Footsteps, cloth, and props. It’s messy; it’s physical; it’s a day in the life of a Foley Artist. Flashpoint Academy, in a continuing effort to bring high-profile, industry professionals inside the studios and classrooms of its educational facilities at 28 North Clark Street was fortunate enough to host Vincent Guisetti yesterday in two workshop sessions.

There was a simple theme to Vincent’s message: Foley effects can breathe life into faithful, but otherwise sterile, soundtracks for motion pictures. Though it’s not complicated, it does require an eye for frame accurate precision and a feel for the natural rhythms and cadences of actor’s movements. “You have to be willing to get inside a character’s head. In essence, become that character while you are performing Foley,” he said. Vincent treated our students to many of the stories of working on roughly 350 films, TV shows, and cartoons including Passion of the Christ, Mr. Brooks, Hostel parts I & II, The Pursuit of Happyness, Talladega Nights, Behind Enemy Lines, and the last five years of SpongeBob SquarePants.

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Old Town School of Folk Music Returns to FP for a tracking session with exotic instruments as part of the Recording Arts Program.

Bass

Acoustic Guitar

The Jug

Fiddle

Stomping

Dynamite Blu 

Vocals

Guitar

Bass

Mic Pre’s and EQ’s

Drums

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS: Flashpoint, The Academy of Media Arts and Sciences, has purchased two TRUE Systems P-SOLO single-channel microphone/instrument preamplifiers and installed them in two sound-for-film suites in its new 32,000 square-feet production/post complex.

Click to read press below:

Trans Audio Elite

AudioCourses.com

MixOnline

ProSoundNews

Members of The Old Town School Of Folk Music record at Flashpoint as part of the Recording Arts Program.

AT 4050 on Vocals and Royer 121 on Banjo:

M200 on Acoustic Bass:

Drums:

421 and 451 on Sax:

Gefell M930’s on Acoustic:

Nick Bognar’s MySpace page

Amanda Sena records at FPA as part of the Recording II course. 

Amanda on acoustic guitar & vocals:

Brian on percussion:

Amanda Sena’s Website

The Intruder wraps today with some pickups and the remainder of the visual effects shots needed for the end of the film. The crew, whose job is strictly production, are already thinking ahead to the next location. But for those of us who are firmly grounded in post, our job is just beginning.

FP Rec Arts students were fortunate enough to have several conversations earlier in the week with Director Mikael Kreuzriegler about ideas for sound design. We began first with the words “ethereal” and “eerie,” and perhaps as a layer or texture beneath the delicacy “the feeling that something is off.” We talked about styles of music and how much of it will work its way into the film. And because there is so little dialogue, the use of up-close “studio, not soundstage,” ADR may actually help to create a slightly unusual sensation. Lastly, Mikael explained that he usually hears the entire soundtrack in his head while shooting, but this film is different.

For sound designers, that’s code for “freedom.” So, we left the set Wednesday and had a great brainstorming session in the morning followed by an afternoon of effects gathering and research. Yesterday, we started dropping some cut effects on the timeline of a short assembly and recorded Foley to try to get a feel for the entry and living room spaces. Our goals were not too ambitious, just sketching a few ideas to play for Mikael. Today, we’ll fine-tune footsteps, clothing moves, and some of the phone and record player gags in the script.

In the end, it’s entirely possible that some or all of this work will not remain, but Rec Arts students are engaging in the part of the postproduction process that cannot be learned in books, that cannot be absorbed through lecture, rather, is only discovered experientially with a lot of exploration. The Intruder’s soundtrack will be better because of it, and along the way, young Flashpoint sound designers will to.

Nearly two-thirds of the Flashpoint student body joined a crew of Chicago film industry professionals today to begin principal photography on The Intruder. The production phase of our nine-month Production-in-Action curriculum component is a testament to a new and exciting educational approach that places students in the heart of the action, literally. Students were not only able to shadow the key department heads of set, art, camera, sound, G & E, and production office, but also shoot a film of their own [The Making of The Intruder] and operate several webcam stations capturing real-time low-res video that can be transmitted back to our main facilities at 28 North Clark.

It was as amazing to see the degree of collaboration between the crew and the students as it was to witness the level of professionalism by both.

Tomorrow, a new group of students will come on set while today’s group returns to 28 to begin editing, creating sound design, and animation for their footage as well as developing after-the-fact web content. Over the course of the next seven days of shooting, these two groups will alternate, rotating through one of the most engaging and alternative educational opportunities in any media arts program in the country.

In June of 2007, Mix Magazine published a great article titled Bring Down the Noise, advocating hearing protection and awareness for anyone in the audio industry. I brought that article to the readers of this blog, primarily my students and folks who can’t shake loose audio idée fixe, for one simple reason: Your ears are the most important tool you have as an audio professional and damaging them is irrevocable.

I thought it was crucial for the Rec Arts students at Flashpoint to understand that so we began the program last September with a guest lecturer, Michael Santucci, president of Sensaphonics, Inc., a Chicago-based hearing conservation company that provides audiophile-quality in-ear monitoring for hundreds of high-profile musicians and protection for anyone with a few bucks to spend on a lifetime of hearing safety. Now, a new group of students have started at FP and it seems appropriate to once again bring to the fore hearing conservation.

Stand on any street corner in the Loop and you’ll hear the roar of the city in which we work and live. Move from point A to point B using the city’s mass transit and you’re likely to encounter loudness levels exceeding accepted OSHA standards. Take a look ahead and behind and you’ll see a world of iPod users, donning earbuds that can produce sound pressure levels at particularly important frequencies well beyond what would be considered safe practice. Go to a club to “hear” a show and it’s almost a certainty you’ll need a day or two for the ringing to stop. The list goes on. And on. What it all adds up to is a recipe for disaster if critical listening is a job requirement. And if your hearing isn’t what puts food on your table, then at least consider quality of life.

The bottom line is that unlike just about every other major organ/part in your body, your hearing system comprised of the outer, middle, and inner ear does not repair itself if damaged. Ever. And very much like the things we as humans often seem to do even though it’s nearly effortless to avoid them, protecting you’re hearing isn’t that intrusive. In fact, it’s downright pleasurable to go to a show with -15dB earplugs in.

It’s really pretty simple. If you need them, protect them.

HEARING HEALTH RESOURCES
Sensaphonics, Inc.
Online Simulator – What Hearing Loss Really Sounds Like 
OSHA’s Occupational Noise Exposure Guidelines
American Tinnitus Association
House Ear Institute