VF48Hours Forum

in reply to Andrew Todd:

Every time you see a V can, finish your V.

in reply to AJ:

Every time you see a V can, finish your V.

Recipe for death in 5 minutes, in some cases.

in reply to Sam Spooner:

I think it maybe the worst implemented requirement ever.

Haven't been able to make it to heats (boo-urns), but while this may be true, I think it's also one of the least versatile (if not THE least versatile) required elements yet. I mean it's not something like "Electronic Beep Number 8", it's an iconic attention grabber that is now basically a massive film in-joke. So your choices were basically:

1) Have it as an in-universe sound. As Alex and Marmoset have pointed out, if your film is a serious or suspenseful one, the Wilhelm-Scream-as-actual-scream kills that stone dead, if even for a moment. It's just too cliched/comedy a noise now. If you're making a comedy film, it could probably be a pretty good gag with the right use, but it's still someone screaming. Could you use it for something that is *not* a scream, e.g. a creaky door opening or something weird? Maybe (I'm sure many teams did), but again I'm not sure it doesn't just bring whatever your film is up to screeching to a halt. So if these won't work in your film anywhere you are left with;

2) Have it as an in-universe *sound effect*, e.g TV in the background, text noise. Not so front and centre, plus more believable (for real-world set films anyway) in that a famous, recognisable sound effect appears in context *as* a sound effect, not a a sound. But not a lot of wide scope here again, and thus probably the sheer number of ringtones.

So I don't think it was an easy one to use inventively, although I'm sure some teams out there have managed to do it and can prove me wrong. I guess the other approach would be to make it barely audible under some other noise(s) for box-ticking purposes, but that sort of thing feels like a bit of a cheat.

in reply to Cardinal:

Part of me wanted to include a Pulp-Fiction-Quarter-Pounder-with-Cheese conversation about the Wilhelm scream, just so the film would still feel like it could stand up outside the competition.

Drink every time someone stabs someone with a knife.

in reply to steelpotato:

I do this in real life, it's the only way to cope with the misery.

Who completely forgot to pay attention to collisions and smash cuts when watching? Or was it just me?

I dropped the Wilhelm Scream into one of my shorts 9 years ago. This is not relevant to this years conversation, but I always enjoyed it.

A couple of trends in Taranaki were:
- People being hit by cars (collisions, must have been 4-5 of these, which is a lot out of like... 17 films)
- Little swirly fairy dust like VFX when magic things happen.
- Montages
- Wilhelm scream feeling out of place, lol.
- New teams and school teams (I think we had 8/19 teams were school teams that registered) which is great :)

I wasn't a huge fan of the Wilhelm scream as a sound effect, just because it really was hard to put it in seamlessly. And it just got more and more comical every time you heard it when you were watching 10 films in a row, no matter what the feeling of the film was. I would have preferred "a scream" so you could make it match your story better, especially if you cast "a female" as your lead and had no reason to have some other random male scream (since it's a male voice).

We got creative and did some layering with out editing to try to make it fit better. We're guilty of the collision with a random extra gig, haha, but I wanted a cameo :P Nah we tried to use several collisions just in case anything ended up on the cutting room floor.

This year we took some risks ourselves, we have been a team of 2 for the past 3 years, and we've filmed exclusively inside our house. We added 2 more actors we met a couple of months ago and also went and filmed out at a proper location (restaurant) instead of trying to make the dining room look like one. We also made a serious film instead of a light-hearted comedy, and stretched the genre as far as we could.

I was apprehensive about all of that change, but we wrapped at 5:30pm Sat instead of 3:30am Sunday so I was pretty happy with that, haha.

