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Star Wars Opening Crawl by big tree
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Star Wars Opening Crawl |
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Structure
The opening of each film begins with the text "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...." in blue, followed by the Star Wars logo over a field of stars. The logo then moves away from the camera and subsequently, the crawl begins with film's episode number and subtitle (with the exception of original release of Episode IV: A New Hope see below) followed by a three-paragraph summary of the events immediately prior to the incidents of the film. Scrolling from the bottom of the screen towards a vanishing point at the horizontal center and above the vertical center of the screen in a perspective projection. Each crawl ends with a four-dot ellipsis, except for Episode VI: Return of the Jedi which has a three-dot ellipsis. When the crawl has nearly reached the vanishing point, the crawl is faded out, and the camera pans down through space to a ship or planet. Episode II: Attack of the Clones is the only film where the camera pans up after the crawl.
Two typefaces are used in the crawls, both in yellow: News Gothic bold for the episode number and main body of the crawl, and Univers light ultra condensed for the title of the film.[citation needed] Several words are in all-capital letters to stress their importance: "DEATH STAR" in A New Hope, "GALACTIC EMPIRE" in Return of the Jedi, and "ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC" in Attack of the Clones. Each line of the crawl spans the width of the screen when it enters from the bottom. In the fullscreen versions of the films, the full lines of text are cut off on the sides until they have scrolled further onto the screen.
The animated Star Wars: The Clone Wars is the only theatrically released film not to feature an opening crawl, but instead feature a narration of the past events over several clips.
Origin
Lucas has stated that the opening crawl was inspired by the opening crawls used at the beginning of each episode of the original Flash Gordon film serial, which was the inspiration for Lucas to write much of the Star Wars saga.
In a 2005 interview, George Lucas described how the final phrasing of the text for A New Hope came about. "The crawl is such a hard thing because you have to be careful that you're not using too many words that people don't understand. It's like a poem. I showed the very first crawl to a bunch of friends of mine in the 1970s. It went on for six paragraphs with four sentences each. Brian De Palma was there...". De Palma helped to edit the text into the form used in the film.
Production
According to Dennis Muren, who worked on all six films, crawls on the "original trilogy" films were accomplished by filming physical models laid out on the floor. The models were approximately two feet wide and six feet long. The crawl effect was accomplished by the camera moving longitudinally along the model. It was difficult and time-consuming to achieve a smooth scrolling effect. Furthermore, different versions in other languages (such as German, French and Spanish) were produced by ILM.
With the advent of computer-generated graphics, the crawls for the "prequel trilogy" films were achieved much more quickly. The 2004 DVD special edition versions of the original trilogy were later updated with computer-generated crawls as part of their restoration and enhancement.
Episode IV opening crawl
When originally released in 1977, the first film was simply titled Star Wars, as the studio (20th Century Fox) forbade Lucas to use a subtitle because it could be confusing, since there had been no other Star Wars movies prior to 1977. In addition, it was not certain if the film would be followed with a sequel. Following the release of Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back in 1980, the film was re-released in 1981 with the subtitle "Episode IV: A NEW HOPE" to match its sequel's crawl. The original version, without the subtitle, was not released until the 2006 limited edition DVDs.
Parodies
Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles. (October 2007)
The Mel Brooks film Spaceballs opens with a similar, but much more humorous crawl, with gags such as "unbeknownst to her, but knownst [sic] to us". At the end, in small letters, it reads "If you can read this, you don't need glasses". The science fiction-comedy television show Red Dwarf used an opening crawl in episodes Backwards and Dimension Jump. Both feature similar, humorous crawls, the former scrolling too fast to be read without freeze-frame.
Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me opens with a similar crawl. It is accompanied by a voiceover. Airplane II: The Sequel begins with a crawl of the text of an erotic story that is "broken" like glass by a space shuttle flying through it. The Bugs Bunny-Road Runner Movie uses a crawl to set up the clips of the shorts featured. The crawl reads "A long long long long long...time ago, in a universe far, far, far, far, far...away...whew!" The film Revenge of the Nerds II: Nerds in Paradise opens with a crawl in homage to Star Wars.
The sneak peek of the unfinished game Space Quest VII: Return to Roman Numerals had a similar crawl with a voiceover. The difference was that this one was being typed out as it was being spoken. Those who attended Nintendo's online Camp Hyrule 2006 were greeted with an introductory opening crawl sequence.
The Simpsons episode Co-Dependent's Day contains a crawl for a Star Wars spoof called Cosmic Wars which makes fun of the political and bureaucratic quarrels in The Phantom Menace.
Family Guy's Star Wars parody, "Blue Harvest", opens with the phrase "A long time ago, yet somehow in the future...". It then gives plot spoilers in its version of the opening crawl, then digresses slightly to talk about Angelina Jolie and her relationship with her brother before ending with "Princess Leia was coming back from buying space groceries when this happened..." The sequel to "Blue Harvest", "Something, Something, Something, Dark Side" also features a crawl at the beginning.
The That '70s Show episode "A New Hope" opened with a similar crawl, complete with the show's logo replacing the "Star Wars" one.
Recent editions of Apple Computer's iMovie software feature a similar title effect called "Far, Far Away" in reference to Star Wars. Recent editions of Windows Movie Maker also include a text effect in reference to Star Wars. Vista versions have changed the 3D mode.
In the Fairly Oddparents episode "Wishology Part III", the crawl is parodied. Cosmo begins that Timmy rescued his friends from the darkness. Then, he says that is all the information he has, and then ends with, "Anyone? Hello?".
In Shrek 4-D, the Magic Mirror exclaims, "A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away...", then appears to ascend, before the Gingerbread Man tells him that is not the right story.
References
^ a b c d Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace DVD commentary
^ Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith DVD commentary
^ Pearlman, Cindy (May 15, 2005). The Force. Chicago Sun-Times.
^ a b Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope DVD commentary
External links
The official Star Wars website
Episode III: How It Begins
Episode I: At First Glance - article about the creation of the opening crawl for Episode I
Categories: Star Wars films Film and television opening sequencesHidden categories: All articles with unsourced statements Articles with unsourced statements from March 2009 Articles with trivia sections from October 2007 All articles with trivia sections I am an expert from China Manufacturers, usually analyzes all kind of industries situation, such as antique bracket clock , motorcycle handlebar clock.
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