The Wilhelm scream is a frequently-used 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 either falling to his death from great height or from an explosion.
The Wilhelm scream has become a well-known cinematic sound cliché, and is claimed to have been used in over 149 films and counting.[3]
The sound is named for Private Wilhelm, a character in The Charge at Feather River, a 1953 western where the character is shot with an arrow. This was believed to be the second movie to use the sound effect and its first use from the Warner Brothers stock sound library.[4]
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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 re-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, when Luke Skywalker shoots a Stormtrooper who screams as he falls. Burtt named the scream after Private Wilhelm, a minor character who emitted the same scream in the 1953 film The Charge at Feather River.[5] Burtt began incorporating the effect in other films he worked on, including most projects involving George Lucas and/or Steven Spielberg. 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 Flying Purple People Eater in 1958, is likely to have been the voice actor who originally performed the scream. This has been supported by a 2005 interview 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 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.[6] 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.”[4]
In popular music
As the popularity of the screams has grown from a movie industry in-joke into being public knowledge,[2] the screams have started to make appearances outside of film and TV – most notably in popular music. For example, the song "Wilhelm Scream Dream Team" by We Be The Echo and the band A Wilhelm Scream are named after the effect.
Chicago based experimental band, Tortoise, samples the Wilhelm scream at the beginning of the song "Yinxianghechengqi" from their Beacons of Ancestorship album.
See also
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 c Garfield, Bob; Gladstone, Brooke (30 December 2005). "Wilhelm". On the Media. http://www.onthemedia.org/transcripts/2005/12/30/06.
- ^ Lee, Steve (3 November 2008). "List of movies containing Wilhelm scream". Hollywood Lost and Found. http://www.hollywoodlostandfound.net/wilhelm.html.
- ^ 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
External links
- Times article in which Sheb Wooley's widow states her belief that her husband was the man behind the scream
- The Wilhelm Scream Compilation via YouTube
- Radio report about the Wilhelm scream, with transcript and audio examples of uses of the scream
- Film Sound Clichés at FilmSound.org
- Movies featuring the Wilhelm scream
- The Wilhelm Mockumentry
- The Helmut Scream - Wilhelm's brother
- Free Download - Wilhelm Scream Sample (1951)
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