5 Ridiculous Origins of Movie Sound Effects
Sound design is one of those things that makes a huge difference in a film production, but that you never really think about. We're not talking about music here -- everyone knows the themes to Jaws, Indiana Jones, Star Wars and The Godfather (three of those made by the same guy, incidentally). We mean the robot beeps, heavy footsteps, massive explosions, monster roars, sword clangs and laser blasts that help bring a fantasy universe to life.
All of that stuff has to be created from scratch, usually by just one or two people. And usually, the high-tech sounds are created by whatever random shit they have nearby. For example ...
#5. The Star Wars Blaster Sound Is a Guy Smacking a Cable with a Hammer
The Effect:
This one is instantly recognizable. The wonderfully distinctive "pew-pew" of blaster fire in the Star Wars films sings through the action, whether Greedo is shooting first or the Stormtroopers are missing everything in sight.
Laser blasts kind of sound like bullshit in either case.
One would assume that the sound effect for a deadly piece of future technology would be made with ... well, technology. A computer mixing board or a synthesizer or some other engine of bleep-bloop witchcraft has to be responsible for creating those wicked laser sounds, right?
The Reality:
Legendary sound designer Ben Burtt (Star Wars, Indiana Jones, E.T., Willow ... basically, this guy made the soundtrack to your childhood) decided to eschew the old sci-fi cliches of synthetic beeps and buzzes when he worked on Star Wars. Sure, he could've just used a synthesized oscillator to make the laser sounds, but he went above and beyond the call of duty. Way above, as it happens.
Star Wars Wiki
He also made the whummmm whum whum tssssssh whum. Bless you, sir.
Burtt, armed with a tape recorder and a microphone, climbed a nearby radio tower (this was before 9/11, when people could do things like that for no reason). Then, presumably while trying his very best to look like he knew exactly what he was doing, he beat the ever-loving shit out of one of the guide wires with a hammer, recording the sound of the strikes. After a little bit of cleanup in the production studio, voila! Laser sounds! Subsequent generations of nerdy children could now be kept safely indoors.
Getty
"I bet if I smashed that with a hammer it would sound like the future."
#4. The Dinosaurs in Jurassic Park Are Whales, Horses and Koala Bears
The Effect:
Obviously, no one knows what a dinosaur actually sounds like.
That being said, arguably most people's knowledge of dinosaurs comes courtesy of one film: Jurassic Park. That movie showed us all what dinosaurs looked like, how they moved and (most importantly for this article) what noises they made. That last part is the brainchild of one man, sound designer Gary Rydstrom.
Many scientists insisted that dinosaurs didn't really roar the way we might imagine them to, and more likely just made gurgling sounds, but Rydstrom saw how totally lame that was and decided that this time, science could go screw itself.
"Gurgles can suck it. The T. rex sounded like a freight train made of teeth."
The result was a library of dinosaur roars, screeches, grunts and snarls that has essentially become a scientific document in the popular consciousness. This is what dinosaurs sounded like, without question:
The Reality:
Tasked with imagining the vocalizations of several distinct varieties of long-dead creatures with absolutely no frame of reference, Rydstrom started where you'd expect -- by recording some contemporary dangerous animals and tweaking the sounds. But it wasn't as simple as "record a lion and make it more dinosaury." It was much more insane. Take the most iconic dinosaur from the film, the Tyrannosaurus rex:
There are about a half a dozen animals involved in his "voice": a whale (for the breathing), lions, alligators and tigers (for the low frequencies of roaring), an elephant (his primary, gut-busting roar) and a freaking koala (for the grunting).
Seriously. Check out this video and listen to the similarities:
The part where T. rex eats the lawyer off the toilet? That visceral chomping sound is a horse eating a corncob. The raptors breathing? That's the same horse, just relaxing. And later on, when T. rex bursts into that clearing like the Kool-Aid Man and eats a gallimimus? That sound is another horse, a female in heat screaming at a nearby stallion, because it is completely reasonable to assume that giant lizard monsters made noises like that.
#3. The Opening of the Doors on the Starship Enterprise Is Paper Sliding from an Envelope
The Effect:
So you have your Federation-class starship, a sleek, futuristic environment that looks clean enough for neurosurgery. But what about the doors? They can't just swing open on creaky old hinges, that would be totally ridiculous.
And Star Trek is never ridiculous.
So the doors on the Enterprise slide open autonomously, making that distinct whooshing noise we've all come to recognize. Check it out here, in this Star Trek: The Next Generation clip (which not only illustrates our point, but is also a tour de force of unintentional comedy):
Picard's hilarious and vaguely sexual commands aside, what could be the source of that futuristic "fssshh" noise made by the door to his office?
The Reality:
Believe it or not, that sound is just a piece of paper getting pulled from an envelope and somebody's shoe squeaking across the floor. Honestly, that's all it is; listen again and it'll spring out at you clear as day. Every time Kirk or Picard goes through a door: fssshh, paper from an envelope, squeaky shoe.
Sometimes space sounds like a guy in wingtips opening his mail.
The new J.J. Abrams Star Trek film used a different inspiration for the door slide -- a vacuum flush toilet, because apparently he wanted to take the series in a different direction while still preserving its dignity.
Sound design has a wacky world indeed.
ReplyI've got one to add to these: The Ghasts in Minecraft are the sound designer's cat.
"Surely there can be no other source for this sound than the hollow, demented screams of actual undead spirits."
ReplyI'm still not convinced it's not.
The Balrog thing is cool though. Still going to give me nightmares every time I watch it, and I still only going to avoid cheering for Gandalf because I'm breathless at the sight.
