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Star Wars Title Crawl


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This is what the film looked like when it was originally released in 1977.

1977_original_crawl.jpg

And here is the revised opening titles we all have on home video. These titles were first seen with the April 10, 1981 re-issue.

1981_revised_crawl.jpg

Neil

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Ah, yes ... I still remember how it felt to see those words scroll up the screen back in 1977 :)

Thanks Neil!

Kathy

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I also like the revised version better. It looks empty the other way. ;)

It was done before Lucas realized he could do the entire story. I see nothing bad with that.

Since I was only 3 when the first version came out, I only saw the 2nd version in theatres... the re-release after TESB came out. Besides, when I was 3-6 years old, I didn't pay attention to the text anyways! LOL :)

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Now here's my question: how'd they do title crawls back then? I've wondered how they did everything with titles back then, before computers? Especially the kind where they'd have the letters over a live background. Or in Ben-Hur when they did the titles over the painting of The Creation of Adam.

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Now here's my question: how'd they do title crawls back then?

It's explained in the Ep. 1 commentary.

Ben Burtt: "I remember the very first roll-up they filmed at ILM on the first movie. The typing was actually set out on the floor, and the camera, on a track, actually did a huge crane shot over the back-lit words. It was not done by computer as is done today, and I can remember the difficulty they had getting it to move smoothly. And the roll-up would start fast, then go slow, then speed up again, then go slow, and it was impossible to watch at that point till they worked it out and had it all at uniform speed."

- Marc, :)

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I like the first version better.

unlike certain geeks,

I have never thought

A NEW HOPE

is a good title for a SCI-FI movie, but since it isn't the title of the film but a subtitle, I have dealt with it.

there is only one film called Star Wars, and it was released in 1977.

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I've never seen the '77 version. Heck I haven't seen A New Hope the un-SE version in years. :)

Justin -Who only owns fullscreen VHS SE's of the original trilogy....and still prefers any one of them to Widescreen DVD of AOTC. ;)

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The color yellow is better in the unaltered version. In fact, the yellow text in  revised version looks terrible.

In those screen grabs, or in the actual movie? Neil's sources might be of different quality.

Marian - who also likes the new version better.

:) The Return of the King (Howard Shore)

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I like the larger lettering in the original version.

I suppose putting a subtitle on the original film was necessary, kind of like putting subtitles on all the "Lord of the Rings" movies, though I noticed that my tickets for "Return of the King" say "Lord of the Rings."

Jeff

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A little trivia about the crawl.  It was re-written by  film critic Jay Cox and Brian DePalma after they viewed an early cut by Lucas.

Neil

Is it too late to hire them for Episode III?

----------------

Alex Cremers

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yes with DePalma writting for Ep. III we will get scenes like

Chancellor Palpatine: Padme, I can see your dirty pillows

Padme: There called breast Chancellor and every woman has them.

or

Obi-Wan: Eat your carrot cake, Anakin,

Anakin: It gives me pimples

Obi-Wan: Pimples are the jedi's way of chastising you.

Behind the scenes looks, DePalma to Lucas after reading the original script.

The all gonna laugh at you, there all gonna laugh at you!!!

The best part though is DePalma talked Lucas into including Anakin's graduation scene where he becomes a full jedi, but to help push him over the edge to the dark side, Darth Sideous pours pig blood over his head. Subsequently Anakin kills almost all of the Jedi. Great stuff.

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Wasn't DePalma one of the few who told Lucas Star Wars would flop back in 77?

I agree with Joe, I've never cared for the title A New Hope. To me it's always been Star Wars.

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The color yellow is better in the unaltered version. In fact, the yellow text in  revised version looks terrible.

They are from different sources. You can't really compare them.

Neil

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That original title crawl sure brings back some swell memories. I'm only a handful of people who saw the film in 1977 and remember there NOT being an "Episode IV: A New Hope" at the beginning. I only remember it as such because after seeing the film the third time, I tried to write out the prologue on paper when I got home (because I thought it was so cool!). And second, when I saw TESB the very first time, I was wondering why it began with "Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back" instead of going right to the prologue. (Yes, I knew Star Wars was meant to be a multi-chapter saga at the time, but it still made me slightly confused at first.)

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yes with DePalma writting for Ep. III we will get scenes like  

Chancellor Palpatine: Padme, I can see your dirty pillows  

Padme: There called breast Chancellor and every woman has them.  

or  

Obi-Wan: Eat your carrot cake, Anakin,  

Anakin: It gives me pimples  

Obi-Wan: Pimples are the jedi's way of chastising you.  

Behind the scenes looks, DePalma to Lucas after reading the original script.  

The all gonna laugh at you, there all gonna laugh at you!!!  

The best part though is DePalma talked Lucas into including Anakin's graduation scene where he becomes a full jedi, but to help push him over the edge to the dark side, Darth Sideous pours pig blood over his head. Subsequently Anakin kills almost all of the Jedi. Great stuff.  

How about this,

Palpatine after turning Anakin to the dark side

Palpatine: So how do you feel son

Anakin: I have to pee

Palpatine: That's just your penis talking son, says he's proud of ya

Mace windu walks into the senate chambers and looks at Jar Jar

Mace: This party's over

Chops jar jar's head off

Deleted Scene from Ep 2

Padme has followed Anakin to the tuskan raider camps

Padme: Hey who's that guy killing all those inocent women and children, GOD that's hot

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I do understand that for those of you who saw the movie back in 1977, the movie will always be just Star Wars.

As for me, when I fell in love with the saga there were already 3 movies, so for me it has always been episode IV: A New Hope. I don't really respond mentally when people refer to that movie as just Star WArs.

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A little trivia about the crawl.  It was re-written by  film critic Jay Cox and Brian DePalma after they viewed an early cut by Lucas.

Neil

Is it too late to hire them for Episode III?

----------------

Alex Cremers

What difference would it make? A good opening crawl down not make for a good movie overall.

You need a good script and good direction for that. :D

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The crawl is what Star Wars is now practically

but wait, he'll update that again too or better yet

HE'LL ELIMINATE THE CRAWL

No No No!

More likely he'll do some sort of special "ultra over the top CG crawl"!

You know where the words flash and are in multi-colors with whooshing sentences which come rushing in and out of the screen. Like someone's over-the-top Christmas display!

YOU KNOW WHAT IM TALKING ABOUT! ;)

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teddybear.jpg

Stefan- who has more then his :P

And you're refering to which of them??? Personally I would go for the bigger one, without the cloths :thumbup:

Miguel, hoping his wife doesn't reads this post

Too late, it's already in the mail

Good luck dodging the bullet on this one Miguel :)

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Not sure I like her face

With a bod like that, who cares?

You know, I was waiting for you to say that! I kid you not!

----------------

Alex Cremers

Behold Alex's power

He is able to predict Stefancos' EVERY MOVE with cold calcutated precision

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Stefan just made this thread a WHOLE lot more inviting!

Thats what this board really needs! A naked chicks thread!

We haven't had one of those before. I am sure we could implement JW into ....... uhhhh .... somehow! ;)

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Thats what this board really needs! A naked chicks thread!  

We haven't had one of those before.

You mean no one has ever posted nude photos here before in a thread, not even of Natalie Portman?

Neil

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