At Film Sound, you can read how the sound effects were made for Star Wars. My students always go crazy over this kind of stuff. Most sound effects are made with an ensemble of everyday stuff put together in very interesting ways. For instance:
Light Saber: The blended sounds of a TV set and an old 35 mm projector was used to create create the hum of a light saber.
Laser Blasts: The sound of a hammer on an antenna tower guy wire.
Some sounds, however, are a bit more complicated.
Ewokese Language: A language created by altering and layering Tibetan, Mongolian, and Nepali languages.
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