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Re: Air Combat movie tropes

Thu Jun 07, 2012 3:46 pm

Most First World War scout squadrons seem to tangle with von Richthofen (or one of his cousins) at some point...!

Re: Air Combat movie tropes

Thu Jun 07, 2012 6:11 pm

How about the incredibly accurate machine guns with the phenomenal rate of fire that walk a neat line of bullet holes every six inches up the fuselage to the cockpit?

Re: Air Combat movie tropes

Fri Jun 08, 2012 9:02 am

shrike wrote:How about the incredibly accurate machine guns with the phenomenal rate of fire that walk a neat line of bullet holes every six inches up the fuselage to the cockpit?



Those same machine guns do the same thing to a dirt road during a strafing pass.... :D

Re: Air Combat movie tropes

Fri Jun 08, 2012 10:35 am

Dave Downs wrote:
shrike wrote:How about the incredibly accurate machine guns with the phenomenal rate of fire that walk a neat line of bullet holes every six inches up the fuselage to the cockpit?



Those same machine guns do the same thing to a dirt road during a strafing pass.... :D

Accompanied by lots of tire squeeling on dusty roads. geek

Re: Air Combat movie tropes

Fri Jun 08, 2012 11:21 pm

How about the official airplane 'diving noise?' That whining crescendo noise actually comes from the flying and landing wires vibrating on a biplane at high speed but don't tell the directors who attach that noise to EVERY OTHER AIRPLANE. Really, all of them. Ever.

-Tim

Re: Air Combat movie tropes

Sat Jun 09, 2012 12:49 am

Tiger Tim wrote:How about the official airplane 'diving noise?' That whining crescendo noise actually comes from the flying and landing wires vibrating on a biplane at high speed but don't tell the directors who attach that noise to EVERY OTHER AIRPLANE. Really, all of them. Ever.

And I don't think we've had the "all helicopters have to have the Huey (Bell system) 'whop whop whop' noise" even when the blades can't make it...

Re: Air Combat movie tropes

Sat Jun 09, 2012 1:02 am

Let's not forget the Stuka siren sound effects whenever a plane goes into a terminal dive...

Re: Air Combat movie tropes

Sat Jun 09, 2012 1:07 am

'It's a terminal velocity dive for the Army, I'll be doing about 400 when I pull out'

Re: Air Combat movie tropes

Sat Jun 09, 2012 1:10 am

Tiger Tim wrote:How about the official airplane 'diving noise?' That whining crescendo noise actually comes from the flying and landing wires vibrating on a biplane at high speed but don't tell the directors who attach that noise to EVERY OTHER AIRPLANE. Really, all of them. Ever.

-Tim

That's my all-time least favorite Aviation Movie Trope. I've never heard a real airplane make a sound anything like that..even aerobatic planes in a vertical dive. I've always wondered where the trope started..I though maybe it was inspired by the dive sirens on Stukas, but the sound effect was being used in movies well before that. I'd never heard that it was from the wires before, but it certainly makes sense. Of course, that means that no cantilever wing aircraft would even be capable of making that sound. Using it for anything other than a wire-braced aircraft is about as accurate as the (intentional) prop engine sound effects used for the 707 in "Airplane!"

Ironically, one of the few movies that didn't use the cheesy whine SFX was the recent "King Kong" remake. possibly because Peter Jackson is an aircraft officianado/collector. I always like it when directors start from scratch with sound rather than using tired old ckips from a library. Jackson actually sent a crew out to record a bunch of sound from a Harvard for his movie. It bodes well for his "Dambusters" project, provided it ever gets made.

And I don't think we've had the "all helicopters have to have the Huey (Bell system) 'whop whop whop' noise" even when the blades can't make it...

Not all of them...some movie helos sound like Bell 47s...even ones that are actually turbine-powered!


Sound is one of those things that can really make or break a movie for me. I can't count the number of times I've been wrenched out of the movie by radail-engine aircrft with inline sound effects, or vice versa. or worse turboprop SFX. I remember seeing a TV show once where there was a closeup of a C-130 engine spooling up, but the SFX was a large radial engine turning over.

Speaking of over-used sound effects, how about that same tires-touching-the-runway sound effect used in every movie ever.


SN

Re: Air Combat movie tropes

Sat Jun 09, 2012 7:28 am

Steve Nelson wrote:Sound is one of those things that can really make or break a movie for me. I can't count the number of times I've been wrenched out of the movie by radail-engine aircrft with inline sound effects, or vice versa. or worse turboprop SFX. I remember seeing a TV show once where there was a closeup of a C-130 engine spooling up, but the SFX was a large radial engine turning over.

SN


Not a military movie but one about sled-dogs in the Antartic where a turboprop ski-plane (Porter?) shuts the engine down and it makes 450HP P&W 'clanking' noises...............

Re: Air Combat movie tropes

Sat Jun 09, 2012 9:44 am

After watching, "The Blue Max" last night, I notice two more:
1. Tilting the camera to show planes diving at a higher angle, don't film makers realize we can see the clouds are roatating as well!
2. Cockpit shots obviously inside a studio, with lighting way lower than the cloudiest day and a background that never changes.
DarenC1 wrote:Let's not forget the Stuka siren sound effects whenever a plane goes into a terminal dive...
AMEN to that, brother! That always drove me nuts, wish I'd thought to post that!
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