Why do movies never have realistic-sounding gunshots?

[big inch]

Has anyone else noticed that the gunshots in almost every movie and TV show sound so fake?

The one exception I can think of would be Open Range. They actually had some fairly good sounding effects in that one. There may be others, but I can't think of any at the moment.

 

[OF]

Heat would be another exception.

Most directors aren't interested in taking the time (and effort/expense) to produce that level of detail, is my guess.

- Gabe

 

[dolanp]

Heat would be another exception.

Yup, I was going to say the same.

 

[big inch]

I don't recall ever seeing Heat. I'll have to check that one out.

Another thing is the lack of technical correctness in general about firearms. Such as, when someone shoots 17 times with a revolver and never reloads.

 

[jlwatts3]

Because most movie goers don't give a rats rear end. That and the directors and producers don't have a clue.

 

[LeonCarr]

I saw a behind the scenes show on the movie Collateral, and they said that they fired live ammo on a firing range, recorded it, and put it in to the movie. Pretty cool.

Just my .02,
LeonCarr

 

[mbs357]

Tremors (the first, can't remember about the other two) had great sounding guns, especially when Bert could be heard in the distance.

 

[Glock19Fan]

I agree with Leon, the gunshots in Collateral did sound very real.

BTW most guns are blank firing guns, which are different in just about every way from real cartridges.

 

[big inch]

Oh yeah, I forgot about Collateral. Good sound effects, and a pretty good movie too.

 

[Phyphor]

Most guns in movies...

are of the blank firing variety, which generally don't sound much like a real gun (lighter powder load, faster burning, and no projectile to speak of, )
The sounds aren't used from the BFGs, they're dubbed in by the sound editors....and if said editors don't have a clue, they'll just use stock 'gunfire' sound effects....

:banghead:

 

[Zundfolge]

Most of the movie going public has no experience with real guns.

Real guns (especially handguns) sound like "pop pop pop" not BOOM! so if you did use real gun sounds in a movie you'd end up with an audience complaining about how "unrealistic" the gun sound where because they expect a 9mm to sound like a 12ga.

Of course the movie going public has this unrealitic idea of what guns sound like because of Hollywood ... so its kind of a chicken-and-egg thing

 

[Correia]

The sound was excellent in Black Hawk Down also.

 

[MAKOwner]

Way of the Gun has great effects as well. I especially love the long range sniping scene with the Galil where you see the shooters muzzle flashes, hear/see the rounds hit at the target, then hear the reports. Don't see that kind of attention to gun details in most movies. It also has a crapload of reloading in the big shootout near the end which is also rare in hollywood. Only small complaint is the poor usage of the Galil in the CQB thing near the end...

If I understand it correctly the director or someone similar went out into the desert and fired the guns to be used in the movie, and recorded the sounds from that...

You can really tell the difference in reports from the handguns and the shotgun and Galil in the movie...

 

[meef]

While the unrealistic gunshots can be annoying - what really irks my senses is whenever every freaking thing that gets hit by bullets..... throws off showers of sparks!

ANNOYING!

I mean I've seen cinderblock walls, car windshields, tires, etc., etc., sparking like the 4th of July when inundated by the obligatory hail of bullets.

Give me a break.

 

[PromptCritical]

Watch the special features of the T2 DVD. They go into detail about gunshot sounds. They went to great lengths to make them not sound like real gunshots. For instance, Arnold's shotgun sound was a combination of a cannon, a rifle shot, and a couple of other things.

For that matter, I think it would be fun to make a movie with realistic sound VOLUME. Conversations are at a resonable level, gunshots make your ears ring.

 

[big inch]

For that matter, I think it would be fun to make a movie with realistic sound VOLUME. Conversations are at a resonable level, gunshots make your ears ring.

Open Range comes close. I have several thousand dolars invested in my home theater, and I was afraid my neighbors might call the cops after the final shootout scene.

Hmmm, I am going to have to watch that movie again. I will also check out the special features on T2.

 

[peacefuljeffrey]

Tonight they broadcast that awful movie Independence Day and I thought about gunshot sounds when they were in the lab looking at the captured alien. When it telepathically attacked the president, a bunch of guys took out their sidearms and shot it. Well, not only did the thing go flying backward to the far wall, nobody seemed to have a problem with all those .45s going off in such an enclosed space with no one wearing earplugs.

Stupid stupid stupid. I mean, what is the point of depicting something that IS real (gunfire) in a way that is utterly not like it really is?

-Jeffrey

 

[nipprdog]

its like when they have a 4 stroke motorcycle, and they dub in the sound of a 2 stroke, or vica verca.

 

[mfree]

Independence Day: I thought I saw M9s?

 

[moxie]

Guns do go "boom," depending on where you are in relation to the gun, and what sort of environment is involved. Yes a typical 9mm sounds like "pop, pop" from a distance, but not up close in a confined space such as a room. The old and rare 9mm revolvers make a loud boom off to the side. Etc.

 

[jefnvk]

Too many variables, and it is not worth their time because most people won't know the difference. I can often tell when the last shot out of a pistol has been shot by the different noise that it makes. Probably 99% of the movie audience wouldn't hear a difference in real life.

That, and I heard somewhere that real gunshots are too high pitch to be to most people's preception of a gunshot.

 

[dolanp]

Hardly anything is realistic in most movies. Normal cars sound like Indy racers, tires are always squealing, everything explodes regardless of what it is and whether it has anything combustible in it, computers beep repeatedly every time you touch them or ask them to do anything, real guns sound like cap guns, when driving all you hear is cars honking their horns constantly, all bad guys are easily killed or KO'd with one punch unless they are the Bad Guy (who can dodge bullets)....

Sensationalism is the nature of the beast in that industry.

 

[Steel]

What's funny is the obligatory richochet sounds you hear on many old movies and television shows, even if no richochet or the possibility of them.

 

[Nitram68]

I never realized how many ricochets are happening until I shot tracers once up in the hills.

 

[LiquidTension]

I think most of the realistic sounding movies have been covered...Heat, Collateral (both Mann films), Way of the Gun, BHD...how was Equilibrium? I haven't watched it in a while and don't remember how the guns sounded.