'Star Wars': Secrets Behind the Making of the Franchise
Just how did they create the sounds of the lightsaber on "Star Wars"?
— -- For the first time ever, movie buffs can now download all six films in the classic “Star Wars” franchise and hear the filmmakers spill the beans on how they achieved some of the cool effects.
That iconic lightsaber swoosh sound was actually created using the hum of a movie projector. The saber’s buzz sound is from the back of an old TV set.
“The blend of those is two is ... the basic bed that’s under every lightsaber,” said Ben Burtt, one of the trilogy’s sound designers.
Some secrets -- such as details on the red lightsaber shown in the trailer for “Episode VII: The Force Awakens” -- weren’t forthcoming.
“The lightsaber with the two funny bits coming out,” ABC News' Nick Watt started to ask, but Doug Chiang, who worked on the last trilogy and is concept artist for “The Force Awakens,” said: “It wasn’t my idea, but I helped finish the design on that.”
“What are they for?” Watt pressed.
“I can’t tell you,” said Chiang, who is vice president and executive creative director at Lucasfilm. He laughed and added, “Sorry.”
“I can’t even tell my wife what I’m doing,” he said.
And here’s another movie secret from the first six films: Some of the asteroids that viewers saw were actually potatoes.
One sound engineer remembers recording penguins and fruit bats in Australia. Those sounds were mixed to become the signature sound of the Geonosians, an insect-like species first seen in “Episode II: Attack of the Clones.”
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