Foley artists are responsible for creating all the sound effects. This includes footsteps, opening and closing of doors even background noise such as a car driving past or a crowd of people chatting. They will use anything they can to create a wide variety of noises for instance they will use half of coconuts and hit them against a concrete slab to create horse hooves. They may also go onto a location such as a shopping centre and record the general background noise. They may need to gain permission to go on a location. Foley artists will also use a wide range of technical equipment to record sounds. Bellow is a list of technical equipment they may use.
Microphone
Boom and pop shields
Boom pole
Computer with recording software (for example: Logic Pro X)
XLR cables
Headphones
Recording Studio with Acoustic isolation panels
Props to create sounds
Radio
Foley artists will use anything available to create their desired sounds. They create and alter existing sounds to meet their criteria for example: in Star Wars, the foley artists used the sounds from a jet fighter and altered them to create the screeching sound of the Tie Fighters.
Before creating the sounds, the foley artists will watch the film. This is so that they can get the timings of the sounds just right. All the sounds that they create is created manually (with only a few exceptions in which case they will record them manually). When creating the sounds, foley artists need to hold their breath between cues as the microphones they use to record are so sensitive they will pick up the slightest noise including breaths.
I looked at how the original theme tune for Doctor Who was created. It was made by Delia Derbyshire in 1963. She created sounds using anything that was available to her. She would physically cut down tapes of recorded sounds to get the desired sound and she would slow down or speed up tapes to change the pitch of the sound. Each note was created individually. In the end when the theme was complete, she had one long tape which when played was the Doctor Who theme tune. Delia Derbyshire never got credited for creation of the theme. The whole credit went to the composer, Ron Grainer. Although he was willing to give her a co- composer credit, it was against BBC policy at the time.
ADR stands for Automatic Dialogue Replacement. It's when an actor is called back in after a production to record their dialogue in a recording studio. This is so that the dialogue is crystal clear and can be heard. ADR is also used to record extra lines if needed. When recording for ADR, the actor must say the lines in time with the footage. When the actor records for ADR, they will have a screen to watch the footage on and the script.