The BBC Foley Department...

[Nym]

What is it with BBC Productions and excessive foley?

First noticed this in Top Gear on many occations, especially when they go and play in Eastmere. Examples...

[youtube]EzztdvPAsOI[/youtube]

Here in Eastmere how many stupid extra bits of sound have been added to the L85a2 weapons?
Last I used one safety catches didn't make that noise, and neither did pulling a weapon into your shoulder make a sound would be pretty bad if it did, and when an SA80 sounds like a 115mm cannon... How many different sounds have the added in for rifle fire?

[youtube]mkpCzp0CmjY[/youtube]

Again, when they went to the GCR to play trains, they added in foley of a steam whisle when a load diesel and carrages passed, and for some reason the brakes on an Audi now sound like the wheel brakes on a Mk2...

Is it just me that noticed this, or is it just me that gets p***ed off by it?

PS: It's not just top gear, it's just the're the examples I can remember easiest.

Also at CBS's Foley on Big Bang Theory Season 4 Ep1 with the robotic hand.

 

[Yew]

I did wonder about the steam whistle, However I just assumed they could have generated steam heat, so had a steam whistle or something fitted?

Maybe the Training SA80's are an older model thats been modified specifically for training? (like to stop real bullets going in, and accidentally shooting people)

 

[Nym]

It's to do with the sound on the SA80s, and the're not, the're standard L85a2 units fitted with BFAs and LTDs.

EDIT:

For those who don't know...

L98a2 firing live (Exactly the same working parts as an L85a2 with a small change in the TMH and TM, removing the selector lever and locking in repeat fire)

[youtube]Z0GmE_3YWYA[/youtube]

 

[90019]

The one that bugs me on Top Gear is the car and truck horns they're always adding in.

 

[Schnellzug]

Whatever is a foley?

 

[Hydro]

Foley is the process of adding sounds and sound effects in post production.

..and yes, over the top foley gets on my nerves as well. Not just for Top Gear, but for all programmes. Especially generic sound effects that you've heard before or are overused.

I make exception for the Wilhelm Scream.

 

[ChrisCooper]

Another one is the generic two tone that is so common when any British train is around, and of course the generic contant horn blasting that all US or simlar trains do. With the former, I wonder where it's actually from, and if it's even a real train horn? Another one can be at a station, lots of "ding dong" things before inaudiable announcements (also works for airports), whistles, and door slams. Might throw in a few Underground train motor sounds too. Buses too, the genric "ding-ding" is common, and there is also that transmission whine that's usually exagerated to the point where it sounds like nothing since synchromesh boxes became common. Cars too, have it, the screech whenever they move off or stop, and often corner too (even on modern cars that would have at least ABS if not traction control). Planes, too have the screech whenever they touch down, and the engines all sound either like military turbojets or Rolls Royce RB211/Trents.

 

[Schnellzug]

Buses too, the genric "ding-ding" is common, and there is also that transmission whine that's usually exagerated to the point where it sounds like nothing since synchromesh boxes became common. .

The number of B9TLs, Bendybuses & even Hybrids that sound remarkably like Routemasters you'll hear around ....

 

[hairyhandedfool]

I've heard ITV add in sounds too, alledgedly they add sounds like applause and singing to programmes like X Factor.

 

[Wyvern]

I understand that in most films and television dramas the sound is added after the film is put together and may be recorded at the time of filming or added to afterwards.

 

[LE Greys]

There are times when natural background noise is a bit hard to get. Just listen to any live news broadcast, they have to use directional microphones to filter out wind noise, traffic, people talking in the background and so on, and it still gets in there. Almost all the "background" noise is post-production, even in nature programmes. To get natural noise takes a whole sound team complete with stereo recording equipment, and it has to be synched up with the pictures as well. It's just easier to do it with recordings.

