October 16, 2015
Member News

Painting With Sound

Multiple Emmy winner Foley Artist Joe Sabella makes use of all his senses to create the soundscape of Gotham.

Melissa Byers

What does a Foley artist do?

If you read credits at the end of movies or television shows, you have seen their names rolling up the screen. It sounds like someone sitting at a machine making something happen. But, as our latest Crew Call shows, a Foley artist does far, far more.

Gotham Foley artist Joe Sabella lives in a world of sound. Far from sitting anywhere, he is in constant motion, rolling skateboards over broken glass, splashing in a sink full of clothing, or shuffling across a sand-covered floor. Sabella calls his job "painting with sound," creating all the ambient noises for the characters and scenes of the show.

His workshop looks like a particularly eclectic secondhand store containing everything from suitcases, to rusty auto parts, to old shoes.  In the world of Foley, everything is a prop used to create a realistic experience for the viewer.

Come into Joe Sabella’s world and see what a painting of sound looks like and how it is created.

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