WHAT WOULD A SCARY
movie be without the
ominous creak of
floorboards? Sound
effects—called Foley—
add crucial value to any
film. “The challenge,”
says Foley artist John
Roesch, “is to create
something in sync
with the picture that is
totally believable.” Step
one: watching a scene
in silence. “I hear the
sound in my mind,”
says Roesch. Then with
his partners, Shelley
Roden and Scott
Curtis, he tinkers with
countless gadgets and
props at the Skywalker
Sound studio in Marin
County, California, to
try to replicate it. To
“Foley” an ice-skating
scene, for example, he
drags crampons across
concrete. And if the
plot should take a peril-
ous turn? Squeezing
a water-soaked cham-
ois cloth, says Roesch,
makes the perfect
“blood gooshy” sound.
—CATHERINE ZUCKERMAN- Boing box
This custom-built, single-
string instrument supplied
cartoon sounds for the
1988 comedy Who Framed
Roger Rabbit? On its sur-
face are five unrelated
sound props (clockwise
from top right: Jew’s harp,
tuning fork, lighter, brass
cup, brass top). - Bone fragment
The Foley team used bits
of bone to replicate the
sound of Maui’s bone
necklace in the popular
kids movie Moana. - Broadsword
The sound made by
wielding this hefty weapon
emphasized the power of
the swords in Braveheart. - Candleholder
In Black Panther, the 2018
superhero blockbuster,
the title character wears
a suit made of a fictional
metal called vibranium.
To make its sound, Roesch
employed several imple-
ments, including this
metal candleholder and
an S-shaped crowbar.
PHOTOGRAPH BY ANNIE MARTIN9SOUND
SYSTEM
678HEAR THESE TOOLS IN ACTION AT NGM.COM/JUN2019. JUNE 2019 35