Pennzoil Takes the Jeep Wrangler on a High-Speed Joyride Through the Desert
06-17-2016, 04:08 AM
#12
It's not trivial to record actual engine noise in a way that conveys the message that works with the imagery, and it's even almost impossible to record it anyway without getting a ton of wind noise and mechanical noise in there as well. Plus, even if they did record the actual engine sound, getting it synchronized with all of the video footage that was shot with cameras that are totally separate from the audio recording device would be next to impossible.
That's why they always use foley. Every movie, every car commercial, every TV show with a car chase, even tiny little scenes where a car pulls up to the curb and drops someone off, always, always, always they use foley. And it's often just as bad as this video where the foley audio of the engine is very obviously not even remotely related to the vehicle you are seeing.
I just watched an episode near the end of season 5 of The Walking Dead where the dude is riding a motorcycle, it's an inline-4 air-cooled 80s street bike and they dubbed in Harley engine noise on top of it, including a scene where he's just rolling down the road and you hear two gear shifts and he's just riding a static speed and not shifting on the video. Or the worst ever might have been in the unfortunately-named movie "Drive" where the dude is driving around in a modern 6cyl Dodge and they have dubbed in hemi muscle car engine sounds everywhere, including manual transmission gearshifts complete with throttle-lift backfiring and all that, while the dude is just driving in a straight line at 25 mph. Or on a movie called The Whole Nine Yards there's a scene where a "new Beetle" pulls up to the airport terminal and they have dubbed the sound of an old air-cooled Beetle on it. Dumb. I catch this stuff all the time.
Gotta hand it to the guys on (the dearly departed, British) Top Gear. They have figured out how to actually record in-vehicle sound that totally works. They have the best vehicle driving footage I have ever seen anywhere. But that's all they do, and they are the only ones I have ever seen who do it.
That's why they always use foley. Every movie, every car commercial, every TV show with a car chase, even tiny little scenes where a car pulls up to the curb and drops someone off, always, always, always they use foley. And it's often just as bad as this video where the foley audio of the engine is very obviously not even remotely related to the vehicle you are seeing.
I just watched an episode near the end of season 5 of The Walking Dead where the dude is riding a motorcycle, it's an inline-4 air-cooled 80s street bike and they dubbed in Harley engine noise on top of it, including a scene where he's just rolling down the road and you hear two gear shifts and he's just riding a static speed and not shifting on the video. Or the worst ever might have been in the unfortunately-named movie "Drive" where the dude is driving around in a modern 6cyl Dodge and they have dubbed in hemi muscle car engine sounds everywhere, including manual transmission gearshifts complete with throttle-lift backfiring and all that, while the dude is just driving in a straight line at 25 mph. Or on a movie called The Whole Nine Yards there's a scene where a "new Beetle" pulls up to the airport terminal and they have dubbed the sound of an old air-cooled Beetle on it. Dumb. I catch this stuff all the time.
Gotta hand it to the guys on (the dearly departed, British) Top Gear. They have figured out how to actually record in-vehicle sound that totally works. They have the best vehicle driving footage I have ever seen anywhere. But that's all they do, and they are the only ones I have ever seen who do it.
