my profile | my password | search | faq & rules | forum home

» Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE   » Community   » Film-Yak   » Movies With Good Gun Sound Effects (Page 1)

This topic comprises 3 pages: 1  2  3

Author Topic: Movies With Good Gun Sound Effects Aaron Garman Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1470 From: Toledo, OH USA Registered: Mar 2003 posted 04-27-2012 07:21 PM                     Bobby Henderson listed some movies in another thread with both good and bad gun sound effects. Let's name some more: Bad: any early James Bond film, and some more recent ones too. Great: Open Range, Last Man Standing AJG  |  IP: Logged Frank Cox Film God Posts: 2234 From: Melville Saskatchewan Canada Registered: Apr 2011 posted 04-27-2012 07:45 PM                        Safe House. I played that recently and boy, does it have some great gun shots.  |  IP: Logged Jonathan Althaus Master Film Handler Posts: 435 From: Bedford, TX Registered: Dec 2008 posted 04-28-2012 02:14 AM                     I thought the rounds in Shooter were fantastic  |  IP: Logged Martin McCaffery Film God Posts: 2481 From: Montgomery, AL Registered: Jun 99 posted 04-28-2012 08:28 AM                        I have no idea whether they are "good" or not, but Bonnie and Clyde was famous for its "explosive" gun sounds.  |  IP: Logged Bobby Henderson "Ask me about Trajan." Posts: 10973 From: Lawton, OK, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 04-28-2012 08:51 AM                     Heat had some well done gunfire sound, particularly the shootout in downtown Los Angeles. While saying that, certain M-16 audio effects really had the bass pumped up. Collateral is another Michael Mann movie with some accurate sounding gunfire. But one scene where a suppressed handgun was used had a typical, fake sounding silencer effect.  |  IP: Logged Paul Mayer Oh get out of it Melvin, before it pulls you under! Posts: 3836 From: Albuquerque, NM Registered: Feb 2000 posted 04-28-2012 11:43 AM                        Kinji Fukasaku's last film Battle Royale (2000) sounded pretty good on the Egyptian's system at the American Cinematheque. It's finally, finally out on blu-ray in the US now (only took 12 years).  |  IP: Logged Robert E. Allen Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1078 From: Checotah, Oklahoma Registered: Jul 2002 posted 05-01-2012 06:45 PM                     In addition to my theatre experience I spent 7 years as a deputy sheriff and police officer in Southern California and I can tell you that in most movies the gunshot sounds are not realistic. Most are over amplified. And FWIW not every car that crashes explodes and overturns.  |  IP: Logged Bobby Henderson "Ask me about Trajan." Posts: 10973 From: Lawton, OK, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 05-01-2012 11:53 PM                     To be fair, gunfire isn't the easiest thing to record. However, I think the movie audio folks could do a more accurate job in how they portray the gunfire sounds. The sound of suppressed weapons is rarely, if ever, portrayed accurately in movies. One scene near the end of The Bourne Identity had about the closest I've seen to an accurate rendition of the sound of suppressed handgun fire. YouTube has LOTS of gun fire videos, including ones of people firing pistols with suppressors attached. The sound may be different according to the type of ammo used, especially if the rounds have a super sonic or sub sonic muzzle velocity. Obviously, if you're wanting the pistol to be quiet as possible you'll be using sub sonic ammo. But you're still going to hear the slide of the pistol "clack" backwards when it is fired. Here's a couple examples I found: Example 1 Example 2  |  IP: Logged Joe Redifer You need a beating today Posts: 12859 From: Denver, Colorado Registered: May 99 posted 05-02-2012 12:26 AM                        Movies tend to sound like "POW POW POW" with their gunfire. Real guns sound more like "PAP PAP PAP" but they are still loud. I should know because I have fired guns because I'm tuf. I've never heard suppressed gunfire in real life. I've also never fired a gun without hearing protection. That would probably make my ears ring for several days. Thanks for linking those videos, Bobby. Those will help if I ever need to do sound design for a gun being fired with a suppressor. Mostly the clack is heard. I'd like to hear it indoors as well.  |  IP: Logged Bobby Henderson "Ask me about Trajan." Posts: 10973 From: Lawton, OK, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 05-02-2012 08:22 AM                     The obvious downside to the various YouTube videos of gunfire is the sound tends to be badly over-driven. A video camera can't auto-adjust its sound recording levels fast enough to prevent bad clipping. And then there's all the ambient noise of wind, birds and other background crap. Someone recording audio separately with a really good boom mic could get much better results, and even better still if recording the audio in some sort of controlled studio setting.  |  IP: Logged Joe Redifer You need a beating today Posts: 12859 From: Denver, Colorado Registered: May 99 posted 05-02-2012 02:02 PM                        I'd really like to record that. I have the equipment to do so, but I think that even an indoor shooting range might be too "live".  |  IP: Logged Rick Raskin Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1100 From: Manassas Virginia Registered: Jan 2003 posted 05-02-2012 02:58 PM                     The gunshots in "The African Queen" as the boat passes the fort of Shona. It is the closest I can associate with the actual experience.  |  IP: Logged Bobby Henderson "Ask me about Trajan." Posts: 10973 From: Lawton, OK, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 05-03-2012 09:56 AM                     Obviously Saving Private Ryan had some good machine gun sound effects. I remember hearing some effects during the D-Day invasion sequence that sounded very much like distant machine gun fire in actual combat footage or what I hear from time to time coming from Fort Sill. The 1911 .45 Tom Hanks was firing near the end of the movie had the "pop" sound I associate with real .45 semi-auto handgun fire. quote: Joe Redifer I'd really like to record that. I have the equipment to do so, but I think that even an indoor shooting range might be too "live". Indoor shooting ranges typically have horrible acoustics. Echo city. I wouldn't want to fire a handgun inside of a real recording studio out of concern the pollutants from gunfire could create problems. Finding an outdoor environment with minimal levels of background noise could be difficult. There's plenty of desolate areas in Oklahoma where you can fire guns, but the wind is constantly blowing here. The mic would need a really fuzzy wind screen to block out a lot of that. I think it's possible to "build" an accurate sound effect of suppressed handgun fire by layering the right kind of elements together and altering them to get the effect just right. The handgun slide element could be built by recording someone thumbing the slide catch lever to make a retracted handgun slide release forward. The sound might need to be sped up a bit and doubled on itself to get both the blow back and push forward sound just right. Then you have to layer the right sort of puff sound on top of it.  |  IP: Logged Randy Stankey Film God Posts: 6539 From: Erie, Pennsylvania Registered: Jun 99 posted 05-03-2012 11:15 AM                     Sound effects of gun shots need to conform with the audiences' consensus reality: That which the majority of people will accept as real, without regard to first hand experience. Gunshot sounds don't need to be real, recorded sounds. They only need to sound plausibly real such that the audience accepts them as real. In fact, if you made really real gunshot sound effects, your audience might walk out of the theater with hearing damage.  |  IP: Logged Bobby Henderson "Ask me about Trajan." Posts: 10973 From: Lawton, OK, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 05-03-2012 11:57 AM                     I'm not asking for the movie theater's sound system to duplicate the dynamic range and decibel level of gun fire. What I am asking is for it to not sound stupidly fake. There is a lot of movie gun fire sound effects that just aren't realistic, with the "silencer" effect being right there at the top. It's audio bullshit thrown into a mix like clip art. One of chief jobs a movie has is suspending the audiences' level of disbelief. One of the ways the filmmaker must do this is by making as many details authentic as possible. If he is creating gun sound effects to be believable only by the standards of people who don't know anything about guns then his sound effects are probably going to sound fake to people who have fired guns. I suspect movie sound people are altering gun fire sounds or creating artificial ones from other sources to make something that sounds more cool or bigger or whatever. Real gun fire sounds bad ass enough to me. It certainly sounds more scary than some of the "pew pew pew" handgun sounds that bothered me about Terminator 2: Judgment Day.  |  IP: Logged

All times are Central (GMT -6:00)

This topic comprises 3 pages: 1  2  3

Printer-friendly view of this topic

Hop To: Select a Forum: Category: Operations -------------------- Digital Cinema Forum Film Handlers' Forum Large Format Forum Ground Level Feature Info, Trailer Attachments & REAL Credit Offsets Category: Community -------------------- Film-Yak Film Handlers' Movie Reviews The Afterlife Bob Maar's Joke-A-Thon Category: Classified -------------------- Equipment and Supplies Wanted/For Sale Help Wanted/Seeking Employment Category: System -------------------- Software Beta Testing Forum

The Film-Tech Forums are designed for various members related to the cinema industry to express their opinions, viewpoints and testimonials on various products, services and events based upon speculation, personal knowledge and factual information through use, therefore all views represented here allow no liability upon the publishers of this web site and the owners of said views assume no liability for any ill will resulting from these postings. The posts made here are for educational as well as entertainment purposes and as such anyone viewing this portion of the website must accept these views as statements of the author of that opinion and agrees to release the authors from any and all liability.