THE SOUND OF THAI INNOVATION

Last weekend, I attended a “live cinema” rendition of the classic animated film Kan Kluay (known as Blue Elephant in its international incarnation) at Kantana studios. There had already been five performances the previous weekend and I was catching one of the second set of five.

- S.P. Somtow is a novelist, composer and a Thai National Artist.

We've become quite familiar with these events as there have been a number of high-profile performances of blockbuster films with live orchestra in Thailand, so maybe people might not realise that Kantana has done something quite revolutionary that we haven’t seen in the past.

The live music, conducted by celebrated Thai musician Trisdee Na Patalung, was great as expected and added a dimension of excitement to the movie, but what was new was that Kantana gave equal prominence to a live Foley section.

Foley is one of the most important aspects of movie postproduction, yet it is the one least noticed by regular audiences. Most moviegoers don’t know that in the recorded soundtrack of a movie, gunshots don’t really go bang and swords don’t clang but are likely to thud or squeak (because they are props of wood or plastic, not actual sharp dangerous killer metal things). Also, people's footsteps don’t actually echo across marble floors because it's probably a painted plywood floor built on a soundstage and doors don’t slam, the wind doesn’t whistle, and on and on. All these effects are put it by a team of Foley artists.