[alabastervlog]

Gunfire is insanely loud. Even a little .22 is louder than the apparent volume of heavier rounds in most film and TV. It's one of those things people can have entirely the wrong idea about if their only exposure to it is media. You see things like people firing rifles from inside a car and it's like... nobody in that car should be able to hear a damn thing for a full minute, and with repeated fire their ears might ring badly through the next day.

Archer kinda gets this more-right than most things, LOL. "MAWP! MAWP!"

[inetknght]

> Gunfire is insanely loud. Even a little .22 is louder than the apparent volume of heavier rounds in most film and TV. It's one of those things people can have entirely the wrong idea about if their only exposure to it is media.

Part of that is because the sound volume is just so drastically different compared to normally talking; microphones have trouble with it, audio amplifiers end up clipping [0], and most speakers would blow out if the amp didn't clip (especially for the larger guns). And, assuming none of that happened then, just as you would have on a gun deck, your listeners' ears would be damaged. So the sound of gunfire in media is quieted.

Most people simply aren't around guns in the first place, let alone firing guns (eg, going to a gun range with friends/family/etc even if you don't own a gun), to understand just how much media misrepresents it.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clipping_(audio)

[bee_rider]

Comedies often are more accurate because dumb things are allowed to happen and real life doesn’t follow the rule-of-cool. See also, Monty Python Holy Grail, and Veep.

[cromniomancer]

The first season of True Detective is amazing TV for many reasons, but the scene I'll never forget involves a tense moment when suddenly the first gunshot goes off inside a small cottage and all hell breaks loose.

Instead of a silly overacted action sequence where the hero darts around killing everyone with miraculous hip-fired headshots, instead you hear a sudden jarring crack-FWOOMP followed by an intensely loud tinnitus ringing. It takes half the scene for the ringing to slowly clear while the hero somewhat realistically tries to escape without harming anyone or blowing his cover, while also staying out of the line of fire.

It was so against the norm for action sequences that it nearly broke the immersion for me until it settled in how well put together that scene was.

[refurb]

Indeed.

Even firing a large calibre rifle with hearing protection is something you need to get use to. Not only the noise, but the pressure wave and recoil feels like someone just punched you.