# Bug documentary audio: foley? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 7, 2014, 9:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bug-documentary-audio-foley/703962 "2014-11-07T09:41:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2014, 9:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bug-documentary-audio-foley/703962/1 "2014-11-07T09:41:32Z")
Highly detailed film and video of tiny arthropods seems perfectly normal, but for some reason I find myself doubting the veracity of all the squishy audio accompanying the predation and other activities of these teensy critters. I don’t know if my doubt is fair… Does anyone know for sure if it is the real sounds, or is it just foley artists? ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2014, 9:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bug-documentary-audio-foley/703962/2 "2014-11-07T09:48:37Z")
Sometimes, it’s [really real](http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2013-02-19/the-sound-of-one-ant-walking--inside-the-world-of-a-wildlife-audio-expert). ---
**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2014, 11:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bug-documentary-audio-foley/703962/3 "2014-11-07T11:07:21Z")
Thank you so much! ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2014, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bug-documentary-audio-foley/703962/4 "2014-11-07T11:22:12Z")
No problemo. Note that there _are_ insect nature shows (_Monster Bug Wars_, I’m looking at you) that do use a lot of foley, or even humourous sound effects. But I’ve always understood the BBC shows to do their best, even if it’s not a “live feed” exactly (they may be recorded separately on site, or even in a vivarium setup). Not sure of other show, like PBS’s _Nature_ ---
**Author:** ![Bozuit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/edb3f5/32.png) [@Bozuit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bozuit)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2014, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bug-documentary-audio-foley/703962/5 "2014-11-07T12:43:23Z")
One thing that made me never quite enjoy the BBC’s _Life_ as much as older documentaries (like the _Life of…_ series) was I never felt I could trust that things were really as they said they were. Is that really a wild animal? Is this a composite shot? Are those sounds real? Sometimes it’s half “faked” and it just spoils all the genuinely amazing shots for me, because I don’t trust any of them. ---
**Author:** ![Ken001](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/43a26b/32.png) [@Ken001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ken001)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2014, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bug-documentary-audio-foley/703962/6 "2014-11-07T12:57:06Z")
Isn’t there a fundamental problem of physics with recording insects sounds? They are tiny and simply cannot make long sound waves audible to the human. A bit like insects (in an atmosphere) not being drawn down by gravity. ---
**Author:** ![Bozuit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/edb3f5/32.png) [@Bozuit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bozuit)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2014, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bug-documentary-audio-foley/703962/7 "2014-11-07T13:18:46Z")
> [@Ken001](#): > > Isn’t there a fundamental problem of physics with recording insects sounds? They are tiny and simply cannot make long sound waves audible to the human. > > A bit like insects (in an atmosphere) not being drawn down by gravity. You’ve never heard bees, flies, mosquitoes, crickets, cicadas, or an ant nest? In a similar size range, you can sometimes hear spiders walking, and on a damp night you can hear snails eating all over my garden. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2014, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bug-documentary-audio-foley/703962/8 "2014-11-07T13:24:35Z")
> [@Ken001](#): > > Isn’t there a fundamental problem of physics with recording insects sounds? They are tiny and simply cannot make long sound waves audible to the human. You’ve never lived in a location with cicadas, have you? > [@](#): > > A bit like insects (in an atmosphere) not being drawn down by gravity. What gives you that idea? Insects (without wings) fall down just like any other object. ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2014, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bug-documentary-audio-foley/703962/9 "2014-11-07T14:07:06Z")
Dave Foley was the lead voice artist for A Bug’s Life. Is that what you are talking about? …_flees_ ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2014, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bug-documentary-audio-foley/703962/10 "2014-11-07T15:22:40Z")
Foley editors are notorious for outrageous or even laughable nature sound effects in movies. I once made a list of aobut 50 movies, in which identifiable birds could be heare vocalizing, which would have been impossible in the real geography. Every southern swamp movie has loons calling in the background, but they never vocalize outside their northern breeding range. California foley editors think Cactus Wrens occur everywhere, so they put them in pictures that take place in New England. House Sparrows can be heard in historical films that take place before the species was introduced into the Americas, and warblers in wintery snow scenes. The characteristic “rivet” frog call is heard only from west coast species, but finds its way into the sound track so often that everybody thinks all frogs say “rivet”. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2014, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bug-documentary-audio-foley/703962/11 "2014-11-07T15:30:46Z")
