The Foley artist is the guy who puts the special effects in a movie during editing. He puts the necessary sounds to bring the movie into life and give it an dramatic feeling.
The sounds made by a firing gun, a kick or footsteps in a movie are all the work of a Foley artist. He puts the music that accompanies the action in a movie and the laughter that accompanies the jokes in a comedy.
All Nigerian movies seem to have the same Foley artist. The guy who plays the keyboard when the witch is putting poison in the food, when she turns into a snake or when a person is surprised.
In real life however, suspense has no sound, a kick in your teeth is painful but not as dramatic and footsteps don’t make loud sounds, unless of course it’s a lady walking in a quiet room with “Pams”.
In our daily experiences, there is no soundtrack of Celine Dion singing “My heart will go on” when we are falling in love, neither does Adele sing” never mind I’ll find someone like yuuuuuu” when we are heart broken. Hell, there is no Whitney Houston to hit the high notes with “I will always love you” when you are trying to move on.
Reality seems to hit a little different than we imagine.
I remember, in primary school, one day when we were closing school, a bully challenged me to a fight and broke my nose. I did not hear any sound accompanying the blow but it sure hurt like hell.
Life is bland and simpler than portrayed.
Success does not feel so sweet as we anticipated. The joys are a lot milder than we would expect.
In fact, the imagined is often more colourful than reality.
Like an Aim Global merchant, life promises too much but delivers too little.
But who is the Foley artist?
Life is life
Fabio