Does Foley replace all the audio in the scene?

[John M]

When Foley work is being done, is all the original on set audio replaced? I.e if there's a glass breaking, do you just overlay the Foley sound over the original and over power it, or does everything including the dialogue need to be replaced?

[John Sprung]

Foley and the original production sound both go to the sound editors, who spread them out over several tracks. The mixers pick and choose what to use. So, if the production track is fine except that you want a better glass smash, you drop or augment the production glass with Foley.

 

The production mixer's primary job is to bring back clean dialogue. If he doesn't, you have to pay expensive actors to come back for ADR. Often, it's too clean, and you add more cloth movement or wind or whatever. But that's preferable to having too much cloth or object handling in the production, as you really can't get rid of it easily. The idea is that you get to decide in the mix, your hands shouldn't be tied by the production track.

 

We Foley everything, even if production is good, because we need all that stuff to make the filled Music & Effects for the foreign markets. Ideally, we like to get the same team to mix the M&E right after, or the day after, the domestic mix. It goes faster, because they remember where everything is and what it's supposed to sound like.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

-- J.S.

[John M]

Thanks, very informative.