> [@Omar\_Little](#): > > …_flees_ Shouldn’t that be “fleas?” ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2014, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bug-documentary-audio-foley/703962/12 "2014-11-07T17:34:43Z")
[QUOTE=Telemark] Shouldn’t that be “fleas?” [/QUOTE] Now that’s just a mite silly. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2014, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bug-documentary-audio-foley/703962/13 "2014-11-07T17:37:43Z")
> [@gotpasswords](#): > > Now that’s just a mite silly. Well \*somebody \*has a bee in their bonnet :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Ken001](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/43a26b/32.png) [@Ken001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ken001)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2014, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bug-documentary-audio-foley/703962/14 "2014-11-08T04:34:11Z")
> [@Bozuit](#): > > You’ve never heard bees, flies, mosquitoes, crickets, cicadas, or an ant nest? In a similar size range, you can sometimes hear spiders walking, and on a damp night you can hear snails eating all over my garden. > [@MrDibble](#): > > You’ve never lived in a location with cicadas, have you?What gives you that idea? Insects (without wings) fall down just like any other object. Quite right, my bad. I was thinking of nearly microscopic insects, creatures which are very small and hard to see. For example the only ants around here are the size of a pinhead and they don’t have visible nests. There are also midges and tiny spiders which float on the wind. Funny how the brain works: I categorise large beasties as creatures - moths, bees, cicadas etc whereas insects are much smaller. Silly of course. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Geezer1948](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7feea3/32.png) [@Geezer1948](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Geezer1948)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2014, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bug-documentary-audio-foley/703962/15 "2014-11-09T02:00:05Z")
You definitely need to check out The Hellstrom Chronicle, which won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 1971, and although it was not pure documentary in the strictest use of the term, it was incredibly entertaining. See more on Wikipedia. And to Ken001, in the Spring of 1900, the Northern Illinois Brood, or Brood 13 was hatching. It was a very mild spring, and my oldest daughter and I were dong a “college visit” at Rosary college (now Dominican University), in River Forest, IL, a near Western suburb of Chicago. We met with one professor who had taken his class outside for a lecture, due to the beautiful weather, but had to go back inside because he couldn’t be heard over the “singing” of the locusts. It’s due to hatch again in 2024, and I hope I’m still around to see (and hear) it. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2014, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bug-documentary-audio-foley/703962/16 "2014-11-09T02:15:49Z")
sounds have been recorded with contact mic on the plant. ---
**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2014, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bug-documentary-audio-foley/703962/17 "2014-11-09T02:31:27Z")
> [@Geezer1948](#): > > And to Ken001, in the Spring of 1900, the Northern Illinois Brood, or Brood 13 was hatching. It was a very mild spring, and my oldest daughter and I were dong a “college visit” at Rosary college (now Dominican University), in River Forest, IL, a near Western suburb of Chicago. I’m sorry, but something is wrong. If you were old enough to have a daughter doing a college visit in 1900, you would be more than simply a geezer, You would be a modern Methuselah, being roughly 150 years old. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2014, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bug-documentary-audio-foley/703962/18 "2014-11-09T02:41:29Z")
> [@Geezer1948](#): > > You definitely need to check out The Hellstrom Chronicle, which won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 1971, and although it was not pure documentary in the strictest use of the term, it was incredibly entertaining. See more on Wikipedia. > > And to Ken001, in the Spring of 1900, the Northern Illinois Brood, or Brood 13 was hatching. It was a very mild spring, and my oldest daughter and I were dong a “college visit” at Rosary college (now Dominican University), in River Forest, IL, a near Western suburb of Chicago. We met with one professor who had taken his class outside for a lecture, due to the beautiful weather, but had to go back inside because he couldn’t be heard over the “singing” of the locusts. It’s due to hatch again in 2024, and I hope I’m still around to see (and hear) it. > [@Stoid](#): > > I’m sorry, but something is wrong. If you were old enough to have a daughter doing a college visit in 1900, you would be more than simply a geezer, You would be a modern Methuselah, being roughly 150 years old. sub a 9.