Well, we got the Horror-Comedy genre, which is pretty much custom-made for having a Wilhelm scream in it - so I feel like we got off lightly there!

in reply to Jay Baker:

Well, we got the Horror-Comedy genre, which is pretty much custom-made for having a Wilhelm scream in it

Now that's an interesting discussion. Which genres this year could easily justify the wilhelm scream?

in reply to TheNimbleMarmoset:

Thanks. I'm glad you liked our use of the sound effect. I find the element thing so hard to think of something that everyone isn't going to think of too. I thought TV sound effect would be obvious but perhaps wasn't. Ringtone never occurred to me. But it's weird like that. The year we used a meatball for a ball I thought that was clever until the 3rd film of our heat used a meatball as well and I realized it wasn't. It's almost like everyone is going to try and think of something clever and whatever the first 5 clever things you come up with are will be what everyone uses. If you can come up with 5 more you may have a winner. Otherwise go for the obvious as most people won't do it because they think "everyone will use that! It's too obvious"

in reply to AJ:

Now that's an interesting discussion. Which genres this year could easily justify the wilhelm scream?

I feel like there were plenty this year where it could fit fairly seamlessly - Alien, Bad Seed, Horror Comedy, Supernatural, Survival, Z-Grade...even Science-Fiction. And Christmas movies make me want to scream too :-)

All this hate for one goofy scream?

I made a film of very questionable quality* but I think the scream was integrated quite cleanly. When you layer it with other screams it is distinguishable but really not that out of place.

It stands out so much less than hearing about a character called "Charlie Flowers" 12 films in a row, in previous years that has really taken me out of most films. Maybe this wouldn't be the case for an audience members who haven't been involved in producing a film but still.

*I had Z Grade so that's fine...

in reply to Sam Page:

It stands out so much less than hearing about a character called "Charlie Flowers" 12 films in a row

This is true, though I'd argue it's easier to hide a character's name than it is a gawky sound effect, and you can interperet character traits in a lot more ways than the Wilhelm Scream.

After 8 Wellington heats we had a few trends:

This year everyone filmed in interesting locations - lots of outdoors and variation. THANK YOU!

Most of the teams killed off their characters - Wellington was pretty much a river of blood - especially the earlier heats - lots of stabbing and lots of smashing people with rocks.

Christmas films all went really dark - evil trees, murder, human dolls...

We did have a couple of Weekend at Bernies too.

And the Wilhelm ring tone appeared quite a bit too.

We were pretty impressed overall though - technical quality just keeps going up and it was great to see how many teams did original scores this year.

i thought everyone in heat 1 i saw used the wilhelm scream really well, and it wasn't such an eye-rolling experience as i expected after all the whinge-ing on here - so there :P

ps. being accused of "faux z-grade" in reviews =) ... that's a funny thing... how does one make a "genuine" z-grade film - without being aware you've been asked to make a z-grade film (?) ... guess I ain't no natural born Tommy Wiseau

in reply to fakenews:

ps. being accused of "faux z-grade" in reviews =) ... that's a funny thing... how does one make a "genuine" z-grade film - without being aware you've been asked to make a z-grade film (?) ... guess I ain't no natural born Tommy Wiseau

It's an interesting one. It is a slight issue that I have with how this genre is applied by teams. My argument is that these films should be serious film-making efforts and that they shouldn't come across as intentionally bad as that wasn't the intent of directors such as Ed Wood. It's just that they were inept. So it's tricky - you've got to be subtle enough that it doesn't feel forced (oh, I did that actual bad focus/cut on purpose) while still applying some of those exact tropes associated with Z-grade. Remember that the term Z-grade was something applied to this type of film years after they were made. So the film, in my eyes, shouldn't come across as self-aware. Not easy. I think "Dystography" in CHCH achieved this which probably contradicts my review of their film.

in reply to Mista Teas:

I have it! when you find out you got z-grade... immediately contact a really bad director and crew, and employ them to make an earnest film with no idea why... and then submit whatever they come up with

in reply to fakenews:

pps... we had genuine side-splitting fun making our entry - cheap fx / boom shadows / at one point a random citizen walked in the background of a shot and i nearly wet myself at the irony - now i regret i didn't put that shot in - it was the epitome of z-grade... sigh