Blog Post 2 – Goro Koyama

Goro Koyama is a foley artist living in Toronto. He moved to Ottawa as soon as he graduated from high school in Japan to go to language school. He was interested in the film industry but he never thought he could start his career for real. He used to long for Hollywood and his dreamed career was to be a film director. After language school, he studied at Confederation College in Thunder Bay. When his graduation came close, every classmate found a job but him. So he decided to go back to Japan. However, the wife of his landlord asked Goro if he is interested in sound because her father works for sound in Toronto. Goro met the father, Tony, an expert sound recordist, and met his current job partner, Andy Malcolm. Goro fell in love with Andy’s foley work at first glance and asked Andy to take him as a pupil. Goro works for footsteps post-production sound inc. since 1994. For 20 years he has been a foley artist and he participated with more than 200 films. 3 movies I really like and he worked as a foley artist on are Alice in Wonderland (2010), Help (2012), and The Campaign (2012). He works hard to brush up his skills even now and his work has been approved to the world: he now has 12 wins and 20 nominations for the awards. Most significantly, he won a Primetime Emmy Award for the first time in 2012 with the TV movie Hemingway & Gellhorn in a category of Outstanding Sound Editing for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special.

Through his biography, I learned a lot from him not only the skills but also how difficult it is to get the right sound for the images. In his early carrier, he took over 40 takes for footsteps but he never got the ok from Andy. He told Goro that it is indescribable to tell what’s the right sound. You can only feel it with your feet. Practice footsteps everyday until you feel it. The day you make the right sound for footsteps is the day you become full-fledged as a foley artist. According to Goro, it takes 2 to 3 weeks to add foley to an approximately 2-hour-movie. But he takes quality seriously, so sometimes he asks to push the due date if he feels it is not enough time to provide good quality sound effects. In the studio, they always keep over 300 different types of shoes. In recent years, things are getting digitized and foley is one of the valuable resources to deliver the warmth of handmade sound. Goro says he tries not to think the process of recording foley as work but rather enjoying the production while he records. I think being a foley artist needs a lot of patience, great skills, and most importantly, passion for doing it. I really respect Mr. Koyama and he gives me hope for chasing my dreamed career in Canada.

References:

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0468704/

http://blog3.mapleleafjournal.com/?cid=3 (translated by me)

http://www.town.moroyama.saitama.jp/www/contents/1363661146109/html/common/other/5147d1bf009.pdf (translated by me)

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