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History of a Famous Star Wars Scream
An anonymous reader writes "There is a very famous scream in Star Wars (Episode IV) that occurs when one of the stormtroopers falls into the Death Star chasm. No doubt all geeks are familiar with this scream, but may not know that it has been used in dozens of other movies and even has a name - "The Wilhelm". There is a fascinating interview (transcript and audio) from NPRs "On The Media" that discusses the now cult-like following and history of this scream."
Here's another link (about 2/3 down page) to the scream, at least until it dies as well. :)
My personal favorite is the BBC audio "spooky werewolf" sound effect. You still hear it all over the place. It starts with the sound of a wolf (or old junkyard dog?) howling, then immediately follows that up with a cat giving two aggravated-sounding meows. The actual sound effect (you can get it on old BBC sound effects records; your library may have some) repeats this sound about 3-4 times, and it's always the same: Wolf howl, cat. Wolf howl, cat. It cracks me up when modern movies actually let the tape loop run through more than one sequence, cuz it's one of the goofiest things I've heard.
Breakfast served all day!
This isn't so very special. There are many screams and other sounds that get reused. Lots of action movies use the same screams you can hear in the N64 game "Goldeneye." There is a creaky door sound that I've heard used in video games ("Riven" is the one I remember best), TV shows, movies, and even commercials.
Esoteric reference.
Not being a huge Star Wars fan, I have no idea what this story is about. But I'm going to have to guess that whoever did the screaming can hardly compare to the best screamer of our time, the godfather of soul, the legendary James Brown. This is a man who has filled our hearts with joy through his screaming over the years, and I suggest that we honor him over this holiday season. Who can forget the screams he gave us; the subtle "WHOOOO", the energetic "GOOD GOD", and the classic "WHOOO ALRIGHT, YEAH ALRIGHT". In a history of screams, it is hard to underestimate the enourmous influence this one man has had on the genre.
Are you sure about this?
If you read the article, you can see that some guy was tracking down the source of the sound. He "found" it in an old western where a character named Wilhelm gets shot in the leg with an arrow.
Later, he found it in an earlier movie/sound, but I figure the name was already stuck.
Doesn't it more likely that the name comes from when some guy named Wilhelm screams in a movie?
I've heard a lot of doom and doom II sound effects in commercials, tv shows, and movies. The spawning sound effects, the doom II icon thrower sound effect, imp death, etc. I even have a wav file of a cat meow that gets played when someone says my nick on irc, my friends and I chuckled every time we hear it on tv or in a movie. It sticks out like a sore thumb since we've heard it so many times.
This isn't too uncommon tho. There's cd's full of sound effects you can buy and use freely in whatever you want. Usually the low budget stuff uses them. The high budget stuff usually records most of their own stuff in a sound studio. But obviously some old standby's gets used just for fun.
There are many standard sound effects libraries (Warner Bros, Lucas Film, etc.) that TV/game studios purchase for use, so don't be surprised if you keep hearing the same sounds.
I heard a camel in some Jackie Chan movie make the same sound that a Doom grunt makes. It freaked me out man.
Escape Pod Films: Sketch Comedy and Web Series
Here is a website that tries to list all of "The Wilhelm" occurrences in films.
They claim "A series of short painful screams performed by an actor were recorded in 1951 for the Warner Brother's film "Distant Drums." They were used for a scene where a man is bitten and dragged underwater by an alligator. The recording was archived into the studio's sound effects library -- and it was used in many of their films since.
"Star Wars" Sound Designer Ben Burtt tracked down the scream recording - which he named "Wilhelm" after a character who let out the same scream in the film "Charge at Feather River." Ben has adopted the scream as sort of a personal sound signature, and has included it in many of the films he has worked on. He and a small circle of sound effects people, including myself and Richard Anderson, continue the crusade to keep Wilhelm alive. The Wilhelm Scream continues to be heard in new films every year."
It walks down stairs, rolls over in pairs and makes a slinkity sound! A spring, a spring, a marvelous spring! Everyone knows it's Slikny! It's Slinky, It's Slinky, It's Slinky! It's fun, it's a wonderful toy! It's fun for a girl and a boy! (some disclaimer)
Sheesh, no dutch moderators today, looks like. The National Athem is called "Wilhelmus".
When the Nazgul attack Faramir and his troops when they're sent back to Osgiliath, one of the soldiers is picked up by a Nazgul and dropped. He screams the Wilhelm on his trip to the ground.
However,
TheForce.net has an old article about this along with a quicktime montage of the scream in different movies. Now it's stuck in my head and it'll stick out like a sore thumb whenever I hear it...
That's on Sound Ideas' "The General" series 6000 sound effects library. Disc 6015, track 28-1: "Fire,Ball - Impact and large fire burst, rumble."
When I first saw RotK, it was pretty funny to recognize this sound, but a little annoying too. I guess ignorance is bliss. :-)
http://download.theforce.net/video/wilhelm_48mb.mo v
Most of those sounds are in Sound Ideas' "The General" 6000 series, copyright 1992.
Yay!
From one anonymous coward to another - thanks for the URL!
I've noticed the open/close door sound from Doom a lot more than the end spawn cube sound.
This sound effect's most popular first use comes from the movie Aliens.
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Together, we will drive the rats from the tundra.
The rocket launcher sample is in the song "Bodies" off the Smashing Pumpkins' "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness" - IIRC, it was mentioned in the credits on the sleeve.
at cafepress.com.
so now you can hear your scream and wear it, too.
simple is as simple does.
Here they are A New Hope: 88m39s of film The Empire Strikes Back: 28m12s and 94m57s The Return of The Jedi: 33m00s
- no sig.
Was that before or after Vader told Luke he was his father?
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I don't know whether it's been used again since, but I do know the origin of the rocket launcher sound in Doom (my favorite sound from that game).
The sound designer, Bobby Prince, recorded a cork being pulled from a large bottle, then he massaged it a bit using a wave form editor.