots demand crisp, exaggerated texture. Good Foley is invisible: audiences simply feel that the world on screen is solid, which is why sound designers treat it as the human heartbeat of a mix.

Famous Example

Jack Foley at Universal Studios, who performed live sound for the 1929 musical Show Boat.