There's a scream that shows up in a lot of action movies, made by a country n' western singer, for some reason it's contracted that this scream has to be included, i think, not sure why. It's always uttered by a minor bad guy dying, first noticed it in indiana Jones movies.
ReplyWilhelm scream.
See, this is why the foley artists are awesome.
ReplyI remember watching the making of Titan AE on the DVD and for the part where they are trying to avoid each other in the ice mine field they used the sound of heads of cabbage/lettuce being ripped apart for the sound of the ice breaking. Nevermind there is no sound in space of course :)
Reply"a blue police box that flies through space and time because in Britain that's called "imagination." -- that IS imagination.
ReplyThis article reminded me of a cherished childhood memory.
Reply Hide All See All 3 RepliesThe year was 1994 and Jurassic Park had just been released on Laserdisc (I was four years old). We were at a family party (might have been Thanksgiving) up in Maine, and my douchebag uncle who has 10 of everything but never uses any of it except to rub it in everyone's face, was showing off his brand new, GIANT flat screen TV (I think it was like, 38" or something) and 5.1 dolby surround sound system. In his bragging, he thought, "What better way to show off all my fancy new s**t, than to watch JURASSIC MUTHER f*****g PARK on LASERDISC? (Oh that's right, bitches)." But my sister and I were too young at the time (4 and 6) to watch it, so they decided to watch it after we had gone to sleep so that we wouldn't get too freaked out.
Yea. Remember the part about the new SURROUND SOUND SYSTEM and how my uncle is a dick?
He cracked up the volume SO LOUD it was literally shaking the house with every gut-wrenching scream, bone-crushing crack and bowel-shaking roar. My sister and I could hear EVERY decibel of terror as we tried to sleep in the downstairs guest room. Think a T-Rex tearing out of the prehistoric jungle with the specific intent of f*****g UP YOUR s**t is scary? Try hearing it and not being able to see it. The imagination of a terrified four-year-old has a higher budget than any special effects director in hollywood, and those memories don't go away. No matter how much therapy you throw at a kid.
(Oh memories.)
Wow, mate. You sound just like the articles on this site! Cracked should hire you to write for them.
The fact that this happened in Maine made this story 329794659273459074359069x better. Represent!
I know what you mean about sounds being much more terrifying when you can't see what they're coming from. I was in the other room when my ex-husband was watching The Punisher, and I heard such screaming and sounds that were surely coming from Death himself, that I figured the movie must be insanely graphic and shit-your-pants gruesome. Some years later, I watched the movie myself and found that, not only was it lacking in guts and gore, but it was actually pretty hilarious at times. Go figure!
According to Peter Jackson the sound of the Ring Wraiths is his wife, Fran, screaming while she had a sore throat.
Replycrazy stuff. very inventive sound effects though.
ReplyBeing a self-professed Ringer, #1 of course made me smile and laugh. Far from ruining any sort of "magic" for me information like these simply enhances my movie watching experience. I love how seemingly inexplicable noises are really just so simple. For instance, the sound of crunching things such as glass or leaves is often just the sound people walking on and crushing bags of pretzels. ;)
Reply★★★★★ Life is sometimes boring. Have you ever felt that something wonderful should be
Replyinjected? Come---onenightcupid.c/0/m---, you are bound to find your saucy match with
hundreds of thousands of cute guys and pretty girls from around the world eager for a secure short-term relationship! n_n
hundreds of thousands? i don't think i could handle that much boning.
"Life is sometimes boring. Have you ever felt that something wonderful should be
injected?" -- why yes, that's why i tried heroin. No punchline here.
What? No "The sound of the T1000 was made by putting a microphone in a condom and dipping it in oatmeal"? I am disappoint.
ReplyIs... is that true? ._.
I liked jurassic park, but I spent the whole movie hoping they would kill those f*****g kids.
ReplyFrankly, I'm ASTONISHED that you could complain about those kids when we have so many rampant, obnoxious child actors on our screens today.
The ones in Jurassic Park were downright-- TOLERABLE. They were a little annoying, but that was part of the act, from Dr. Grant's perspective, y'know? And while they were running around horrified, they didn't seem so bad. (The girl was never bad at all, actually, and I liked Tim the whole way)
Now I'm just being defensive. It seems that all of the child actors that are actually GOOD are the ones who are insulted.
(JP from Angels in the Outfield a prime example)
I thought the Tardis made that sound cause he left the parking brake on.
Replyhaha
This article tried to kill the magic; I had to stop reading and erase it from my memory
ReplyBah. You're no fun. I find knowing how the magic works just serves to make it all the more impressive.
Actually, only the Picard-era Star Trek doors were the "paper envelope" special effect. The Kirk-era door sounds were created from the sound of an air gun being fired, but reversed.
ReplyYOU FORGOT GODZILLA's ROAR!!!! From Wikipedia: "composer Akira Ifukube produced the sound by rubbing a resin-covered leather glove along the loosened strings of a double bass and then slowed down the playback." For shame. You all deserve a balogna slap.
ReplyYeah, I know I misspelled "bologna," so what?
i thought they'd mention it too.
I once saw a movie called Indiana Jones and the Temple of Poon,and,well you know where this is goin!
ReplyNowhere...
Mighty Chirlax, you have wasted 10 seconds of my life that I could have been using to hit things with 2"x4"s. You are the MC of suck.
I seen a movie called Star Whores,and it wernt about space!
ReplyI seen a movie called Jurassic Pork,and there wernt no dinosaurs in it!
ReplyThree misguided and misplaced attempts at being funny. All denied. Maybe you should start up a blog or something, invite your frien.... family to read it, and see if they'll give you attention.