Gun Sounds in Movies
 

Why is it that in every movie, when ever some pulls out a gun, it's constantly making noises. Any character takes out a gun and it makes that chh-chk sound even though he is clearly not doing anything to the gun. He lowers the gun and it makes the sound again, points it at somebody, sets it down, looks at it...it's annoying. I mean are we supposed to think he is constantly uncocking and recocking it? It's just stupid. It's even worse when a gun is pulled and pointed at someones head. Seeing a firearm pointed at a persons face isn't enough, it need to making clicking noises. Just something that always bothered me.

I guess it's to say the gun is ready. But it's the worst with striker fired guns like Glock, etc and the sound of a hammer being cocked.

It's a trope! A combination of "Shur Fine Guns" and "Noisy Guns."
Results in "Click Hello."
Etc.

The big one is pulling back the hammer to increase the threatening potential of your gun.
I guess... "Now I'm ready to fire in single action! You had better watch out!"

i know what you mean kinzer.
someone will draw a gun and usually it will be silent. but NO!
it has to make every noise known to man.
*man draws gun* CHAKDKADLKM-ALKDMFAOEKAMLEKMAFEKKKKKK!

It's just Hollywood's way of "getting the most" out of a given actor or actress.

Same thing happens whenever someone pulls a knife. It always sounds like there whipping out a broad sword or something. Sometimes they get carried away when editing and dubbing the film.

Most of the time it is to fill the dead air in that scene. Most people watching a movie if you had just dead air no sound then they believe there is something wrong with the film. Also if you did not know this already all the sound is dubbed in the movie. The blanks we use have a great sound to them but a show will dub in the gunfire afterward.

Which is why I love a movie when someone takes out a gun or a knife, there is nothing but SILENCE!

As Steve pointed out, the sound effects you hear are always added in post-production. It really is just the fault of the sound designers/folly editors. They think it sounds cool to hear a hammer cocking every time a gun is drawn, even if the actor is quite clearly not actually, physically cocking the weapon on camera. And even if the gun is hammerless, like a Glock.

Movies made by Micheal Mann always have good gun sounds and they sound more realistic and not much changed in post production

I hate the sound in Heat when Robert De Niro checks his chamber in the elevator. There is like a crappy video game sound to it.

I worked with Micheal Mann and he is a gun enthusiast so he wants both the weapons and sounds correct.

Just to let you know all sounds are added in post production. The recording of the sounds a weapon makes is done after a show is filmed. Normally done on a private range for a couple of days firing the weapons used on the film live with about 15 mics on the range to record the sound from different angles. The sounds of bullet impacts and ricochets is done on the last day with a suppressed weapon shoot different type of targets from wood doors to side of beef to a car. Very cool deal if you can do it but is one of the most demanding days we work on.

I wish that someone would make a movie in which the gun sounds aren't dubbed, but are actually part of that scene's recorded audio

I think that's the reason why there is such a thing as sound editing.

The gun sounds in the movie Miami Vice didn't sound like post edits.

They don't dub gunfire on American Rifleman/ Shooting USA and it sounds cooler than dubbed gunfire

They were. Didn't you recognize the stock sound library gunfire in the final shootout? One of the automatic weapons in that scene (can't remember which) made a sound effect that I know I've heard in countless other movies.

That's very difficult to do. Think about the process Steve described. Can you imagine how difficult it would be to get microphones in enough places at the shooting location to capture the gunfire adequately? Chances are, it wouldn't come out right, and they'd have to re-dub it later, and then it would be a wasted effort.

The exception might be a city street with lots of tall buildings where the sound can reverberate easily, as in "Heat".

Ok. I'm saying the final shootout in Miami Vice didn't sound quite like other generic shootouts.