The film was filmed on May 16, 1976. The filming locations include Warner Bros. Studios 15 and 16, Devil’s Tower National Monument, an abandoned World War II hangar, and a railway warehouse. The hangar occupies an area. The area is 6 times that of the world's largest studio. During filming in Alabama, the film crew was not only tortured by hurricane weather, but the studio was also destroyed by lightning.
The visual effects of the film cost 3.3 million U.S. dollars. Douglas Trumb, the visual effects director, tried to explore motion control photography in the film. Since the film is an anamorphic wide-screen film, in order to better adapt to 35mm film, filming The group chose to use 70mm film to shoot visual effects. When shooting UFO shots, the crew tried to use CGI technology, but Spielberg found that this new technology from the 1970s was too expensive, so it was not adopted.
The film was originally scheduled to be released in early 1977, but it was postponed to November due to filming. In post-production, Spielberg edited the film based on the soundtrack first completed by John Williams.
