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How the World’s Most Famous Scream Was Recovered
- drewcoo 3y agoShorter video on the Wilhelm: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfRPPMXY5SQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfRPPMXY5SQ
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- GuestHNUser 3y agoGreat video! (It's actually a minute longer than the one in the post though)
- itisit 3y agoI appreciate this sound engineer’s preservation work, but cannot stand the intrusion of a Wilhelm scream. What was once a cute wink towards filmmakers and cinephiles is now an obnoxiously overused disruption to the flow of the film. You might as well flash the MST3K silhouette on screen every time it happens.
- Vecr 3y ago"Deeply Unserious" might be too strong a phrase but it's close.
- GuestHNUser 3y agoMaybe this is just me, but I think the Wilhelm scream works fine in the older movies where it was only supposed to be noticed by those in the industry. It just falls flat for me when it is done as a wink to the audience.
- Timon3 3y agoMaybe it's time to move away from simple winks, and instead make it a diegetic part of the content. I love the way it was used in DBZ Abridged: https://youtu.be/XMGdnof2Vfc https://youtu.be/XMGdnof2Vfc
- harryf 3y agoOh wow. Chuck Palahniuk mentions this scream in The Invention of Sound. Hadn’t realized it’s actually real
- Cthulhu_ 3y agoI find it hard to believe you didn't believe it was real when it's still used in movies to this day, although that said, if you hadn't heard of it before it might not stand out. But once you heard it, and see a compilation of all the films it was used in, you can't unhear it. I have the same with some sound effects, they were burned into me through (I think it was) Morrowind and I can't stop hearing them everywhere now - there's one of a door opening, and another of wind whistling that just has a very specific sound and progression. Reused sound effect libraries, aaaaaa
- wlj 3y agoI wonder if it's the same wind whistling sound effect I've been hearing repeatedly since the 90's! I think I first heard it in a very early game I played. I'm going to say Ultima, but potentially Diablo. I distinctly remember being stuck in a part of the game where my character was on a dock or sea shore type area and the wind sound just kept repeating over and over while I figured out how to get past that point. Then over the years, I've noticed it in so many movies and other games etc. You hear the initial wind noise, which quickly transitions into a curve that peaks up and down, a short gap of silence and then a second quieter part where the sound curves down and trails off. I'd love it if there was a similar history I could learn about on it! Edit: Amazingly, I've just managed to find the exact part of the game I was thinking of [0] [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9AaSIwGGys&t=455s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9AaSIwGGys&t=455s
- harryf 3y agoWhen I read The Invention of Sound I assumed it was largely fiction, perhaps inspired by real events. So it's not that I didn't believe is was real exactly. I hadn't considered certain sound effects might be re-used in multiple movies or been down this particular rabbit hole. Discovering now the sound effect is real makes the book way more chilling and increases my respect for Chuck Palahniuk
- vanderZwan 3y agoHere is Craig Smith's blog post on Freesound.org discussing the process in more detail: https://blog.freesound.org/?p=1515#comments https://blog.freesound.org/?p=1515#comments The full session can be found there somewhere too
- mdp2021 3y ago> The full session can be found there Yep. https://freesound.org/people/craigsmith/sounds/675810/ https://freesound.org/people/craigsmith/sounds/675810/ > [Tag:] Man getting bitten by an alligator, and he screams... [...] Try an "Ow!"... A real scream... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35512109 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35512109
- rjprins 3y agoThe director doesn't say "Try an Ow!" he says after a few attempts: "No, no, not an Ow, a real scream of pain"
- vanderZwan 3y agoThis also might explain why sometimes sounds a bit off when I hear it in movies: there are three almost-identical takes at the end!
- Denote6737 3y agoI noticed this long before I ever heared of the whilhelm scream. It is everywhere one you become aware of it.
- antupis 3y agoPersonally I hate it because it will snap you out from suspension of disbelief immediately.
- st_goliath 3y agoYes, ever since I was cobbling together Counter Strike maps back when I was in school, I became aware of a bunch of stock sound effects as well (after browsing through them in Hammer Editor numerous times). When you hear a toilet being flushed in a movie, it is the exact same stock sound. It makes me realize immediately, that I just watched an actor walk in frame (sometimes fidgeting with their belt), while the effect was added later during editing. Same thing with doors. For a long time, movies and TV shows have pretty much universally used the exact same stock sound of a door being closed. The sound effect is fairly recognizable and about as subtle as the Wilhelm Scream. Sometimes, you can even see that the door is not fully closed, but we still hear the latch snap in place. Sometimes it's also fairly obvious that this kind of door can't possibly produce that kind of sound. I guess people working at the studios have realized that too at some point, and in the past years increasingly (but not completely) moved to a different, more subtle door sound. It's now become a bit of a "will they/won't they" moment of suspense, whenever I see a door prominently in frame for a character to walk through it.
