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For Immediate Release

Contact Anne Donohoe
STC Associates
212.725.1900
anned@stcassociates.com

Foley Artists at C5, Inc. Share Their Secrets

Did you know that nearly all of the films, television shows and commercials you watch have most of their sound added in post -production? In fact, many of the sound effects you hear are created and recorded in a Foley Studio, a sound proof room where Foley Artists record every sound from footsteps, to the crinkle of a leather jacket to the creek of a door.

"During the filming of a movie, the location sound recordist tries to capture only the dialogue and they leave all of other sounds to the post- production crew," says C5, Inc. Foley Artist Marko Costanzo. "What the sound editors cannot produce digitally falls to us."

Here are some interesting facts from the Foley archives of C5, Inc.

Did you know that...

The sound of a smoldering cigarette is made by pressing a thumb into plain dirt?
The creepy background sound of Clarice Staling walking down the hallway to meet with Dr. Hannibal Lecter in "Silence of the Lambs" was actually the sound of a lion’s den at the Bronx Zoo?
The sound of a dog walking on a hard surface is made with Lee Press-On- Nails glued onto gloves? The size of the dog determines which thickness of nails to use.
The Mammoth’s footsteps in the upcoming movie "Ice Age" was made by dropping a log into a pit of dirt, mud and stone?
In "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," the bamboo sticks used in fight scenes came from a sound editor’s backyard in New Jersey?
In Martin Scorsese’s "Bringing Out the Dead," an actual welder, torch and all, was brought in to record the sound of a welder cutting away a man who had been impaled on a balcony railing?
The chains used in "O’ Brother Where Art Thou" were liberated from a bar in Vermont by none- other- then Marko "Sticky Fingers" Constanzo?
The stabbing scenes in "Goodfellas" were made more realistic by using pieces of raw beef, pork and chicken and stabbing them with different knives? Clearly they did not buy the boneless meat because who can forget that sound of the blade hitting the bone?
The sound of footsteps crunching on snow is actually achieved by Kosher Sea Salt covered in cornstarch?
The sound of the dragonfly made memorable in the opening of "Men in Black" was made using a small plastic fan with gaphers tape stuck to the blades? The tape was made long enough so that when the fan was turned on, it brushed up against the Foley Artists’ fingers.

So, the next time you go to the movies, don’t just watch it, listen and experience it, for it is often the sound that heightens our senses. After all, whose heart didn’t beat just a little faster as Clarice Starling sat in Hannibal Lector’s prison chamber, and who didn’t cringe when they heard the twist of the knife into human flesh in "Goodfellas?"

Founded in 1989, C5, Inc. pioneered the transition from linear to digital sound editing technology and continues to be an industry innovator. The company has worked on a wide variety of projects from major motion pictures to small, independent productions with some of the industry’s most notable names including Mike Nichols, Jonathan Demme, John Sayles and Martin Scorsese, as well as numerous up-and-coming directors. Most recently, C5 won widespread acclaim for its work on the film "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon."

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