Ok so I know this first as the stormtrooper scream from the starwars and new hope. and then as i got older started to notice it in all the star wars and indiana jones films. by the time i was in film school i caught the joke and wanted to share all the fun tidbits first of all here is the original scream

The Wilhelm scream is a film and television stock sound effect first used in 1951 for the film Distant Drums. The effect gained new popularity (its use often becoming an in-joke) after it was used in Star Wars and many other blockbuster films as well as television programs and video games.The scream is often used when someone is shot, falls from a great height, or is thrown from an explosion.

The sound is named for Private Wilhelm, a character in The Charge at Feather River, a 1953 western in which the character is shot with an arrow. This was believed to be the third movie to use the sound effect and its first use from the Warner Brothers stock sound library

Now here is a little history of the Famous Scream. The sound effect originates from a series of sound effects recorded for the 1951 film Distant Drums. In a scene from the film, soldiers are wading through a swamp in the Everglades, and one of them is bitten and dragged underwater by an alligator. The scream for that scene was recorded later in a single take, along with five other short pained screams, which were slated as "man getting bit by an alligator, and he screams." The fifth scream was used for the soldier in the alligator scene—but the 4th, 5th, and 6th screams recorded in the session were also used earlier in the film—when three Indians are shot during a raid on a fort. Although takes 4 through 6 are the most recognizable, all of the screams are referred to as "Wilhelm", by those in the sound community

The Wilhelm scream's revival came from motion picture sound designer Ben Burtt, who discovered the original recording (which he found as a studio reel labeled "Man being eaten by alligator") and incorporated it into a scene in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. Burtt is credited with naming the scream after Private Wilhelm (see The Charge at Feather River). Over the next decade, Burtt began incorporating the effect in other films he worked on, including most projects involving George Lucas or Steven Spielberg. (It is used in all of the Star Wars and Indiana Jones movies.) Other sound designers picked up on the effect, and inclusion of the sound in films became a tradition among the community of sound designers.

Research by Burtt suggests that actor and singer Sheb Wooley, best known for his novelty song "The Purple People Eater" in 1958 and as scout Pete Nolan on the television series Rawhide, is likely to have been the voice actor who originally performed the scream. This has been supported by an interview in 2005 with Linda Dotson, Wooley's widow. Burtt discovered records at Warner Brothers from the editor of Distant Drums including a short list of names of actors scheduled to record lines of dialogue for miscellaneous roles in the movie. Wooley played the uncredited role of Private Jessup in Distant Drums, and was one of the few actors assembled for the recording of additional vocal elements for the film. Wooley performed additional vocal elements, including the screams for a man being bitten by an alligator. Dotson confirmed that it was Wooley's scream that had been in so many westerns, adding, "He always used to joke about how he was so great about screaming and dying in films."

Just a few examples. (not sure all of them are real)

The Wilhelm scream has become a cinematic sound cliché, and by 2008 had been used in many instances, including over 216 movies, television shows and video games. Some directors, most notably George Lucas, and Quentin Tarantino, include it in almost every one of their productions. And some more examples (some repeats) ......

and if you haven't had enough of our screaming friend there is another good compilation of recent films using the famous scream here

so there you go hollywoods biggest inside joke, i guess not so inside anymore

New Final Cut Pro

Current Final Cut Pro

over the last couple of days it has become very clear that alot of editors that use final cut pro are very angry at the list of options not available. I was amazed at the things that were taken out. here is just a small list so far. probably more added in the next couple of days.

• Multi-Cam Editing
• Scratch Disk Location Options
• Autosave Vault and Versioning
• Asignable Audio/Video Tracks
• DVD Cahpter Markers and Marker Export
• Log and Batch Capture from Tape
• XML and EDL Import/Export
• OMF Export
• Customisable workspaces
• Customisable Bin Column Views
• Copy/Past Clip Attributes (I use this one alot!)
• Photoshop Layer Support
• in/out section timeline exporting
• Broadcast Video Monitoring
• Output to tape
• More than one timeline per project (I need them for varioius versions of a cut.) 

it seems to me this is more an upscale version of either iMovie or Final Cut Express. By no means is it the same caliber of what is in Final Cut Pro 7. I have a feeling this might be the crack that sinks Apple as a competitor in the Post Production Professional Market. at the moment they are the leading software over Avid and Adobe. But if Apple loose all those listed above, they very quickly are going to be over taken by either of the other A's.

Avid Media Composer 5

But of course that leaves the old debate of what "professional" editors use. Avid will say they are the true professional, and Apple will too, Adobe will be like "don't forget me!" on a personal note as an editor myself i feel its best just know them all. it makes you on top of the entire market, and allows freedom between jobs. Heck I even know Sony Vegas and im not sure anyone one out of consumer uses that.

Sony Vegas 9

It will be interesting to see what happens in the next six months. in the mean time i personally will hang onto what FCP version I'm editing on

on a side note i just went to find page for final cut express to link to page, and when i went to page final cut pro x showed up. Is apple admitting that its mistake?