Short Film about a Foley Artist

October 27, 2010 11:37 AM

I'm trying to find the name of an old short film (circa 70's-90's) about a Foley artist / showman performing Foley sound effects live to a film that is being projected in an ornate theater, with a number of props laid out in front of him.

It's been a long time since I've seen this short film, maybe 10 years, so I can't remember many other details. I probably saw it in film school. It felt like it was made between the late 70's to early 90's. One detail I recall is that a section of the film he was foley'ing included a train - and maybe horses, since I can also vaguely remember the classic "coconuts for horse hooves" trick being used. I'm pretty sure the showman himself was dressed in something very formal - like an orchestra conductor outfit; something "grand," like a magician. He'd run around like made and we'd get to see him utilize various props to create the sounds of the actions on screen. I might be mistaken but I think the theater might have been empty - no audience. In either case, the film focused on the Foley artist first and foremost.

I've worked with a number of foley artists since then and it often comes up, but no one has seen it or heard of it. It's a great little piece, and I'd like to try and find it again. I have a fleeting suspicion it was called something like "The Artist" or "The Foley Artist" or "The Master," - something grandiose like that, but IMDB searches yield nothing useful and the terms are a bit too loose for help from Google.

Any help to point me in the right direction, or where to find it, would be awesome. At the very least, corroboration that this film even exists would be great!

posted by SmileyChewtrain to media & arts (12 answers total)

Er, he'd run around "like mad."
posted by SmileyChewtrain at 11:44 AM on October 27, 2010

The LATimes had ads that ran in movie theaters. I think they did a stunt designer, a Foley artist, and some other below the line jobs.
posted by Ideefixe at 11:57 AM on October 27, 2010

Is it possible this was a film that would have been shown in elementary schools, or on public television? Was there a bit with the big metal sheet that makes thunder sounds?
posted by serazin at 12:05 PM on October 27, 2010

ideefixe - are you thinking of this? Thanks for the tip - it's a pretty nice little piece on foley!

This film that I'm looking for is much older, and I'm pretty sure it's a bit longer and more of a big cinematic production, not documentary style.
posted by SmileyChewtrain at 12:06 PM on October 27, 2010

Is it possible this was a film that would have been shown in elementary schools, or on public television? Was there a bit with the big metal sheet that makes thunder sounds?

serazin - That's DEFINITELY possible. In fact, that may have been where I saw it, and not in film school at all. I'm really not sure. The big metal sheet sounds familiar, though, like the coconuts thing, is so much of a staple of "Foley" that it doesn't narrow things down much on searches.
posted by SmileyChewtrain at 12:08 PM on October 27, 2010

Did you take a trip to Walt Disney World as a kid? There was also a short film showed after the old Monster Sound Show attraction at Disney Studios that showed a Foley artist with the thunder sheet and the coconuts. I can't find the video for it though.
posted by ladygypsy at 12:16 PM on October 27, 2010

Did you take a trip to Walt Disney World as a kid?

I did - and I do remember very clearly at MGM studios sitting in a booth experiencing a headphone "binaural" audio demonstration of a sound effects man coming up to me and lighting a fire and pouring a drink. I didn't think the Foley artists film was part of the same trip... but perhaps it was.
posted by SmileyChewtrain at 12:18 PM on October 27, 2010

Is this the comedy short where first we see the movie screen and then the camera pans to the foley artist making the sound fx? The humor is derived from all the crazy sounds he's making because the camera stays on him and we are left to our imagination what is actually happening on screen.

If so, I saw this short back around 1991 when I was a film student so it may have been made some time between 70's and 80's. I thought it was called "The Foley Artist" but nothing comes up on Google.
posted by cazoo at 12:39 PM on October 27, 2010

clearly not what you're looking for, but volere volare was an amusing film starring a pair of foley artists.
posted by kimyo at 12:40 PM on October 27, 2010

The details are different but this is similar. Same time period too.
posted by greasy_skillet at 12:43 PM on October 27, 2010

Cazoo - that's definitely possible. I'm pretty sure the film had a comedic bent. I thought we saw the screen more but I could be wrong.
posted by SmileyChewtrain at 12:56 PM on October 27, 2010

Is it this film (posted to the blue awhile back)?

http://www.metafilter.com/78092/Foley-splitscreen-Batman
posted by neckro23 at 4:29 PM on October 27, 2010