Every blockbuster action flick comes with expectations: explosions, fighting, and a ton of noise. But even the most realistic movies have noises that just don’t make sense. Sharks roar, knives…zhing, and punches are as loud as a shotgun. Cheddar takes a look into the weird world of foley to find out why sometimes a realistic punch sound just isn’t enough for Hollywood.

Cheddar Explains

The Deliberate Use Of "Bad" Sound Effects

question does this sound realistic to you? I dusted off this old gem over the weekend and sure it holds up. But I kept thinking to myself, this fight and all fights in the born Universe, it turns out is filled with the most potent punctuated punches imaginable. I mean, I've never been in a fistfight longer than one swing and two. Apologies, but come on, if we're going for a relatively realistic experience here, why are these hitting sounds hitting so hard? And it's not just punches. Guns seem to rattle around like a set of keys, car tires screech like they're gonna fly off and here's what a knife sounds like. We accept these exaggerated sounds and films despite knowing they're not realistic. But sometimes reality just isn't enough. Sound effects are a huge part of every film experience, especially bad ones. While some sounds like thunder or a spaceship can be plucked from a digital library. Sounds made by people tend to be down to the Foley team performing the effects in a studio to show you how seriously I take Foley. I'm gonna make all the sound effects in this video myself. Leslie is a Foley artist and Ryan's a Foley mixer together, alchemy post sound. They've worked on a ton of projects like prey Pachenko and the bear. I loved working on that right destroyed the studio destroyed the entire studio. Everything was the ceiling was covered every time I throw it in record. I'm wondering if by the end of the take, if somebody is going to be missing the tip of the finger, but they're making the craft's namesake, Jack Foley proud. He pioneered performing sound effects in sync with a picture during the birth of the talkies in the roaring twenties. But the term sound effect itself was first uttered in the early days of radio, with BBC's 1931 year book author stating it is axiomatic that every sound effect must register in the listener's mind instantaneously translation hit your Q and make it count okay. But often the right sound for the moment isn't the correct sound like sounds in the vacuum of space or an eagle with a hawks cry or sharks roaring. How about this flying taxi screeching its tires in the 5th element. It's a great film in a fight scene. We hear the contact loud and clear just as we see the punch land. Why does it matter that people can hear these sounds, even if maybe in reality they won't have the same kind of punctuation we expect to hear them. Yeah, as simple as that. You know, a gun rattle, you're talking about before. If you're a real gun person and your gun made the rattle like you heard on television, you probably wouldn't want to fire it, but an actor methodically moving through a building, he makes a sudden turn. We're gonna want to hear some sort of movement for that gun. You the viewer gonna want to hear something, right? It's a lot like this thing called Scientific ation where sounds are used to help us perceive and register something like a ticking clock or a Geiger counter believing the film's reality is important. But consider that the sound team's job isn't necessarily to make it sound realistic. It's to make it come alive for the audience. Ben Burt the sound design for all the indiana jones films says he decided on over the top punches because he felt they were bringing a comic book to life. Um, it's a very visceral moment when somebody's being attacked. The bad guy has to hit a lot harder and bigger than the good guy. We want them to understand how much the punch hurt, How important that moment is to the film. Maybe that changes everything. Maybe it shows how strong character is. Maybe it shows where the deterioration of a friendship happens will add in the worship necessary. Yeah, more interesting and sexy. Yeah, sexy, Right? The reality of a film story is shrouded inside a motion drama, excitement. The cool factor from writing to acting to sound everyone's role is the same. We're here to tell a story or to enhance the story being told is really a better, a better way of putting it in movies. Just like any creative medium. What matters what's axiomatic is what the audience notices and feels the rest is just noise