- Wilhelm scream
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For the band, see A Wilhelm Scream.
The Wilhelm scream is a film and television stock sound effect first used in 1951 for the film Distant Drums.[1] The effect gained new popularity (its use often becoming an in-joke) after it was used in Star Wars and many other blockbuster films as well as television programs and video games.[2] The scream is often used when someone is shot, falls from a great height, or is thrown from an explosion.
The sound is named for Private Wilhelm, a character in The Charge at Feather River, a 1953 western in which the character is shot with an arrow. This was believed to be the third movie to use the sound effect and its first use from the Warner Brothers stock sound library.[3]
Contents
History
The sound effect originates from a series of sound effects recorded for the 1951 film Distant Drums. In a scene from the film, soldiers are wading through a swamp in the Everglades, and one of them is bitten and dragged underwater by an alligator. The scream for that scene was recorded later in a single take, along with five other short pained screams, which were slated as "man getting bit by an alligator, and he screams." The fifth scream was used for the soldier in the alligator scene—but the 4th, 5th, and 6th screams recorded in the session were also used earlier in the film—when three Indians are shot during a raid on a fort. Although takes 4 through 6 are the most recognizable, all of the screams are referred to as "Wilhelm", by those in the sound community.
Revival
The Wilhelm scream's revival came from motion picture sound designer Ben Burtt, who discovered the original recording (which he found as a studio reel labeled "Man being eaten by alligator") and incorporated it into a scene in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. Burtt is credited with naming the scream after Private Wilhelm (see The Charge at Feather River).[4] Over the next decade, Burtt began incorporating the effect in other films he worked on, including most projects involving George Lucas or Steven Spielberg. (It is used in all of the Star Wars and Indiana Jones movies.) Other sound designers picked up on the effect, and inclusion of the sound in films became a tradition among the community of sound designers.[2]
Research by Burtt suggests that actor and singer Sheb Wooley, best known for his novelty song "The Purple People Eater" in 1958 and as scout Pete Nolan on the television series Rawhide, is likely to have been the voice actor who originally performed the scream. This has been supported by an interview in 2005 with Linda Dotson, Wooley's widow. Burtt discovered records at Warner Brothers from the editor of Distant Drums including a short list of names of actors scheduled to record lines of dialogue for miscellaneous roles in the movie. Wooley played the uncredited role of Private Jessup in Distant Drums, and was one of the few actors assembled for the recording of additional vocal elements for the film. Wooley performed additional vocal elements, including the screams for a man being bitten by an alligator.[5] Dotson confirmed that it was Wooley's scream that had been in so many westerns, adding, "He always used to joke about how he was so great about screaming and dying in films."[3]
Usage
The Wilhelm scream has become a cinematic sound cliche, and by 2011 had been used in many instances, including over 225 movies, television shows and video games (and video game adverts[6]).[7] Some directors, most notably George Lucas, and Quentin Tarantino,[7] include it in almost every one of their productions. One of the most recent high-profile uses was in the 2011 Joe Johnston movie Captain America: First Avenger, let loose by a dying HYDRA soldier during the motorcycle chase through the forest.
Popular culture
- Hardcore Punk band A Wilhelm Scream derived their name from this.
- "The Wilhelm Scream" is a (renamed) cover by musician James Blake. The original song was titled "Where to Turn", and was written by his father, James Litherland.
- Math Rock band We Be The Echo wrote a song titled "Wilhelm Scream Dream Team", which features several instances of the scream.
- "Weird Al" Yankovic's video for "Perform This Way" features a Wilhelm scream at roughly the 0:35 mark.
- In the television series Generator Rex; used by supporting military personnel.
- The scream is repeatedly used in the television series Primeval
See also
- Howie scream
References
- ^ Lee, James (25 September 2007). "Cue the Scream: Meet Hollywood's Go-To Shriek". Wired Magazine (15.10). http://www.wired.com/entertainment/hollywood/magazine/15-10/st_scream.
- ^ a b Garfield, Bob; Gladstone, Brooke (30 December 2005). "Wilhelm". On the Media. http://www.onthemedia.org/transcripts/2005/12/30/06.
- ^ a b Malvern, Jack (May 21, 2005). "Aaaaaaaarrrrrrrrgggggghhh!!". The Times. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article524937.ece. Retrieved 12 December 2009.
- ^ Lee, Steve (17 May 2005). "The Wilhelm Scream". Hollywood Lost and Found. http://www.hollywoodlostandfound.net/wilhelm/index.html.
- ^ Distant Drums at the Internet Movie Database
- ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTLLgLBG5ps&hd=1&t=33s
- ^ a b IMDb Wilhelm-scream tagged objects
External links
- Times article in which Sheb Wooley's widow states her belief that her husband was the man behind the scream
- Radio report about the Wilhelm scream, with transcript and audio examples of uses of the scream
- History at Hollywood Lost and Found
- Movies incorporating the Wilhelm scream
- Free Download - Wilhelm Scream Sample (1951)
- Video showing movies with the Wilhelm Scream
Categories:- Sound effects
- Sound recording
- In-jokes
- 1951 works
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