
How the Godzilla Team Designed the Monster’s Iconic Scream - glisom
http://www.wired.com/2014/05/designing-godzillas-scream/
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mark_l_watson
About 15 years ago, I was the lead programmer for a virtual reality ride
prototype for Disney. We had added pterodactyls flying overhead.

The night before the demo presentation, I created a good pterodactyl scream by
taking a recording of dolphins, reversing it, and dropping the frequency.
Sounds strange, but I didn't have much time, and the effect was surprisingly
good. A woman from marketing was trying the ride and raved that we got the
pterodactyl scream just right.

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triangleman83
She must have been an old lady to remember what they sound like!

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logfromblammo
I think foley too often gets short shrift as an art. You would think that in a
medium where people are so eager to drop huge wads of cash on pseudoscience
and marketing hype, the people who make sound effects that are even more
believable than real-life noise would be heroes and legends.

Think about what good foley means to you. The arrival or departure of the
TARDIS. Godzilla's roar. The sweepy red light on KITT. The "pew pew" of a
laser gun that shouldn't really make any noise at all. The incongruous farty
buzzing sound of a GAU-8 taking apart a tank. The crackle and hum of a light
saber in motion. The "errr aka-chicka aka-chicka tullet-peppa tullet-peppa" of
Ripley entering the Nostromo's computer core. The signature sound of a modem
handshake. The ringtone of the very first mobile phone you ever owned.

It's just as important as the visual portion of a story, but gets much less
respect.

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chiph
While I think the bass rumble at the end is more true-to-life (if a 50 meter
tall radioactive lizard can be said to be real..) the earlier films from Toho
didn't have it.

Perhaps Toho would have added it if the recording & reproduction systems of
the time could have produced it, I don't know.

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marquis
Given that birds would be more closely related to Godzilla (as a dinosaur-like
creature) I imagine he would have made more of a highly intense parrot screech
rather than a lion/mammal roar. Then again: crocs have vocal cords apparently.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7aOBcD3M70&t=32](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7aOBcD3M70&t=32)

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eam
Pretty cool video of the different Godzilla's roar throughout time dating back
to 1954:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORSvf8eVa0g](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORSvf8eVa0g)

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leephillips
This seems to be about some modern Godzilla movie. I was hoping to find out
how the unusual noise was made in the originals.

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chadgeidel
I watched a documentary once that claimed the source (manipulated of course)
was the sound of a metal gate opening.

Wikipedia says it was created via "...rubbing a resin coated glove along the
string of a contrabass and then slowing down the playback"
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godzilla](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godzilla)

 _shrugs_

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LeeHunter
If you're interested in motion picture sound design, you'll want to read about
the groundbreaking work done for The Exorcist way back in 1973
[http://theexorcist.warnerbros.com/cmp/silencebottom.html](http://theexorcist.warnerbros.com/cmp/silencebottom.html)

