How come I'd never heard of the Wilhelm Scream until today?

[Shaun Roemich]

YouTube - History of the Wilhelm Scream

One of the best kept secrets in movie foley?

[Chris Hurd]

You've definitely heard it before -- you just didn't now what it was called!

Frankly I hate it, by virtue of its overuse ad nauseum. But thanks for posting about it!

Here's an annoying compilation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zQjb...eature=related

[Dave Blackhurst]

Sounds like a typical "insider joke" - sort of like easter eggs... goes with detail oriented creative types.

I know it's always fun watching animated movies with the kids, as they always seem to toss a lot of obscure movie trivia type references in. People who are into movies and get involved in the industry (particularly sci-fi, animation, and action/comic book movie types) always like to pay tribute to "the classics", and toss in little jokes.

I remember attending a Model builder club meeting where the guys who did the models for the original Star Wars came in to speak (back when the ships were "real", NOT CGI), and they had all sorts of fun tales about the little "funny" details they built into those models - the only one I remember is somewhere in the Death Star trench was a USPS mailbox... but there were lots of them.

Somehow I can see how Lucas, Spielberg, Disney and Pixar would have "creative" people working on their movies, other studios also seem to slip in clever cameos and references for the true film-o-phile... drives my family crazy when I spot those silly fun things, and now I've just added another one... the Wilhelm scream...

Perhaps this is why no one will play "Trivial Pursuit" with me... Then again my 7 year old is picking up on this stuff too... he finds the "making of" featurettes as interesting as the actual movie, just like I do!

[Jonathan Jones]

Once you get used to the Wilhelm scream, it becomes very easy to pick out and can even distract the movie enjoying experience, kind of like when you spot really bad CGI or see a part of the lighting rig in the frame.

One that I am absolutely certain I've heard before is even more identifiable, although far more rarely used. It is a James Brown scream, although I am not sure if it was actually provided by James Brown. I think it is.

It's not quite as over-the-top as the repetitive "car alarm" radio spot at the beginning of Blind Date, but I have heard it in movies before.

I think the first time was in the 1992 Mick Jagger smash hit ;) "Freejack" during an explosive vehicular crash sequence. I heard a James Brown scream during an explosion and it was so identifiable that it took me right out of the movie. (although to be fair, I was already laughing - Mick was considerably less intimidating than intended ).

I have heard that same scream used in a number of films since then and am pretty well convinced that it is an authentic James Brown audio clip.

-Jon

[Shaun Roemich]

Originally Posted by Dave Blackhurst

Sounds like a typical "insider joke" - sort of like easter eggs... goes with detail oriented creative types.

Speaking of Easter Eggs: for the first three years I was making video, I was driving a '92 Jeep Cherokee 2dr in red. VERY uncommon. Well, you'd be surprised how many safety/training/corporate videos I deliberately included it in... Once a client good naturedly ribbed me about it and laughingly said he didn't want to see it in his video. Well, after all screening, the final edit was approved and printed to tape. At which point I showed him an interview in the finished video where you could JUST see out the window beside the interviewee's head - there it was, out of focus but in frame. Thankfully the client laughed.

My subsequent black Jeep never made it into ANY of my videos.

[Lucinda Adams]

I don't know that or him either. I will take a look at it. Is it interesting?
I like when unknown things/people/movies come up and turn out to be great.

[Matt Buys]

Great link. Thanks.