Recording Foley – Relax Now

 
During the course of creating my spleencast, I’ve developed an interest in foley.   As part of my efforts to gain experience and improve my skills, I’ve been working on adding some sound effects to some of Lady Julia‘s hypnotic audio recordings.  

One of my foley-gathering experiences was specifically to record sound effects suitable for Lady Julia’s Relax Now recording.   In addition to the foley I recorded on the day, I documented that experience with a few photos and a recorded message to Lady Julia.  

This post is about that recording session.   :)
 
 

07 June 2009

 
On 07 June 2009, I got myself and kvetch up at 04:00  (otherwise known as Stupid O’Clock)  to undertake a foley-gathering expedition outside.   For this purpose, I had chosen a wee courtyard conveniently located at the back of my apartment block.   And kvetch bravely accompanied me on my foley mission, even though it was stupid o’clock.  

He rocks.   :)

This is the wee courtyard behind our apartment block which was perfect for certain foley recording.   I was enjoying kvetch’s back view  (as I so often do).
 

 
 
This next image is a crop of the one above, showing a close-up of the microphone set-up for recording the wind in the leaves of the small tree growing in the courtyard.
 

 
This is some of the wind-in-tree-leaves audio from that recording session.
 

 
 
And now – foley artistry in action!   I got kvetch to snap this image of my foley-artist-in-action pose.   He couldn’t take it during the recording of course, the sound of the camera and his clothes rustling from his movements would have been picked up by the microphone.
 

 
 
This next image is a close-up of the microphone setup for recording slow footsteps on large gravel.   I think the customised laces in my footwear really added to my performance of footstep-artistry.   :p
 

 
And here is some of that audio.
 

 
Even though it was June, you can probably tell from our choice of clothing that the early morning was still quite chillsome.   Getting back to bed after that was so blissful, it was almost  (almost)  worth getting up that early just to be able to go back to bed afterwards.
 
 
After we’d finished with the foley gatherage, I recorded a wee message for Lady Julia.   I couldn’t get the headphones to work at all during that session, so I had no idea that the audio in this message was so unbelievably bad for some reason until it was too late to re-record it.   I managed to clean it up a little but it’s still terrible.   It’s such a shame our message turned out so spectacularly poorly.   Oh well.   Sorry Lady Julia.

Fortunately, all the other audio I got was millions better than this, as you heard above already.   :)

Anyhow, here’s a transcription, as good as I could make it, to go with that shit audio from the messed up recording of the message to Lady Julia right at the end of our session.

The contributions from kvetch are  (italicised and bracketed).
 

 

Hello Lady Julia, this is Lady Lubyanka  (and kvetch)  after our outdoor, stupid o’clock, foley recording session, during which we got trees rustling in the wind, walking on pebbled path, (to kvetch – “What else?”)   I walked, kvetch walked,   (I’m sure there’s some quality cranking in there as well)   Yes, possibly some quality cranking.

It is stupid o’clock, (to kvetch – “What time is it now?”)   (Still stupid o’clock).   It’s 06:29, and we’ve just finished, so we’ve been up since …   (four)   four, yes.

Anyhow, we got some good foley.   Unfortunately I couldn’t get the headphone thingy to work, although obviously something was being recorded because I could see the waveforms.   So I don’t actually even know yet if anything I got was any good.   (yawn).

Still, the air smells very nice, and bonus – it wasn’t raining!   ([indistinguishable] Now bed.   Bed. Time.)

(I finish yawning)   Yes, kvetch was very worried about my personal safety, with all the people that are up, like us, who get up at this hour.   (Yes, now time for bed.)

So I just wanted to say a little cheerio before we go to bed.   Bye from Dublin!   (Bye! Heheh)

 
I hope you enjoyed my documentary of that foley-gathering session at stupid o’clock on 07 June 2009.

Bye from Dublin!  (for now).   :)