I went back and watched, and I can see what you mean with foley.
Yep, without the Foley (and the way it's been mixed), the interior scene would feel slower and far less dramatic. What would have happened in practice is that the Foley team would have created/recorded sounds for every movement; all the footsteps, clothes rustles/swishes, cupboard door, glasses, bottle movements, etc. In the pre-mix phase, the Re-Recording Mixer would balance/mix some or all of this Foley with the other sound FX and of course the dialogue. In the final-mix phase, the director and producer would fine tune this mix, maybe requiring more (or less) Foley and/or a different balance in various places to accentuate the pace and the word/s they feel need it. Going back to what I said before, none of this is going to be possible if there's no movement and therefore no Foley.
I noticed the way the opening clip of the long walk is very carefully worked from audio perspective.
To be honest, in commercial films, virtually every frame of the film is "very carefully worked from an audio perspective" ... the devil is in the detail!
I'm curious, could you speak to how you would handle a shot like that with important dialogue, starting with the actors far away, but slowly approaching us?
Good question, for which there's no absolute answer, no answer which would always be the right way to do it. Almost everything we do with sound is relative ... relative to the other sound in the mix at that particular moment and crucially, relative to what has and what will happen. For example, if the end of the previous scene/shot had a lot of sound, then cutting to a scene/shot which is quiet (just dialogue, some quiet footsteps and distant atmos) creates a contrast and therefore dramatic impact, this is what's been done in your clip of Fargo, btw. If on the other hand the previous scene/shot is quiet, then efforts would be made to make it quieter still and a contrast setup the other way around; maybe a significantly louder atmos and soft FX (birds, etc.) on the cut to the actors far away (where your clip starts).
I would dispute that the dialogue is important when the actors are far away. OK, I understand that the dialogue is important at the beginning of the clip but the most important line is: "
Want me to have someone talk to her?". Until that line, it's just a common, everyday scene of a guy complaining to his friend about his estranged wife. That line implies a deadly serious (not off the cuff) threat of violence and completely changes the scene (and film) from the relatively ordinary/common into something entirely different. This line of dialogue doesn't occur far away, in fact quite the opposite, it occurs when the actors are at the closest point to the camera (the audience's POV)! When the scene starts, the dialogue is a little distant but nowhere near as distant as actual reality would dictate because in reality we would hardly hear it at that distance (from the camera). It gets imperceptibly less distant as the actors approach the camera, with our most important line being the most present of all. Subsequent lines are fractionally less present but as they're still very important to the story, we're not given a more realistic impression of the actors' increasing distance (from the audience's POV/camera) until the unimportant repeat of the line "
Jack, I don't know". This has all been very carefully planned and executed: That line was designed/timed to occur at that location (relative to the camera) and the dialogue recordings manipulated (mixed/processed) to build up to and emphasise that line. This build up (and build-down) creates shape, pace, dramatic impact and therefore, audience interest/involvement AND is an absolutely fundamental requirement of modern (commercial) filmmaking. Low budget/amateur filmmakers do not generally have the interest, experience or resources to go into this meticulous level of vision, planning and execution and therefore their films have very limited (or no) shape, which general audiences find un-involving/boring. It's really not about the story, it's about how you tell it!!
If you're interested in this (fundamental) aspect of filmmaking, you might like to have a read of "
The Principles of Sound Design" thread. Starting at post #11 is an example and breakdown of how the audience was manipulated and shape (dramatic impact, etc.) was created.
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