foley (FO-lee) adjective

Of or relating to the sound effects.

[After Jack Donovan Foley (1891-1967) who pioneered the techniques of adding sound effects during his three decades at Universal Pictures.]

"Foley". Holy Moley! Another word for a limerick!

I have never had the distinct privilege of communicating with Anu, but, I swear, this is a guy who must get a kick out of limericks. :) Not necessarily mine, of course. But I can always hope. [He can hardly be more stern than some of the critics I already have around here. :)]

But, I digress. Today's AWAD is "foley".

"Foley" is named after a pioneer. I know a diner that is named after a pioneer. It's called the "Daniel Boondocks". [Sorry, just made that up. What diner would want to call itself a "boondocks"? Could be a good name for a tavern, however.]

When I say the word "telephone", does that ring a "Bell"?

A pioneer uproots the old technology. Take Bell for example. He pretty much put the telegraph out of business.

A hurricane isn't a technology, and it isn't a pioneer either. But it uproots telephone poles, and just about everything else as well.

They used to name hurricanes after women. Remember "Hurricane Hazel"? [Now that was a wicked witch outta the west!]

But, nowadays, they name hurricanes after men and women. One thing I've noticed since they started doing that, the hurricanes have been getting a lot worse. Do you suppose there's a connection?

Maybe hurricanes are making up for the injustice. It's about time!

BTW here's a story about a foley artist recording wind and water elements during Hurricane Irene in Florida.

"When watching a film, the camera angles are constantly changing, so the perceived location of the audio needs to as well. Something as simple as aiming the microphone towards a subject versus away from the subject can make a huge difference in the tonal qualities of the recording.

With that said, my partner and I moved closer to the churning water. We wanted to “color” the wind noise with some water elements. As we got closer to the ocean however we began to realize that it wasn’t working as imagined. The wind was so brutal and loud, adding water to the recording just sounded like pure noise. It was near impossible to discern the water from the wind elements. After several failed attempts at different angles, we nixed the idea entirely….it just didn’t sound the way it looked. It’s ironic that the actual water activity depicted in the film was unfolding before our eyes, but the sound used in the film was most likely recorded from a body of water a lot less active and tame: containing more detailed and recognizable water elements. The churning white wash in front of us had none of the detail and discernable quality we needed."

http://www.audioholics.com/news/editorials/field_effects_recording_part2.html