Original Alternate French Star Wars Opening Crawl Slide

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Original Alternate French Star Wars Opening Crawl Slide

Each of the Star Wars films begin with nearly identical openings, in which the text "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...." is displayed, followed by the Star Wars logo over a field of stars. A subsequent downward pan reveals the film's episode number, the subtitle in all-capital letters, and a three-paragraph summary of events immediately prior to the events of the film. Two typefaces were used in the crawl: News Gothic bold for the main body of the crawl and Episode number, and Univers light ultra condensed for the title of the film.

The roll-up, alternatively called the "opening crawl", is an homage to Flash Gordon serials of the 1930s and 1940s, which Star Wars creator George Lucas enjoyed as a child.

According to Dennis Muren (who worked on all six films), the roll-ups on the "original trilogy" films: A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, were accomplished with physical models laid out on the floor. Muren says the models were approximately two feet wide and six feet long. The crawl effect was accomplished with the camera moving longitudinally along the model. It was, says Muren, difficult and time-consuming to achieve a smooth scrolling effect.