How 19 Sound Crafted an Hour of ASMR Foley for adidas Running

The team out 19 Sound discuss its work with Adistar and how they managed to bring ASMR foley to life. 

When we first received the brief for ‘Adistar: The Long Slow Run’ we were thrilled. One hour of very detailed ASMR foley and not much else. Bring it on! The film was completely silent when we received it, so every sound had to be created, and added.

The foley recording was a key aspect of this project. We contacted the team at Twickenham Studios, with whom we’ve built a great relationship collaborating on numerous projects. To give us the best quality, and more importantly, best range of sounds needed, the foley was recorded in multiple ways. 

The ‘traditional’ foley way, then using ASMR recording techniques, and finally different ‘distances’ were recorded, so we could really play around with the perspectives. This enabled Will to have total control when it came to creating the final soundscape and mix.

Whilst the team at Twickenham were busy recording the foley, Will went to work creating the atmos/backgrounds, and general sound design of the film. The idea was to imagine a world in which no cars would interfere, and no sounds other than natural, rural serenity would be audible. A seemingly simple task, but when you span this across a one hour film, the possibility of repetition becomes quite apparent. So Will had to be thorough with his scope, and create endlessly evolving layers that felt like new environments gliding through the film. 

Every opportunity was taken to create depth and width to the sound,  especially during the shots when the camera pans past trees, or other objects in the space. 

Utilising the full breadth of the foley sounds recorded, Will was able to move around the stereo field, immersing the viewer at every turn.