How footstep sounds are designed for movies & TV
- Footsteps in TV shows and movies are the most challenging type of sound for a Foley artist to master.
- Matching the footwear used in a scene won't always give you the desired sound.
- Stefan Fraticelli has employed boxing gloves, beanbags, and even dish soap in his Foley footsteps.
- Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.
Following is a transcript of the video:
[footsteps clicking]
Narrator: Those high-heel clicks you hear in the TV series "Fargo"? Those are actually men's dress shoes.
Stefan Fraticelli: These are actually probably my favorite pair of heels. I use these all the time.
Narrator: And in another scene, you actually hear men's sneakers instead.
[grass rustling]
The smallest changes can make the difference between a believable but pleasant sound
[soft footsteps]
and a harsh, abrasive one.
[footsteps stomping]
And it's up to Foley artists to find just the right combo of footwear, surfaces, and rhythm to match the movements perfectly, making footsteps Foley the hardest sounds to master.
Being in sync with the action on-screen is crucial for Foley artists, and footsteps can be especially tricky to match.
Stefan: When you start to get into more complicated scenes like running and scuffing and stopping or fight scenes, going up and down stairs, that kind of thing, it takes a while to really be able to anticipate the actor's movements.
Narrator: So to follow any small changes in movement, Stefan actually starts on one foot, because it gives him more control.
[light footsteps]
Stefan: That allows me to sort of anticipate and be very light with subtle movements to start a walk, and then I'll go into two feet, and then when I feel like they're beginning to slow down, I can switch back to one foot, and that helps anticipate the stopping moments.
Narrator: This skill is especially helpful for scenes involving stairs.
Stefan: There's a subtle difference between going upstairs and going downstairs. Up is more slidey.
[footsteps thudding] [footsteps sliding]
And then down is much more impact-y, kind of flatter.
[footsteps sliding] [footsteps thudding]
Narrator: And not all footsteps are the same. Pacing can vary based on the size of the character. Take children, for example.
Stefan: Adults will generally have, like, a heel-toe.
Narrator: Meaning this pattern ... [light footsteps] feels more natural.
Stefan: Whereas kids are usually more flat-footed. [heavier footsteps] And occasionally, if they're excited, [stomping] very stompy.
Narrator: Part of mastering the sync is distributing his body weight correctly, like he had to do for the doll in the 2016 horror film "The Boy." His footsteps needed to be extra light. [footsteps walking lightly]
Stefan: Trying to do it with my actual body weight was just not working. It was sounding too heavy.
Narrator: So instead of standing up, he sat on the edge of a chair. That way, he could stomp away while removing the weight from the rest of his body.
Sometimes, keeping up with the action doesn't even involve your feet, like when he does footsteps for animals.
[footsteps tapping]
Stefan: I only have two hands, not four, like a dog.
Narrator: By using beanbags for the paws with buttons glued to them to stand in for nails, he can get the right pattern with just his two hands. [footsteps tapping]
When it comes to even smaller animals, he'll switch to just one hand. [footsteps tapping]
Dance scenes, like this one from 2004's "Being Julia," [dance steps tapping] can be more straightforward, but that wasn't the case when doing Foley for this tap-dance routine from "The Porter." [footsteps clicking]
Stefan: I am not a tap dancer, so I tried doing it with my feet, and it was too hard.
Narrator: So he followed along and recreated the tap-dancing sounds with real tap shoes with his hands.
Stefan: And normally I would never use my hands for doing footsteps, 'cause you don't have the same weight. Tap shoes are so hard and tappy that no matter what you do with them, [shoes tapping] the sound is just kind of always pretty similar.
Narrator: The decision about whether to use his hands or his feet comes out of experimenting long before recording.
For example, for this mascot in "Jane the Virgin," boxing gloves replicated its big, squishy feet.
Stefan: I tried doing the footsteps with my hands, and it just didn't have the right weight. So 99 times out of 100, it's better to do footsteps with your feet if you can.
Just the movement feels more natural than trying to do it with your hands. [muffled footsteps thudding]
Narrator: Even if Stefan uses the right footwear, the footsteps won't sound right unless he's stepping on the correct-sounding surface.
