Editing E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (section)

===Filming===
Principal photography began in neighborhoods in [[Los Angeles County, California|Los Angeles County]] and in the [[San Fernando Valley]] on September 8, 1981.<ref name="exceptional">{{Cite news| author = David E. Williams | title = An Exceptional Encounter | pages = 34–7 | work = [[American Cinematographer]] |date=January 1983}}</ref> The project was filmed under the cover name ''A Boy's Life'', as Spielberg did not want anyone to discover and plagiarize the plot. The actors had to read the script behind closed doors, and everyone on set had to wear an ID card.<ref name="starry" /> The shoot began with two days at [[Culver City High School]], and the crew spent the next 11 days moving between locations at Northridge and Tujunga.<ref name="brode" /> The next 42 days were spent at [[Culver Studios|Laird International Studios]] in Culver City for the interiors of Elliott's home.<ref>{{Cite news |title=Where Was ET Filmed? Extra-Terrestrial Filming Locations |url=https://www.thecinemaholic.com/extra-terrestrial-filming-locations/ |last=Patel |first=Varun |date=May 30, 2020 |work=The Cinemaholic |access-date=May 31, 2020 |archive-date=July 31, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200731015125/https://www.thecinemaholic.com/extra-terrestrial-filming-locations/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The crew shot at a redwood forest near Crescent City in Northern California for the production's last six days.<ref name=brode/><ref name="McBride pp323-38" /> The exterior Halloween scene and the "flying bicycle" chase scenes were filmed in Porter Ranch.<ref>{{cite web | title = The Worldwide Guide To Movie Locations|publisher=Movie-Locations.com | url = http://www.movie-locations.com/movies/e/et.html | url-status=live | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150209022117/http://www.movie-locations.com/movies/e/et.html | archive-date = February 9, 2015 }}</ref>

Spielberg shot the film in roughly chronological order to achieve convincing emotional performances from his cast; it was also done to help the child actors with the workload. Spielberg calculated that the film would hit home harder if the children were really saying goodbye to E.T. at the end. In the scene in which Michael first encounters E.T., his appearance caused MacNaughton to jump back and knock down the shelves behind him. The chronological shoot gave the young actors an emotional experience as they bonded with E.T., making the quarantine sequences more moving.<ref name="reunion"/> Spielberg ensured that the puppeteers were kept away from the set to maintain the illusion of a real alien. For the first time in his career, Spielberg did not storyboard most of the film, in order to facilitate spontaneity in the performances.<ref name="exceptional"/> The film was shot so adults, except for Dee Wallace, are never seen from the waist up in its first half, as a tribute to the cartoons of [[Tex Avery]].<ref name="20thAnniversaryDVD" /> According to Spielberg, the scene in which E.T. disguises himself as a stuffed toy in Elliott's closet was suggested by fellow director [[Robert Zemeckis]] after he read a draft of the screenplay that Spielberg had sent him.<ref>James Lipton (host). (2001). ''Inside the Actors Studio'': Steven Spielberg. [Documentary]. Bravo.</ref> In between takes, the young actors spent time doing activities such as riding bicycles around the sound stages, playing ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'', the game that Elliott, Michael, Steve, Tyler and Greg play in a scene early in the film, and attending school lessons.<ref name="Frye">{{Cite news |title=E.T. cast member Sean Frye interview for 40th anniversary |url=https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/et-cast-member-sean-frye-40th-anniversary-interview |last=Weiss |first=Josh |date=June 10, 2022 |work=Syfy |access-date=June 13, 2022}}</ref><ref>{{Citation |last=Communications, Emmis |title=Robert MacNaughton |date=April 1986 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZBEEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA85 |work=[[Orange Coast (magazine)|Orange Coast]] |volume=12 |issue=4 |pages=80, 85 |postscript=. |access-date=June 14, 2022 |archive-date=April 11, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210411225411/https://books.google.com/books?id=ZBEEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA85 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Citation |last=Buckland |first=Warren |title=Directed by Steven Spielberg: Poetics of the Contemporary Hollywood Blockbuster |url=https://archive.org/details/directedbysteven00buck/page/161 |page=[https://archive.org/details/directedbysteven00buck/page/161 161] |year=2006 |postscript=. |place=New York |publisher=Continuum International Publishing Group |isbn=0-8264-1691-8}}</ref> The shoot was completed in 61 days, four ahead of schedule.<ref name="McBride pp323-38" />

In a 2022 interview, [[Sean Frye]], who played Steve, revealed how the visual effect close-up shots for the climax of the "flying bicycle" chase scene were filmed and reflected on the experience, saying: "We were on these rigs ... They're pulling the trees backwards, past us on tracks, so it looks like we're going through and up and through and over to create this illusion that we're going forward when we're going nowhere. Then the pushing and pulling of the things so that the bike is up and down, and we can get the 'Whoaaaa' effects. That was great."<ref name="Frye"/> [[BMX]] riders Robert Cardoza, Greg Maes, and David Lee served as [[Double (filmmaking)|stunt doubles]] for the scene.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The BMX boys of E.T. |url=https://theweek.com/articles/445251/bmx-boys-et |access-date=2023-09-01 |website=The Week |date=August 3, 2014 |language=en}}</ref>