Foley: History

History

The History of Foley is often liked to Jack Foley who is essentially the founded of this art form. So how did foley come about...

Foley first came about as a range of live sound effects originally developed for live broadcasts of radio drama in the early 1920s in various radio studios around the world.Due to no effective recording method existed in those days, all sounds for radio plays had to be created live at the time. This is where Jack Donovan Foley comes in as he was working at Universal Studios in 1914 during the silent movie era. 

When Warner studios released its first film to include sound which was The Jazz Singer Universal knowing that they needed to stand a chance against Warner Studios called for any employees who had radio experience to come forward. This lead Foley became part of a sound crew that turned Silent movie Show Boat into a musical. Due to microphones of the time being unable to pick up anything other  than dialogue,other sounds had to be added in after the film was shot. 

This lead Foley and his small crew to projected the film on a screen while recording a single track of audio that captured their live sound effects. Timing of these sounds had to be perfect, meaning footsteps and closing doors had to be synchronized with the actors' motions in the film, this started the art we know as Foley today.

Jack Foley created sounds for films until his death in 1967, with some of his methods still being used today.

Modern Foley art has progressed in the same manner as recording technology has progressed. In today's world, sounds does not have to be recorded live on a single track of audio. They can be captured separately on individual tracks and carefully synchronized with their visual counterpart, with Foley studios employing hundreds of props and digital effects to recreate the ambient sounds of their films.