- tromp 3y agoWikipedia [1] answered my question of why this is called the Wilhelm scream: > The sound is named after Private Wilhelm, a character in The Charge at Feather River, a 1953 Western in which the character gets shot in the thigh with an arrow. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_scream https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_scream
- bozhark 3y agoSo, they used to adventure?
- infotropy 3y agoBefore somebody stole their cinnamon roll.
- Vecr 3y agoGetting hit in the thigh even now with the best medical care available is reasonably likely to kill you. Very likely to kill you if they hit the femoral artery. Back then, there was probably not much of a point in even trying to save him.
- praptak 3y agoThis particular scream might be famous but it is not genre-defining. For a genre-defining scream see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scream_queen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scream_queen
- Etherlord87 3y ago> might be famous Willhelm scream is the most famous scream hands down. Last time I heard it was yesterday - in one of the first (maybe the first) cutscenes of Baldur's Gate III. BTW, in the linked video: > Hopefully people will continue to distribute them and share them So where can I get them?
- Steve44 3y agoOn a related note I've heard/seen a few programmes over they years about Foley artists, the ones who create these overlayed sounds. Some of their techniques are very inventive and surprising how they come up with the ideas. https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20150623-the-mesmerising-performers-who-create-sound-effects https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20150623-the-mesmerising-... > The Secret World of Foley, a short film directed by Daniel Jewel, began as a project to shine a light onto one of the more obscure jobs in the film industry. So obscure in fact that even Jewel knew little about it beforehand. > > “While I was finishing another film, someone said ‘we’re going to get this Foleyed,’ and I didn’t know what it was,” he says. “But when they explained it to me it all made sense, and I think that’s the case for a lot of people.” https://momofilmfest.com/bbc-opens-sound-fx-library-for-free-use/ https://momofilmfest.com/bbc-opens-sound-fx-library-for-free...
- 2OEH8eoCRo0 3y agohttps://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/07/04/the-weird-analog-delights-of-foley-sound-effects https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/07/04/the-weird-anal...
- podgorniy 3y agoLonger video of the research of the same subject by another person: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0twDETh6QaI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0twDETh6QaI
- 3cats-in-a-coat 3y agoI wish they lost it somewhere again.
- est 3y agoI thought it was the marmot scream. Boy I had too much internet.
- dale_glass 3y agoNeat. Now can we stop using this already please? I think it's worn out its welcome, and at this point it just takes you out of the movie. Sometimes just because it's so recognizable, but sometimes because it's being used despite not quite fitting into the actual movie and just being used because somebody in the movie's production wants to put it in anyway.
- pluc 3y agoThat you're too lazy/cheap to get a custom scream is indeed a little off-putting. Imagine if we did this with sentences, reactions or action sequences.
- naasking 3y agoI don't think it's laziness or cheapness, it's probably just an easter egg for enthusiasts.
- Reubachi 3y agowhich, is kind of cheap isn't it? Some movies that use it: LOTR Return Of the King Meet The Spartans Team America World Police SpaceBalls Opinions aside, one of these movies is not like the other and didn't need to include a meme scream for nostalgia
- lvncelot 3y agoI've told people about the Wilhelm Scream, and every time it occurs in a movie or show, I'm flabbergasted that they still don't recognize it. It's just so distinct how does that not immediately stand out? Makes me wonder what kinds of glaringly obvious easter-eggs (audio or otherwise) I'm missing.
- thecosmicfrog 3y agoThe one I always notice is a sound effect of a cat screeching, usually accompanied with the sound of crashing metal trash cans. I can't seem to find a clip of it anywhere though. Maybe someone else will have better luck?
- lvncelot 3y agoOh yeah, I think I know what you're talking about - I can practically hear it right now.
- bombcar 3y agoThe most noticeable for me is the DooM door opening sound, it really stands out. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bgFpss0YFE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bgFpss0YFE goes into detail (but is basically reading off the wiki page: https://doomwiki.org/wiki/Origins_of_Doom_sounds https://doomwiki.org/wiki/Origins_of_Doom_sounds )
- branon 3y agoThere's one of a rat squeaking three times, and another of a door creaking open. Heard them both for the first time in The Elder Scrolls: Arena, and they're instantly recognizable anywhere else.
- motogpjimbo 3y agoI'm not a gamer myself, but my wife is and she frequently points out the creaky door sound effect when we watch movies. It's amazing how often such a small set of effects is reused.
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- roblh 3y agoThe Wilhelm scream is a classic, but I always find the Howie scream way funnier. It’s so much weirder and finds itself jammed into more diverse uses, I think cause it has a little bit of an inhuman or non-vocal quality to it.
- martinclayton 3y agoFor a second I thought this might be about the theft and recovery of one or more of Munch's "The Scream" paintings. I would argue they are at least more generally well known than the Wilhelm and Howie screams. Then I realised there was no "The" in the title.
- throw9away6 3y agoI was thinking the Howard Dean scream
- h-c-c 3y agoMy life has improved substantially since I made this my notification sound.
- dimatter 3y agoWhat about the sound of (metal) doors/hatches opening. It's mostly the same squeaking noise. Why? What is it called?