Imagine going to a crowded theater for a highly anticipated film (those were the days, right?) and it exceeds everyone’s high expectations. As people file out of the theater, they are likely raving about the actors’ performances or how well the film was directed. While these filmmaking roles might dominate the press cycle, they don’t even begin to scratch the surface of what makes a film great. 

Simply put, some areas of filmmaking are underappreciated. When a film is announced, all the press cares about are the director and stars. It wasn’t a news story when Christopher Nolan picked Jennifer Lame to be the editor on his new film Tenet instead of Oscar-winner Lee Smith who’s edited most of Nolan’s films since Batman Begins. 

No matter who is picked to direct and who is cast to tell a story, efforts would fall short without the entire production crew. A horror film relies on music and sound design to build suspense and fear in the audience. Jaws’ iconic theme song helped propel the film to its legendary status. Editing and sound design are integral to the storytelling process, but are often underappreciated and overlooked aspects of a film.

Facets’ summer camps teach kids these important behind the scenes filmmaking techniques. In Editing 101, students will learn to weave diverse content into one cohesive story. At Fun with Foley, campers will explore sound effects, design, and music in film. 

Editors determine how a film is seen by the world. There is a saying that for every film that premieres, three films came before it: one by the screenwriter, one by the director, and the final cut, which belongs to the editor. 

Most scenes are shot in coverage styles, which means the director has multiple cameras rolling to capture the full layout and focus on each character individually. Directors use this method when shooting because it gives editors the freedom to construct each scene in a unique way.

Alfred Hitchcock is widely known for using editing to build suspense and drama in his films. A common example is the crop duster chase scene in North by Northwest (1959), the scene depicts the well dressed Roger Thornhill (Carey Grant) getting off a bus in a rural field to meet someone, only to be chased around by a crop duster.

Hitchcock uses sound and shot choice to build the suspense in the scene. He decides to use only diegetic sounds (sound where the source is visible on screen). Thornhill runs away and the ominous sound of the crop duster chasing behind him gives the sequence a more immediate, realistic feel. Hitchcock uses wide shots here to emphasize that Thornhill is out of his element and trapped by the crop-duster.

FACETS‘ summer programs teach these critical and underappreciated filmmaking skills. Our Editing 101 course, which runs from June 29 -July 1, will teach campers the basics of the craft. Including the history of editing,  how to arrange clips to tell a story, editing vocabulary, and how to incorporate special effects. All of these tools are used every day by editors and are critical for anyone interested in films to understand.

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Most films and their sound effects aren’t recorded live. They are created in a studio by a foley artist. Our Fun with Foley course teaches students how to create unique sound effects and how sound is a critical aspect to every film. Even in the silent film era, there were still soundtracks and music involved to help tell the story. Foley artists face some of the most unique and creative challenges of anyone on a film set. 

The job of a foley artist is to create sound effects for film. Classic examples include banging two coconut shells to mimic a horse walking and hitting a chicken breast to use as audio in a fight scene. Our Fun with Foley virtual summer camp will show students how to think about sound in film in a creative way and how to use everyday objects to recreate sounds used in films. Students will also learn how to incorporate sound into a film and learn the basics of audio editing. 

Students will be given clips of recorded material and the freedom to control how each scene will be heard, using sound effects to add to the mood. For example, if a student needs to add sound to a scene in the rain they could record the sound of sizzling bacon and combine the two. This camp teaches a valuable lesson as many iconic films rely on foley to connect audiences to the story.

Jurassic Park is a great example showing the importance of foley, the film won two Academy Awards for sound design and mixing. The foley artists had to create sounds that have never been heard of before, like the roar of Tyrannosaurus Rex. The sound designer Gary Rydstrom had to create dozens of unique dinosaur noises to use in the film. He told Vulture this was done by recording a wide variety of animals and then changing those noises to create something new yet organic. Rydstrom said for the T-Rex in the film he recorded his dog Buster, a Jack Russell Terrier, since the T-Rex in the film had several dog-like qualities. 

Our Fun with Foley class will run from July 13-17 and is available for anyone between the ages of 11 – 14. 

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Sean Hemmersmeier is a journalism student at Loyola University Chicago and he prefers movies over films.