Deluxe: Class Field Trip

On Tuesday, March 17th 2009 our class went to Toronto to visit Deluxe, the video and audio production house. I was surprised to find out that they have produced a lot of big budget movies and television shows such as: The Saw series, and Pan’s Labyrinth. Our class was taken on a tour of the building and our tour began in the board room where they just explained everything to us before taking us on the tour.

The room I found the most interesting on the tour was the Foley room. I never really knew this was a job or this is how they conducted this part of the audio soundtrack. I truthfully did not know that production studio’s had a whole room assigned just for doing these everyday sounds that were not useable from shooting. To many this room would of looked very junky but to a Foley artist they probably know where everything is within the clutter and know how to make sound effects with even the weirdest techniques to produce a sound of something they cannot record within this particular room.

One thing I found very interesting was when the guys were explaining how good Foley artists when recording walking sound effects often can record both feet at the same time, with different shoes. For example, they explained how on one foot might be a male’s loafer where on the shoe the same guy might be wearing ladies heal. This to me was insane to considering someone walking on the spot doing different tempos depending on the person they were recording for, and being able to do this not just focusing on one shoe at a time, but TWO…this idea was crazy and amazing at the same time. When the guys were explaining the Foley room, it made me think how cool it would be just to watch a Foley artist working. One of the guys of the tour talked about how Foley artists come up with interesting ways to produce different sound effects that are not always the natural sound, but sound exactly the same. I think this room would be really cool to watch in action and see how the Foley artist comes up with ideas and deals with problems that arise.

Finally, one thing I learned from going to Deluxe studio is how much work really goes into producing a film and we were only witnessing the audio portion of a film. I really never put much thought into how many steps were involved in the production of a movie. This to me was a huge eye opener to be able witness this and get a first hand perspective on the behind of the scene of the production of a movie. Overall, I really liked this field trip and I found it very valuable to have attended. We got a first hand experience of the behind the scenes work and I got to see how much work is put in to a video. During the board meeting the guys described how being prepared ahead of time can make this process a lot smoother and easier. They discussed how they are currently working on a project where the person wants to add in a logo at the beginning of the film. I did not understand at first why that would be such a big deal, but after he discussed it and showed us everything involved in this process; I started to realize how important it is to know exactly everything you need and want done during production and not to cut and costs.

http://www.bydeluxe.com/