ABSTRACT
Sound effects have been part of movies almost as long as music. Hard effects are individual sounds in sync with on-screen actions. In feature work, they're separated into editorial effects such as telephone bells, which can be added by the sound editorial crew, and principal effects like explosions and crashes, which are usually done by a sound designer. Foleys are movements—footsteps, clothing rustles, chair squeaks and the like—recorded separately to replace small sounds that weren't caught by the dialog mic or removed during editing. Monsters, laser swords, and magic machines should have equally strange sounds; the magic castle or spaceship should have a unique background as well. There are limitless sources for sounds: camera tracks, commercial libraries, Foley, even mouth noises. As with the mouth-made machines, the key is to change the sound so its source isn't immediately recognizable, and then layer and loop things to form a rhythm.
