“Foley sometimes can entirely communicate the mood and intention of a character- in the way they walk or handle items, or even just the sound of their clothing.”

Detail and weight are helpful for believability and to glue the sound effects together, but it’s the attention to the differences and nuances of the performance aspect of footsteps and other movements which can be bold or tentative, happily rhythmic or off kilter, reinforcing the personality of the characters in the story and the dance of their interactions. Objects have character too, and a good Foley artist and recordist can make the floor surfaces, page turns and whiskey pours sing of the substance and history of those objects, as well as those who manipulate them. Sound generally contributes greatly to the character of the cast, props and locations of the film.

In France it is not unheard of to have the director at the Foley recording session. Sound design too often is seen as decoration, but In many ways sound design is more like performance. Foley is the most actorly part of the sound of a film, after the dialog and ADR, which it closely resembles.

wow…. yes, Randy, that is an awesome comment! thank you for being such a giant positive force in this art form, I certainly am deeply indebted to your leadership and lovely passion to elevate it. And, as I have gushed so many times, the foley on Horton hears a Who was utterly breathtaking…. It was truly a definitive bit of sound design..

Charles

To quote you…
“Sound effects, of course have a similar sort of necessity as to making action we see onscreen be believable- whether it is someone walking across a space to giant robots destroying entire cities, we usually have an expectation to hear something that attaches a sort of aural reality to the depicted event.”

I would say, yes, absolutely. But we should also push for the reverse, even though it seems like blasphemy to many:

VISUALS SHOULD SOMETIMES BE DESIGNED TO MAKE SOUND BELIEVABLE.
VISUALS SHOULD SOMETIMES BE DESIGNED TO MAKE SOUND MORE POWERFUL.
VISUALS SHOULD SOMETIMES BE DESIGNED TO ALLOW SOUND TO DO WHAT VISUALS CANNOT DO.

Sound is not destined to follow visuals, enhancing them, correcting their problems, etc. Sound can and should often lead.

Randy

“largely we forget to recognize that ALL of the sound that is in a film, Television program, or interactive experience is “Sound Design”