The craft of silent film / sound workers far from the attention of Jack Foley’s recording stage

Despite the growing awareness of the diverse, sonic identities of the supposedly ‘silent’ silent film, many of those involved in sound work remain academically neglected and historically invisible. This becomes particularly clear with regard to the work of sound artists, whose participation in variety cinemas, cinemas and production facilities has been sparsely documented. Above all, the long lack of recognition as an independent professional category in Hollywood and the supposed secondary status in the production hierarchy can be understood as catalysts for marginalization in film history research practiced in Germany as well. The hierarchization between image and sound work is made quantitatively clear by the footnote status of early (and also late) foley artists and sound workers in German film history in archives, collections, and publications. The aim of this work is to use case studies to understand the craft of foley filmmaking as an experimental counter-narrative to the German film history narrative. This common narrative is to be questioned on the basis of the search for canonically unrepresented actors. The research project consists of using the scraps, fragments and gaps – including their anecdotes, speculations and conceptual difficulties – to search for the foley artists of Weimar cinema. At the heart of the project is the development of a network of actors in sound work who were active not only in the film industry, but also in the radio industry, in the exhibition context and in art, theater and recording studios. However, the project is not intended as an epochal-historical study of Weimar cinema, but as a contribution to the visualization and localization of sound work in the film production and sound work cluster during, around, as part of, or apart from the much-researched Weimar cinema.