For the first week of summer school, the students of the Creative Atelier class were introduced to the art of Foley, or the reproduction of everyday sound effects that are added to film, video, and other media in post-production to enhance audio quality.

On Monday morning the students were given their first task of the week: telling a story using only sound effects (no picture, no video, no writing, no narration). This task was divided into four parts: write a short scenario with a holiday theme, think of sounds that could be used to convey the story, find the sound effects needed on the internet, and learn how to use the audio editing software Audacity to edit and put the sounds together. After two days of work, the students finished their stories.

The second task of the week started on Wednesday morning. This time, the students were given a short video clip from the Mr. Bean show with all audio removed. They were asked to recreate the audio of the short movie without having heard the original. To do so, they watched the video clip several times, they decided where sound was needed, what sound was needed, and for how long. Then came the creative and possibly the best part of the project: thinking of ways to create the sounds needed and recording them (objects used to make the sounds include a ruler, markers, a glass of water, a toilet tank, Rody, a piano, and more). Once the recording was finished, the raw audio files were edited and then put together using Audacity. Timing each sound with the video was rather challenging.

You can find the students’ productions below if you are interested.

Task 1
Sound Effect Story – The ”Paradise” – girl group
Sound Effect Story – The Deadly Mountain – boy group

Task 2
Foley Sound Project – Mr. Bean Wakes Up – H

Foley Sound Project – Mr. Bean Wakes Up – L

Foley Sound Project – Mr. Bean Wakes Up – S