The Wilhelm Scream: Research

I'm doing an infographic project for my visual design class, and I've decided to make an infographic based upon the Wilhelm Scream.

I've used several sources to compile my information:

• Disney Wikia: Wilhelm Scream: lists Disney/Pixar films which use the scream. Gives a total of 23, not counting Star Wars films.
  
• Reading The Scream in Berberian Sound Studio and the films of Peter Strickland by Matthew Melia. Notes there are six variants of the scream. "Among the dense layers of sound effects, music and dialogue of the films is a stock sound affect that has transcended its status as a relic of old Hollywood to become a fixture of contemporary cinema…the Wilhelm scream."
  
• Mario, Sonic, the Eds, and Friends Ride: The Wilhelm Scream: Contains large list of films using the sound and describes the scenes it is used in.
  
• Letterboxd: The Wilhelm Scream: large list of films using the sound. I primarily compiled my list from here.
  
• Filmsound: The Wilhelm Scream: Describes scenes where the sound appears. Explains where the sound got its name (named for character who screams in 1953's "Charge at Feather River"), and who first named it (Ben Burtt).
  
• Hollywood Lost and Found: The Wilhelm Scream. Lists movies and scenes, but stopped being updated in 2010.
  
• The Wilhelm Scream: Discusses the history of the sound effect. Theorizes it is the voice of Sheb Wooley.
  
• wilhelm.wav: Has a good copy of the sound and also has spectral analysis.
  

I also installed the Movie Filmstrip font from DaFont.com.



And, in order to create my own data set, I made a very short poll: The Wilhelm Scream Survey with the following question:

Do you notice the Wilhelm Scream in movies?
1. Yes.
2. No.
3. I don't know what that is.

After collecting my data from my various sources, I figured out some statistics and interesting points.

Next, I looked up different sorts of infographics. I went to a blog post called 8 Types of Infographics: Which Is Right For You?. It lists the following infographic types:

1. Visualized Article
   
2. Flowchart
   
3. The Timeline
   
4. Useful Bait
   
5. Versus Inforgraphic
   
6. Number Crunch
   
7. Photo Infographic
   
8. Data Vis
   

My information could be represented well through Visualized Article, The Timeline, Number Crunch, or Data Vis. I decided to go with Visualized Article as it allows for some writing, and some of the points I wish to share are not numeric.

I found a good article on creating visualized articles at The Do's And Don'ts Of Infographic Design.

Reflective Photography: Experiments

I'd been hoping to experiment with light painting and reflective photography, but because I've been working so intensely on my studio project, I haven't had any time to make a proper blacked-out room at home. I've had no time to go to campus to use the studio there. So I decided to experiment with natural daylight and with the various lights I have at home.

My first experiment was prompted by our house renovations. Some cans of house paint have been sitting in the upstairs hallway for a while, and when I came upstairs the other day, I saw that the afternoon sun was showing off their reflective nature quite nicely. In addition, the cans were reflected off the hardwood floor.

I tried several shots of this before deciding to add some lamp light from the east to give a little more rim-lighting.

Here's the first shot:



If I'd gone with the can photos, I'd have chosen this one:



Later, while I was tidying up my room, I grabbed an empty chip bag to throw out. Then I thought I could get some interesting textures/effects by photographing the inside of it. I washed out the crumbs and made sure there were still plenty of water droplets for added texture. It took several shots before I could find a way to keep the camera's reflection out of the bag. Ultimately, I went for a shot which took advantage of reflected background. I wrapped myself in a bright orange towel and ended up with this:



I like this one because the chaos of the wrinkled chip bag resolves to a Fibonacci Spiral.