This isn't always straightforward, as not every type of dirt, grass, rocks, or snow sounds the same.
He starts by choosing from a wide variety of mixtures in bags and laying them out on a hard and solid surface.
Surfaces like sand wouldn't produce a noticeable enough sound on their own. This is when he'll mix in other elements, like cat litter or bits of limestone.
Stefan: I've found that it just gives it a little more volume, a little more level, but it's the same consistency. [footsteps walking on sand]
Narrator: When it comes to rockier surfaces, the size of the rocks makes all the difference.
Stefan: This gravel's not very big. It's kind of small to midsized, so if that's not what's happening in the scene, it's not going to work. [footsteps crunching on gravel]
Narrator: But there is some leeway for how his surface matches up with a scene, like when it comes to walking on grass.
Stefan: We always order in fresh sod, but sometimes, honestly, fresh grass doesn't have that much level to it.
There's a happy spot between when it's completely fresh and completely dried out.
Narrator: Wood is one of the most common surfaces for footsteps, but two floors in the same house can also sound different.
Stefan: This is just a traditional house wood floor that we use on a regular basis. [footsteps clicking on wood]
Narrator: When moving up a level, a more weighted piece is ideal. [footsteps thudding on wood] For less weighty wooden surfaces, like a dock or this patio, Stefan uses a thinner piece of wood. By placing it on top of thicker wood, the appropriate sound comes through. [footsteps thudding on wood]
Stefan: Still has nice weight, but there's a hollowness to it as well, like you would see on a dock or on a porch, 'cause there's really not a lot of weight underneath it.
Narrator: Getting some of the best stepping sounds on surfaces also means using footwear you wouldn't expect. For instance, Stefan can use heels on a hard surface, but he'll often manipulate them with duct tape. This trick helps even out any of the heels' higher-end sounds. [footsteps clicking]
He can also get a more convincing heel sound with men's dress shoes. [footsteps clicking]
And on grass or dirt, heels won't come across the right way, as the heels will sink into the surface, leaving a lot of thud and little definition. [footsteps thudding]
And on gravel or rocks, the end result can be downright unpleasant. So in these cases, he will switch to a pair that are lighter and easier to control. [footsteps lightly crunching on rocks] [footsteps crunching on rocks]
Wearing the right footwear gets even trickier when a character steps from surface to surface in the same track.
Stefan: The boots sound a little bit too heavy on this surface. [footsteps thudding] It can get a bit too thuddy, so as the character moves from the sidewalk to the grass, I might actually switch to lighter shoes, even though they're obviously wearing the same footwear. [footsteps clicking] [lighter footsteps]
Just 'cause it sounds more natural.
Narrator: And then there are other surface interactions that sound better with no shoes at all.
Stefan: When I do creaks, I do them in socks, so there's actually no impact sound, but all you're getting is the creak itself.
Narrator: Stefan also recorded a separate track of this while wearing shoes. [wood creaking] This is a part of a process known as sound layering, which can improve any set of footsteps. [footsteps walking] [leaves rustling]
By recording the footsteps and then the snow and ice separately here, the sound mixer can adjust and boost each sound. [footsteps crunching on snow]
For the first layer, Stefan steps on a mixture of salt and kitty litter. Another layer can serve as what he calls a sweetener. In this case, some extra crunch is provided by manipulating a bag of cornstarch. [crunching]
Extra layers don't just help capture the proper surface but can also make an ordinary movement funny or scary.
Oh, my God, that's him.
Narrator: Like squeaks on a wooden floor.
Stefan: If you get a bit of water on the floor, and it takes a second to prep, 'cause it's gotta dry a little. Like this. [hands squeaking]
Narrator: Knowing the genre, tone, and context of a clip can take Foley footsteps from good to great. This could mean adding in the nervousness of a character in a horror film, or the joy from this character in "Being Julia." [footsteps skipping lightly]
Stefan: It's not enough to have proper sync that matches the actor in the scene. It's not enough to have the actual sound that works. You also have to be aware of their motivation, what they're feeling in the scene, and make sure that your footsteps sound natural.
[footsteps thudding]