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Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)

Name: Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Director: Steven Spielberg
Genre: drama film, adventure film, science fiction film
Duration: 134 min
Rating: 7.6

Directed by Steven Spielberg.

Directed by Steven Spielberg · Shot by Vilmos Zsigmond · Cut by Michael Kahn · Music by John Williams · Ratio 2.35:1 · 134 min

How it was made

Title designer Dan Perri produced the film's Handel Gothic logotype from only a script, with no footage to work from; Spielberg was pleased enough to apply it to all production stationery and crew shirts.
Interiors were built inside two abandoned Second World War airship hangars at the former Brookley Air Force Base in Mobile, Alabama, which were six times larger than the biggest sound stage in the world at the time.
A lightning strike during the 1976 Atlantic hurricane season damaged a large portion of the production's sound stage in Alabama.
Visual effects supervisor Douglas Trumbull worked with a $3.3 million effects budget; Dennis Muren, fresh off Star Wars, hid a tiny R2-D2 model and a pea-sized TIE fighter on the underside of the mothership miniature as an in-joke.
The mothership miniature was designed by Ralph McQuarrie and built by Greg Jein, and its surface detailing included a mailbox, a model shark, a Volkswagen bus and a miniature graveyard.
The film was shot anamorphically, with the visual effects sequences photographed on 70mm film.

Behind the scenes

Behind the Scenes: Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Spielberg, 1977) with Richard Dreyfuss — Serious Feather · 87 min
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) | Behind the Scenes — DVDXtras · 27 min
Adam Savage Examines the Mother Ship Model from Close Encounters of the Third Kind! — Adam Savage’s Tested · 2 min
Steven Spielberg watches scene from "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" — CBS Sunday Morning · 3 min
Steven Spielberg Talks About the Special Effects For CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND — American Film Institute · 2 min

Elsewhere

More by Steven Spielberg

Bullitt
The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara
Escape to Nowhere — 1961
Firelight — 1964
Amblin' — 1968
Duel — 1971
Murder by the Book — 1971
Something Evil — 1972
Watch Dog — 1973
The Sugarland Express — 1974
Jaws — 1975
1941 — 1979
Raiders of the Lost Ark — 1981
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial — 1982
Twilight Zone: The Movie — 1983
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom — 1984
The Color Purple — 1985
Empire of the Sun — 1987
Always — 1989
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade — 1989
Hook — 1991
Jurassic Park — 1993
Schindler's List — 1993
Amistad — 1997
The Lost World: Jurassic Park — 1997
Saving Private Ryan — 1998
The Unfinished Journey — 1999
A.I. Artificial Intelligence — 2001
Minority Report — 2002
Catch Me If You Can — 2003

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