I remember being a kid and seeing a trailer of some sort for the film. Toward the end, as we see the classic perspective shot of the road at night with the glowing horizon, the sound of electronic "bees" appears on the soundtrack mixed with Williams' music- a slowly rising and falling deep sound. Back then, I was completely blown away by it. It was beautiful and frightening. I loved "sound design" even before there was a name for it!
Sadly, that sound doesn't actually appear in the movie, or at least in quite the same way. I've never been able to track it down. I can't seem to find the particular trailer it was featured in... although in another one, a fragment of it appears (very effectively) during clips from the house invasion. But that's all.
Anyone have any info about this sound effect? Is it or that trailer online anywhere.
Heath, do you mean the "bees" sound effect in the "Chasing UFOs" score cue? Starts at about 2:35 and again briefly at 3:07 in the "Into the Tunnel/Chasing UFOs" track on the new LLL edition.
Heath, do you mean the "bees" sound effect in the "Chasing UFOs" score cue? Starts at about 2:35 and again briefly at 3:07 in the "Into the Tunnel/Chasing UFOs" track on the new LLL edition.
I don't think so. I know JW's score very well, and I'm sure the sound effect I'm talking about is just that - a sound effect and not music. I think Spielberg directed William's to create a humming bees sound with some of the music (it's also, as I remember, mentioned in the novelisation based on the script.... so Spielberg must have had that sound VERY much in mind.)
But no, it was an electronic effect. Perhaps it wasn't used in the main movie because William's was so successful in approximating the sound with his orchestrations. Nevertheless, I think that original effect was fantastic.
I ask because I always took the sound in the score as an electronic effect - not sure how that could be done acoustically. (Doesn't sound anything like various bee sound effects in other sources, like Goldsmith's Swarm or Rimsky-Korsakov.) Course I could be wrong about that.
Sean, also, it was a low pitched effect. It's very different from the Chasing UFOs cue which features a kind of high mosquito effect (rather brilliant - I've no idea how William's did it).
