The lightsaber
One of the special effects in Star Wars movies is the lightsaber. The lightsaber was made by covering a rotating pole with movie screen material all around it so it would reflect its light source back. If the lightsaber moved out of a certain area it went from being a glowing light to just a rotating pole. The special effects team was originally going to use reflective tape, but as soon as the actors hit each other the sabers would break, so they used the rotating pole instead. As the Star Wars saga went on, ILM (Industrial Light & Magic) got more efficient and used just a pole, and later did effects and screen shots to make the lightsabers glow. The lightsaber had a lot to do with advances in special effects technology more than anything else in the Star Wars movies. The sound was created by the humming noise in a projector, because that’s what Ben Burtt thought a lightsaber might sound like.