Quitn from Ain't It Cool News has been posting a daily behind the scene picture for a while now. Sent in by readers from all over the internet, the pic of the day thread is one of the highlights of reading Ain't It Cool, not just reserved for serious geeks some of these shots are a snapshot into a past world. A successful film might reach a wide audience and in some sense have an immortal quality, these pictures show the workings behind those iconic sequences, I love them.
Showing posts with label Geek. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Geek. Show all posts
June 7, 2011
Pic of the day...
Quitn from Ain't It Cool News has been posting a daily behind the scene picture for a while now. Sent in by readers from all over the internet, the pic of the day thread is one of the highlights of reading Ain't It Cool, not just reserved for serious geeks some of these shots are a snapshot into a past world. A successful film might reach a wide audience and in some sense have an immortal quality, these pictures show the workings behind those iconic sequences, I love them.
February 9, 2011
Geek Wars...
Check out this great fan boys unofficial re-cut of Star Wars Ep. 4 with loads of brilliant geek making of stuff tied in...
It's also been done to Empire and Jedi. Check it out...
June 29, 2008
Yeaaaaaaaaaaah...
Popped into my local flea pit the other day to watch Kung Fu Panda, very good, I recommend it. Good animation, good story, good cast, good gags. Anyway I noticed in one of the fight scenes there was a familiar sound effect. A scream to be exact, the sort of scream you hear when someone gets pushed off a high thing.
I looked it up when I got back to the kennel and sure enough it was a 'Wilhelm Scream'.
The Wilhelm scream is something of a sound effects tradition; in 1951 on the film 'Distant Drums' with Gary Cooper, a scream was recorded for a scene where a man gets eaten by a alligator, as with most studio post stuff, the sound was archived and became available in Warner Bros. sound library. It was used again in 1953 in 'A Charge at Feather River' where a solder named Pvt. Wilhelm gets an arrow in his leg. And the name was coined.
The sound effect was then used in many other Warner Bros. releases, until in 1977 a sound designer by the name Ben Burtt was hired to create sound effects on 'Star Wars'. He had noted the use of the Wilhelm scream and decided to use it as his 'nod' to sound designers all over the world. Sort of in-joke. Ben Burtt went on to sound design for many films including the Indiana Jones trilogy and all the Star Wars films, often for Spielberg related pictures.
It gets used all the time these days, and once you know the sound you can't fail to miss it. There are some variations, and there have been other recordings of similar screams. Check out this compilation of the original scream and some of Burtt's uses for it, when they are all put together like this it seems amazing that it's not more obvious, but with years between the releases and hours of screen time, it just becomes another scream.
There is also a metal band called 'A Wilhelm Scream' that just goes to show, all 'metallers' are really just geeks who probably work in IT.
I looked it up when I got back to the kennel and sure enough it was a 'Wilhelm Scream'.
The Wilhelm scream is something of a sound effects tradition; in 1951 on the film 'Distant Drums' with Gary Cooper, a scream was recorded for a scene where a man gets eaten by a alligator, as with most studio post stuff, the sound was archived and became available in Warner Bros. sound library. It was used again in 1953 in 'A Charge at Feather River' where a solder named Pvt. Wilhelm gets an arrow in his leg. And the name was coined.
The sound effect was then used in many other Warner Bros. releases, until in 1977 a sound designer by the name Ben Burtt was hired to create sound effects on 'Star Wars'. He had noted the use of the Wilhelm scream and decided to use it as his 'nod' to sound designers all over the world. Sort of in-joke. Ben Burtt went on to sound design for many films including the Indiana Jones trilogy and all the Star Wars films, often for Spielberg related pictures.
It gets used all the time these days, and once you know the sound you can't fail to miss it. There are some variations, and there have been other recordings of similar screams. Check out this compilation of the original scream and some of Burtt's uses for it, when they are all put together like this it seems amazing that it's not more obvious, but with years between the releases and hours of screen time, it just becomes another scream.
There is also a metal band called 'A Wilhelm Scream' that just goes to show, all 'metallers' are really just geeks who probably work in IT.
Check this list...
June 9, 2008
Those nerds are a threat to our way of life...
Whilst languishing in the Doghouse chewing on my bone, I've been reading scripts. Old, new, sold, unsold, different drafts - check the Good Smells... for links.
I find the development of an idea from conception to realization very interesting and to read the first draft of a film that has been released is quite insightful. What goes and what stays and how a director, crew and actors have interpreted the text.
In some cases you can also see ideas being recycled and moved from project to project.
For example in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull there is a scene where Indy escapes from a nuclear blast in a lead lined fridge. As unbelievable as this gag is, it looks like it might just be a recycled idea from the original draft of Back to the Future by Robert Zemeckis & Bob Gale back in 1981, also produced by Frank Marshall and Steven Spielberg.
In the original script; to generate time travel Doc Brown uses direct nuclear power, not electricity - and in 1955 the only nuclear source is at a military testing base - starting to sound familiar? Lead lining of the fridge protects Marty and he is sent back to the future.
Director Robert Zemeckis said in an interview that the idea was scrapped because he and Steven Spielberg did not want children to start climbing into refrigerators and getting trapped inside.
I wonder.
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