GENRE

Documentary

RUNNING TIME

100 minutes

YEAR

2017

COUNTRY

Taiwan

LANGUAGE

Mandarin and Taiwanese
(chinese and english subtitles)

DIRECTOR

Wan-Jo Wang

PRODUCER

Wan-Jo Wang

MUSIC

Yang Yung-Cheng

synopsis

Sound-making of a film is a complicated process that is divided into pre-production, on-set recording, and post-production, while the post-production includes dubbing, music scoring, Foley, and final mixing. A Foley Artist is a biographic documentary of Master Hu Ding-yi, the most experienced Foley artist in Taiwan. Hu worked in the oldest Taiwanese movie company, Central Motion Picture, since 1975. Hu has an inventive talent in reproducing sound effects: he can wear high heels to imitate the footsteps of a woman, he can use an abacus to imitate the sound of an opening screen window; in his mind, every material and every object can become a tool for Foley. Hu devoted 40 years of his life to the film industry, doing Foley for 70 films, and tried to pass on his knowledge on to the younger generations. However, the job of Foley artists was gradually replaced by the arrival of digital sound effects. Hu faced a significant career crisis and had to fight to remain in the industry. While exploring Hu’s character, the documentary further extends to give a broader perspective of the development of the entire Chinese-speaking film industry in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and China.