You experience a movie as much with your ears as your eyes. But there's more to cinematic sound than dialogue and music.

Realistic sound puts you right in the middle of the action, and plays as vital a role as the actors and sets. It creates excitement, builds tension and reinforces realism.

That's where Foley artists come in. Think of them as the best supporting cast in the movies, adding the subtle sounds that make a scene authentic.

You may have seen the phrase "Foley Artists" in the credits, but wonder what they do. Essentially, they bring a film's soundtrack to life with authentic, detailed audio. While filming, the sound engineer captures only dialogue. During postproduction the Foley artist adds a continuous stream of natural sounds to match the onscreen action. These include footsteps, clothes rustling, car doors opening, floor creaks, fistfights—basically anything that moves or makes a sound:

- A woman wearing five-inch heels walks down a darkened street at night
- Two warriors battling in full regalia wield broadswords on a crowded field
- A star-crossed couple floating in a canoe finally has their first kiss

All these scenes require the Foley artist's skills to create realistic, natural sound so the action on screen truly comes to life.

It begins with the ability to look at an object and imagine the sounds it can make. Add a keen eye for detail, the stamina to repeat activities over an entire day, and a roomful of items that resembles a junkyard—hubcaps, cutlery, plates, car doors and hoods, denim, vinyl and leather.

And a large collection of footwear also helps. Because they do a lot of walking on the job.

To create a complete sound experience, with a full spectrum of sound frequencies, Foley artists concentrate on three areas:

Moves
Anytime a person moves, it sets off a chain of sounds. A cowboy pulls on the reins, his horse stops moving, and the saddle creaks as he dismounts. An exhausted boxer staggers to his corner and collapses on the stool as his trainers rush in to work their magic.

Footsteps
These are unique as fingerprints, and must precisely match the action. Each actor's cadence, and the surface he walks on, must be calibrated to the activity onscreen. To achieve sound and visual synchronization, Foley artists have a closetful of footwear, from cowboy boots to business shoes, sneakers to stiletto heels. And they use a variety of surfaces, including wood, gravel, metal and sand.

Other sounds
Sometimes called "specifics," these add realism to action scenes. A hammock gently swinging is actually a twisting leather jacket. A pair of gloves waved in the air simulates a bird in flight. To create a wintry scene, corn starch is placed in a leather pouch, then squeezed.

Foley artists may work behind the scenes, but by crafting a tapestry of sounds that bring a movie to life, they deserve star billing.

Jack Foley was born in New York in 1891 and moved to California to pursue a career in the movie industry. His breakthrough came soon after the 1927 debut of the first film with sound, The Jazz Singer.

Prodded by an anxious Universal studio to use this breakthrough technology, he added effects to a previously silent film, titled Showboat, which was integrated with music from the Broadway show. Soon, Foley refined his craft by recording footsteps, movement and a variety of activities, then incorporated all sounds into a single track.

He created his most famous sound effect for the movie Spartacus. Unhappy with the sound accompanying an epic scene of marching Roman soldiers, director Stanley Kubrick was preparing to fly to Italy for an expensive reshoot. Working on the Hollywood set, Foley saved the day—and considerable money—by precisely matching the sound of footsteps with the action on screen, then recreating the rhythmic clank of metal armor by rattling key chains.