John Roesch owns over 150 pairs of shoes.
“Not quite as many as the former Philippine First Lady Imelda Marcos, but I did my best,” Roesch jokes to Inverse. “It’s not always easy to find heels in my size, though.”
But Roesch, a veteran Foley artist, doesn’t need to walk far in those heels. His job requires him to create live sound effects that are synchronized with moving images — everything from footsteps, to floor creaks, to the blast of a gun shot, or the whistling of the wind are made by Foley artists. It’s an invisible art form, and one that Roesch has been contributing to for 44 years, creating the sounds for classic films such as Back to the Future and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, as well as Michael Jackson’s iconic Thriller music video. “You’re creating a psychoacoustic environment,” Roesch says. And to do so, “the footsteps always come first.” Hence the 150 shoes.
