Vic Effects

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Let's make a documentary.

When we watch a movie or a TV show, our

brains are at work making sense not of

what we see, but of what we hear.

Victoria, or should I say Vic Pette's

job as a Foley artist at Comfort Zone.

Studios, is to recreate the soundsscapes

to immerse us in the moment.

She's created amazing sound textures for

indie horror classics such as Cyclone.

Base 9, The Crescent Moon Shines Over.

Nightmares,

Suffocated Screams, and her latest film,

The Blood Unbroken Wings.

What is the art of Foley? So the art of

foley is adding sound to things like

movies, TV, ads, video games.

Uh for stuff like touching, walking,

even kissing. Uh in my case, I add sound

for things like stabbings, having flesh

ripped open or heads chopped off, you

know, fun like that.

Uh, but what's cool about horror, which

is mostly what I do, is you get to do

this really absurd things to create the

sounds and the texture and illusion in

the film. And I mean, you know, you

could use pre-recorded sounds, but I

mean, what's the fun in that? I'd rather

do some really cool, clever tricks to

- make something really interesting and. - More real.

Vic has been doing sound effects work

for six years and has quickly become the

go-to foley extraordinaire for the indie

horror world.

Any chance we have to add sound to a

scene, we'll do it. So, even if it's

something super simple like a choking

scene, I've got this really cool rig

where it's these two plastic bottles

duct taped together and I just twist the

crap out of it and it creates this

really sick like crunching crackling

sound. Just adds an extra layer of

- texture that just takes it to the next. - Level.

In this scene from the movie The.

Crescent Moon Shines over nightmares,

you see the killer pry open his victim's

mouth as he unhinged his jaw

ferociously. That disgusting oozing

cracking you hear is actually two layers

of vegetables cracked and snapped. Also

adding a layer of wet gravel handled by.

Vic to give it an even more crumbling

sound. The team behind the film went

above and beyond the over-the-top gore.

And every act had to follow the movement

on screen while living up to the thrills

the fans expect.

I think this movie is by far the goriest

I've ever worked on.

So once we get some kind of picture

lock, then we'll start to prep for all

the shots we'll be taking cuz Vic likes

to get every detail of everything that's

on the screen. And I mean everything.

- And then it's my job to make that bad. - Boy pop.

Okay. Yep.

What really works for Vic and I is that

we have very clear communication

with each other and everything we're

going to do. And no matter what, we make

sure the story is the priority.

But we do a lot of stuff to enhance it,

too.

To make all that gore believable, Vic

needed everything to make it sound as

organic as possible. She focused on

capturing sound from real objects, so

nothing was overly processed. And while

some sound was used from a digital

library, most of the effects came from

what Vic organically created. I'm a big

fan of pistachios and also kind of lazy.

So, as I eat them, I've just been

tossing the shells in this can.

And I realized that the sound of these

shells moving around can add a really

cool like texture and sound and a little

something extra to these scenes. There's

all kinds of just interesting stuff you

can do with these.

So, this one, uh, we kind of had this

lowbudget sci-fi thing we did, and they

had these, um, like astronaut helmets,

and they had this sort of like clicky

sound when they attached everything.

Sounds very similar.

So, a friend of mine had a baby

recently, and I discovered that these

little baby books make all kinds of

interesting sounds, too. So, this one

sounds kind of like walking through

snow.

Just gives it that little bit of crunchy

texture that really helps sell the snow.

So, this little guy was actually Coop's

idea. Um, you can wind it up,

maybe.

Did I break it?

Oh, there it goes. And that sound, if

you speed it up, do a whole bunch of

them later each other, form a bees.

We'll blame Coupe for it not working.

You know, people always talk about movie

magic. To me, movie magic is being able

to take something like a simple celery

stick or pistachio shells in a can and

turning that into something totally

different on screen that you see and

hear. That is magic.

Oh Wes Craven directed porno

before he did Nightmare on Elm Street.

That's got to be some up porno.

Sure there's a porno out there somewhere

with Freddy fingering some girl having a

wet dream.

Oh, harsh.

Why you looking it up then?

Harsh but clever.

Why don't you just call her?

Say what?

I don't know. Something. Anything.

Those

honey crisps we have are Every

time I try to make that skull crunching

sound, it just sounds like I'm eating a

apple.

Yeah. Well, I mean, that's exactly what

you're doing.

You know what I mean.

I'm going to head to that mom and pop

down the street and get some new ones.

Gotcha.

Say something.

Yeah.

What uh what truly gets people's

attention?

What gets their attention is rage.

Yeah. The way it looks,

the way it feels,

especially especially the way it sounds,

you can't help but

but gravitate to it.

Whether you want it or not,

it can linger in your very being.

And uh and

that is God.

Yeah, that's how it speaks to us.

God.

Do you believe in God?

I guess.

We all believe in something. But

it doesn't mean that that uh that you

call it God.

What I do is uh

I I evoke emotion.

I open up a sense of satisfaction

that is

perverse and wicked but

keeps you in balance

because at the end of the day I

I push junk around

and it uh creates

a mad and getting his skull crushed into

teeny tiny pieces. Uh,

a demon.

A demon bursting out of a human's

insides.

I have this canvas

and my job is to paint on this canvas.

And

sometimes you you go beyond what should

be on there, but

it's all in the details.

It's not real.

So you just build absurdity.

And that is what is so fulfilling about

it.

That's God.

At least to me.

So the bottom line is you've you've got

to have patience

otherwise your own frustrations are

going to end up proving to be a

distraction.

I

Okay. Uh most people can juggle two