Antique & Classic Cars Blog

How many decades has it been that you turn on a TV show or watch a movie with a car in it and they’ve got a stickshift foley track (sound added after shooting) paired with an automatic transmission car?

Does anybody who pays even a little bit of attention to the way cars sound not know the distinctive break and drop in engine note that comes from clutching and shifting versus the UHHHH-uhhhhh slipdown of an autobox shifting on its own?

 Guess the field of producers and editors doesn’t attract a lot of car guys and gals. Or the foley effects the studios have been reaching for are 30-40 years old (since few people driving the cop cars, taxis & family sedans we hear these sounds in is driving a stick).

Case in point, Supernatural, a cool show with a bitchin’ black ‘67 Impala 4-door. Kudos to them for choosing it and great engine sound. But it’s singing through a stickshift. And Dean and Sam are driving a column shift autobox Chevy. Not saying it’s a bad show. Far from it. Ain’t no stickshift car, though….  

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 23rd, 2008 at 8:37 pm and is filed under Car stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.