Also notice that whenever you see pictures of explosions, they fastforward the sound so that it matches the picture, without the slight delay that it takes to travel to the mic. It's especially bad with nuclear explosions, where you have to be several miles away and the sound travels one mile in 4.7 seconds (roughly). If you're ten miles away, the bang happens 47 seconds after the flash, not at the same time.

 

[Badger]

Also at CBS's Foley on Big Bang Theory Season 4 Ep1 with the robotic hand.

There seems to be a stock servo motor noise that is always added to absolutely anything remotely robotic. It's bloody annoying especially when it's a product test or whatnot and is clearly the same sound every time. Like camera shutters.

 

[Hydro]

It's especially bad with nuclear explosions, where you have to be several miles away and the sound travels one mile in 4.7 seconds (roughly). If you're ten miles away, the bang happens 47 seconds after the flash, not at the same time.

...and it's always a stock sound effect you've heard before.

A lot of American documentaries in particular like to dub sound effects over the "real" thing, presumably because "reality is unrealistic". One of my favourite web sites is tvtropes.org, which explores TV/movie production methods. There's a lot of sound related "tropes" on there.

 

[starrymarkb]

There are times when natural background noise is a bit hard to get. Just listen to any live news broadcast, they have to use directional microphones to filter out wind noise, traffic, people talking in the background and so on, and it still gets in there. Almost all the "background" noise is post-production, even in nature programmes. To get natural noise takes a whole sound team complete with stereo recording equipment, and it has to be synched up with the pictures as well. It's just easier to do it with recordings.

Also notice that whenever you see pictures of explosions, they fastforward the sound so that it matches the picture, without the slight delay that it takes to travel to the mic. It's especially bad with nuclear explosions, where you have to be several miles away and the sound travels one mile in 4.7 seconds (roughly). If you're ten miles away, the bang happens 47 seconds after the flash, not at the same time.

A lot of films are shot without sound, it's then recreated in a studio under controlled conditions.

 

[ralphchadkirk]

Making film and TV is all about cheating really. It's very unlikely that you capture what you want. So you cheat.

 

[Hydro]

Making film and TV is all about cheating really. It's very unlikely that you capture what you want. So you cheat.

Unless you're Michael Mann, who is the only director I have seen to date to nail gunfire almost perfectly (Heat). Miami Vice (to a degree) and Public Enemies weren't too shabby either.

 

[ralphchadkirk]

Unless you're Michael Mann, who is the only director I have seen to date to nail gunfire almost perfectly (Heat). Miami Vice (to a degree) and Public Enemies weren't too shabby either.

True, but they are the exception to the rule really. The majority of film-making is done in post - and sometimes the finished product is almost unrecognisable from the rushes.

 

[Hydro]

You're not wrong, though it still depends on the quality of post-production. Stock sound effects, or sounds put in where there should be none, grate unendingly for me.

 

[LE Greys]

You're not wrong, though it still depends on the quality of post-production. Stock sound effects, or sounds put in where there should be none, grate unendingly for me.

I recently discovered they even did it for documentaries about the Challenger disaster. The explosion was more of a "whomph" than a bang, because the tank burst before the fuel ignited, and the sound was masked by the noise of the boosters (which caused the disaster, but survived almost intact). Documentary makers prefer to put a sound effect over it. I find that somewhat sickening.

 

[ralphchadkirk]

You're not wrong, though it still depends on the quality of post-production. Stock sound effects, or sounds put in where there should be none, grate unendingly for me.

I quite agree. Especially in TV, they all buy from the same libraries. A bit of variation wouldn't go amiss!

 

[Badger]

Queue Dougal with his BBC backing sounds LP.

 

[GB]

This is a good thread. I've just finished my holiday in LA which included several studio tours etc etc. it's quite an eye opener to see what actually goes on behind the camera and nearly everything you hear in movies and (particulary US) tv shows is not real.

 

[Badger]

They showed it being done in one of those behind-the-film programs for Narnia. They act out the scene, then go back to the studio and record over it as if they were sound actors doing a cartoon. They often switch voices when doing so too (to make people sound older/younger, etc).