So as you know, I’ve been reading this star wars book, and I am finding exciting pieces of trivia and history, particularly on George creating the first Star Wars movie. Here’s one neat little tidbit that I came across that I thought would be a nice piece of trivia for everyone:
I hope to make this more regular than I have, but we’re up to number 3 now, so slowly but surely, I’m adding to the list. 😊
If you’ve got any other trivia questions for my posts or any not-so-well-known pieces of trivia, please feel free to comment at any time!
darksiderconfessions.blog 
You see TV is ever so powerful. The more I watch mine the more like a star wars character I get. Off to capture a princess, as soon as Red Dwarf finish’s on Dave
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Lol sounds awesome 🙂
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Hi there Julie, yes IIRC the process was Ben heard the thrumming noise of a cinema projector’s motor whilst viewing some early footage. The motor’s hum was a good base but it didn’t have that “dangerous edge” to the noise, it was too melodic so Ben added some hiss and distortion so the noise had a “sizzle” too it. However even then the sound wasn’t right, because the sound gave no sense of movement. This is where the microphone and TV come in. Ben was doing some work and accidently carried a “live” microphone in front of a TV that was showing more footage and when he played back the tape he discovered something clever. He found that as he had moved the microphone from one side of the room to the other the tape recorder picked up a “Doppler Effect”. The Doppler Effect is that which you hear when a car approaches, passes and then drives away from you – the sound grows as the car gets closer then recedes as it drives away – mmmEEEEOOOWWWwwwww…..And Ben realised that this motion effect could be used to re-record the lightsaber sound. He set up a viewing booth and two tape players – one to playback the original lightsaber hum and the second to record that hum but with Ben swinging the microphone around in front of the monitor speakers. He held the microphone like a lightsaber hilt and as he saw the saber on screen move he too swung the mic. The mixture of the hum, the distortion and this final Doppler movement combined to produce the “PHWWUmmm” “PHWWUnnn” we know and love today. Pure genius.
Sorry it was a long explanation but it is sorta interesting (especially to me as I trained to be a recording engineer). And one final thing…the word “mmmmeeeeoooowwww” also describes the world’s fastest cat – a Jaguar! 😀
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Hi Julie….er I think WordPress is having an issue or two today. It seems that 3 comments made on your last “Did You Know?” trivia post have been attached to this March the 2nd post about Darth Vader’s name.
But regards Darth and his name…Vader is the Dutch word for “Father” (Darth is just a moniker title given to Darkside followers/practitioners or Lords). And another little tidbit about Vader and his helmet this time….DYK that in the Original Trilogy Vader’s mask was not symmetrical? There was a mistake made whilst making the mask and the cheekplates don’t match, one is convex and the other is concave…this is what made Vader look different from opposite camera angles. The production team finally realised and fixed it for Hayden’s transformation scene in the Prequels.
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Hey there FT 🙂 So yeah that was actually my fault because when I was writing the NEW article about Dark Father I accidentally mixed up the two posts – and edited the wrong one lol. I wasn’t having a very good afternoon, was stressing out about a work thing and yeah, I guess I screwed it up 😦 But that is some interesting trivia about his mask – I didn’t even know or notice that myself. Now I’ll have to keep an eye out for it lol thanks again for the great trivia, I might use these in future 😀
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Hi there, no worries I just thought I’d bring it to your attention – I wasn’t sure if it was a WordPress glitch or something you could fix. I got a surprise reading the post about Dark Father then seeing my comment about Ben Burtt’s lightsaber sound – I thought “When did I comment on this?…..Oh! I see” 😁
The trivia about Vader’s mask I found out watching the featurettes on my ROTS disk. There was a BIG sense of excitement on set when Hayden got to wear Vader’s suit then they added the helmet/mask as it was the first time since ROTJ that a fully robed Vader was on set..
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Yeah that is just awesome 🙂 And yeah I had a moment LOL hopefully, I won’t have another haha
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