Pointless Facts Thread

[Wilhelm-Scream]

This is the 201st post on this thread.

 

[Riven]

This is the 201st post on this thread.

Tell them the story behind your name! that makes for a good pointless fact...

 

[Exabyte]

...they're coming...

 

[Wilhelm-Scream]

Tell them the story behind your name! that makes for a good pointless fact...

Very Well...

One sound effect that has found a following with many sound editors and observant movie fans is a distinctive scream named Wilhelm.

In 1951, the Warner Brothers film "Distant Drums" directed by Raoul Walsh starred Gary Cooper as Captain Quincy Wyatt, who leads a group of soldiers to stop some Seminole Indians from threatening settlers in early 19th Century Florida. During a scene in which the soldiers are wading through a swamp in the everglades, one of them is bitten and dragged underwater by an alligator.

As is usually the case with the making of a movie, the scream for that character was recorded later. Six short pained screams were recorded in a single take, which was slated "man getting bit by an alligator, and he screams." The fifth scream was used for the soldier - but the 4th, 5th, and 6th screams recorded in the session were also used earlier in the film when three Indians are shot, one after another, during a raid on a fort.

After "Distant Drums," the recording was archived into the studio's sound effects library, and was re-used in many Warner Brothers productions.

In "The Charge at Feather River" (1953), the scream is heard when a soldier named Pvt. Wilhelm (played by Ralph Brooke) gets shot in the leg by an arrow. Originally released in 3-D, the film used the "Distant Drums" scream recording two other times as well.

Up until the mid-70's, the scream recording was used exclusively in Warner Brothers productions, including "Them!" (1954), "Land of the Pharaohs" (1955), "The Sea Chase" (1955), "Sergeant Rutledge" (1960), "PT-109" (1963) and "The Green Berets (1968).

In "A Star is Born" (1954), the scream is heard twice - one of the times because a scene with the scream in "Charge at Feather River" is playing in a screening room.

One person who noticed the same distinctive scream reoccurring in so many movies was sound effects fan Ben Burtt. Ben and his friends in the cinema department at USC, Rick Mitchell and Richard Anderson, noticed that a scream was popping up in a lot of movies. One of the films they made together, a swashbuckler parody "The Scarlet Blade" (1974) included the scream - which they borrowed off another film's audio track.

A few years later, when Ben Burtt was hired to create sound effects for Star Wars (1977), he had an opportunity to do research at the sound departments of several movie studios. While looking for sound elements to use in the space adventure at Warner Brothers, he found the original "Distant Drums" scream - which he named "Wilhelm" after the character that let out the scream in "Charge at Feather River."

Ben adopted the scream as a kind of personal sound signature, and included it in all the "Star Wars" and "Indiana Jones" films, and many of the other films he has worked on including "More American Graffiti" (1979) and "Willow" (1988).

Ben's friend Richard Anderson also continued the tradition. Both Anderson and Burtt worked on "Raiders of the Lost Ark" (1981), and Richard used the screams in the film's truck chase - one of the sequences he cut sounds for himself.

Anderson also used it in many of the films he supervised sound editing for, including "Poltergeist" (1982), "Batman Returns" (1992), "Planet of the Apes" (2001), "Agent Cody Banks" (2003), and "Madagascar" (2005).

Because of Ben Burtt, the Wilhelm has lived in the sound library at Skywalker Sound. Other colleagues there including Gary Rydstrom and Chris Boyes have used it in such films as "Toy Story" (1995), "Hercules" (1997) and "Pirates of the Caribbean" (2003).

 

[Mr.Webs]

Is their a site where I could hear this seemingly infamous scream?

 

[Wilhelm-Scream]

http://www.onthemedia.org/transcripts/transcripts_020901_wilhelm.html

 

[Riven]

The acronym S.P.E.C.T.R.E from the James Bond movies stands for "SPecial Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion".

 

[Riggs15382]

I'm right handed

 

[SLVRSR4]

superman and flash tied in there first two races against each other?:0

 

[psychocheeseman]

the average gorilla has a penis that is two inches long

 

[gregtestagent]

One more week untill Hulk: Ultimate Destruction comes out for XBOX,PS2, and Gamecube.

 

[Riven]

There is a batsymbol hidden in the background in each of Christopher Nolan's movies, prior to filming Batman Begins.

 

[The Question]

^^^^really? Cool.



Comic book writer Alan Moore was in a band called "The Sinister Ducks".

 

[Equinox]

the average gorilla has a penis that is two inches long

Thats it???

 

[Babs Gordon]

the indian tectonic plate has the same kinetic energy as a burger king whopper flying through the air at 60 MPH. scientifically calculated by my ex-tectonics professor.

 

[Mr. Thing]

There is a batsymbol hidden in the background in each of Christopher Nolan's movies, prior to filming Batman Begins.

Pics please...

 

[Riven]

Pics please...

Well, I don't have pics, but it is true. In Memento, it's among a lot of images on the window of the last tattoo parlor the guy visits. In Following, it's a sticker on the main character's appartment door. I haven't seen it myself in Insomnia, but I've been told there is one there as well. Wish I had screencaps or the DVD's to prove it... but it is a fact.

 

[lovesteppenwolf]

-its got to be a budget-- its got lots of MuMbers in it

 

[Mr. Thing]

-its got to be a budget-- its got lots of MuMbers in it

Don't copy me biatch!

And it's "It's clearly a budget"

 

[lovesteppenwolf]

-in "Dr.No" Sean Connery leans back to punch the imposter with his left hand and then the camera cuts and he punches him with his right

 

[lovesteppenwolf]

Don't copy me biatch!

And it's "It's clearly a budget"

well he DID say it *cough*moron*cough*

 

[lovesteppenwolf]

Don't copy me biatch!

And it's "It's clearly a budget"

well he DID say it *cough*moron*cough*

EDIT:sorry,double post

 

[Mr. Thing]

well he DID say it *cough*moron*cough*

I know...but I told you it...biatch!

 

[lovesteppenwolf]

no actually i knew it before you told me..................................................................BIATCH!!!!!!

 

[Mr. Thing]

no actually i knew it before you told me..................................................................BIATCH!!!!!!

Really?