Breaking Bones 2023-08-08

[Dave]

https://wapsisquare.com/comic/breaking-bones

So, is she doing all of this sound-work for course credit, or as a hobby, or is she maybe on...

... no, even I can't say it. (Where's a long-suffering narrator when you need him?)

[Alkarii]

So she became a foley artist? I wonder if that's an enjoyable job... Not that I think I'm going to try doing that.

[Opus the Poet]

So she became a foley artist? I wonder if that's an enjoyable job... Not that I think I'm going to try doing that.

I used to know a Foley artist, and he said it was so much fun that he would do it for free as long as his needs were met, so not really for free. But he said it was loads of fun. We met on set while I was making the monster movie in a rubber suit in the desert in August... I think he did my monster noises when the squibs went off on the suit, because they would have had to blank all my cuss words from them not putting any padding under the squibs. The blood on screen was not a special effect but my blood.

[Alkarii]

What movie was this?

[Dave]

For another media reference: being a foley artist (or trying to act like one) was a plot point in an episode of the classic Get Smart TV sitcom, lo those many decades ago.

Maxwell Smart had to go undercover in a radio-production company to help foil the latest fiendish plot by KAOS agents (I don't recall the details but I imagine it had something to do with government secrets being leaked out as part of the dialog of a radio production).

He worked as a foley artist. The radio show was being done "live". With his usual (ahem) skill, he managed to completely bollix things up by grabbing the wrong things from the foley collection at the wrong moments. The actors and narrator were forced to improvise.

"Yes", said the Inspector, "We now have proof that you, Mr. Smith, murdered the bank manager with that gun you keep in your glove-box. Grab him, Sargent!"

"Smith makes a break, and runs for the door..." (says the narrator)

Max grabs a pair of coconut shells and starts clopping them.

"... on his horse" (says the narrator, with an exasperated glower in Max's direction).

[Opus the Poet]

What movie was this?

Damned if I know, working title was "mutant monsters from space". I just know it was one of the few kaiju movies made in the US and released in Japan, and it never made enough money for my residuals to kick in...

[Alkarii]

Man, that sucks. I'm suddenly reminded of "The White River Kid", a movie that had at least one scene recorded on the grounds of the Grant County courthouse in Sheridan, AR, the town where I went to school. I only resided within city limits for a few months after my family moved to this state in the summer of '93.

I'm not sure if it was during the actual yearly Timberfest that is held in October, or if it was one that was set up just for filming, and I don't know if it got a US release, which I always thought was weird.

EDIT: Wikipedia doesn't mention Sheridan as a filming location, but I remember because I was a background extra... and according to the Google search results, the film sucked anyways. Bob Hoskins and Antonio Banderas two con men who are selling socks they claim are sewn together by blind orphans, with the proceeds going to the orphanage.

[Opus the Poet]

What movie was this?

Damned if I know, working title was "mutant monsters from space". I just know it was one of the few kaiju movies made in the US and released in Japan, and it never made enough money for my residuals to kick in...

I can give a synopsis: Friendly aliens come to visit but missed their intended landing point on UN Plaza and crash in Dugway Proving Grounds in Utah, accidentally releasing chemical weapons from a truck that was bringing them in to be disposed of. All but one of the aliens dies, and the one that survives is changed into a 20 foot tall monster (played by me after the first stuntman said it was too hot to wear a full rubber monster costume in the Utah desert in early August) many miniature sets were destroyed before the monster was killed by attack fighters from Hill AFB. The town of Toole was heavily damaged in miniature before I got killed by the fighter jets. The fighters were stock footage, the set for Dugway was strictly from imagination because nobody in the production got to see the real base. Most of the sets were 1/5 scale or smaller and miniature tanks are hard on the feet when you stomp one wearing rubber boots made to look like monster feet. Oh yeah, the blood in the monster's death scene was mine because they forgot to put cushioning under the squibs before they were set off and I bled for real on camera. Also all the sound from the death scene was dubbed in later because I was swearing every time they set off a squib.

And that was my big Hollywood movie experience. I think the only person who knew what they were doing was the guy I replaced in the monster costume.

[Warrl]

I think the only person who knew what they were doing was the guy I replaced in the monster costume.

Can't tell if he knew what he was doing, but he definitely knew what he wasn't doing.