When immersing yourself completely in the beauty of a great TV series or movie , you probably don’t consider that for every footstep, there’s previously been a person standing in a soundproof room, stomping onto artificial terrain. That person could have been Sanaa Kelley who has spent 26 years creating everything from the gentle touch of a steering wheel to popcorn chomping in her studio using bags of imagination and a seamlessly endless prop budget. Her unique talent has led to her sounds being heard on projects including Ted Lasso , 17 Again , Dirty Dancing, Shōgun , and Only Murders in the Building, and she has played some of Hollywood’s biggest names including Angelina Jolie , Drew Barrymore , Zac Efron , Jennifer Grey , and Selena Gomez .
Sanaa’s role is to perform the everyday sounds that are added to films, TV, and games in post-production. It is referred to as Foley, after sound effects artist Jack Foley. Unlike sound effects which often come from a library, Foley artists produce unique audio for each project that perfectly matches the actors.
To summarise, every human-created noise, aside from dialogue, could have been recreated by a Foley artist like Sanaa. If you didn’t know about the existence of her profession then that’s okay, in fact, she prefers it that way. ‘I always say if you didn’t know my job exists then that means I’m doing a good job,’ she stated.
You may wonder why this job needs to exist when the actual sound could be authentica.
