Music Technology Forum - Week 8: Film Corporation

This week in Music Technology Forum, we went on a Field Trip to the Film Corporation located in Paradise. After some fun times in the park, it was time to enter the Film Corporation building. Once we had signed in our names and stuck our "Visitors" stickers on ourselves, a man, who we thought was Stephen Curry's brother walked past us. Much to our surprise, the field trip must go on.
We were first taken in the Foley room. We were told it was messy, but I don't think any of us were ready for the clutter that was in that small room. Shopping trolleys, pay phones, sand, rocks; you name it, it was in that little room.
After much talk about the Foley room itself, we were taken into the recording room. We watched a television series which the Film Corporation recorded their own Foley for. They used Foley for footsteps, bags with clanging metal, rustling clothes, and a police officer patting down two young boys. These scenes were watched on TV in the Foley room, while creating the sounds as they appear on the screen. This is a lengthy process, but needed to be done as some countries strictly want Foley in TV shows.
Next we headed into the film room where there was a huge theatre screen with a huge mixing desk. We watched snippets of a movie without Foley, and listened to it when Foley was added. The movie sounded fuller and more realistic with the Foley added.
Our next stop was the 'white room'. This room had a space painted completely of white with the edges curved inwards. This gave the deception that the wall is larger than it is. This room is where car commercials and other joyous commercials are filmed. With car commercials, they dump sand on the floor and have the car drive over it. On the commercial, they edit the sand to harsh scenery to give the effect that the car can withstand to these types of obstacles.
In conclusion, I believe the field trip to the Film Corporation was a very useful one. I enjoyed learning about Foley. I think its a clever idea and would like to understand more about the topic. Thanks to the guys at the Film Corporation for letting us into their domain.