Trivia

Hard

Star Wars’ Iconic “Opening Crawl” Text Was Inspired By?

Doctor Who
Flash Gordon
The Twilight Zone
Tales of Tomorrow
The opening text crawl for an episodic Flash Gordon movie.
Universal Pictures/Comcast Corporation

Answer: Flash Gordon

The “opening crawl” of text scrolling in front of the viewer is now an iconic feature of films in the Star Wars franchise. Each of the episodic films opens with “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…”, followed by the Star Wars logo appearing, then a downward tilt that reveals the film’s episode number, the subtitle in all-capital letters, and a brief three paragraph prologue to the film that sets the tone and guides the viewer into the film.

George Lucas has stated that his inspiration for the use of opening crawls came from the openings of early sci-fi serial films Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers due to how well the technique fit with his similar episodic storytelling and how the aforementioned film franchises inspired him to create Star Wars.

Historically, the crawls were filmed manually using a special camera rig. The process was, as told by production crews, an agonizing one that required them to film 2,000+ frame sequences perfectly as any bump, shudder of the camera, or imperfection in the process became incredibly apparent when blown up to silver screen sized proportions. The advent of computer generated graphics removed the need to spend days and days testing and reshooting the crawl. As a result, the only films that featured an analog crawl are the original three films, Episode IV: A New Hope (1977), Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (1980), and Episode VI: Return of the Jedi (1983).

More Trivia Questions

Trivia

Hard

The First Universal Compulsory Education System Was Found In?

Trivia

Hard

The First Pop CD Featured What Band?

Trivia

Hard

The First All Digital Film Featuring Performance Captured Actors Was?

Trivia

Hard

Google Images Was Inspired By Millions Of People Searching For Photos Of?

Trivia

Hard

What Did You Have To Defeat In The Super Secret Level Of Nintendo’s Hit Star Fox?

Trivia

Hard

The Only Region On Earth Where Scientists Have Found No Evidence Of Active Microbial Life Is?

Trivia

Hard

The Special Effects In Which Of These 1990s Films Inspired A Whole New Era Of Film Making?

Trivia

Hard

The Loudest Frog In The World Is The?

Trivia

Hard

Which Planet Will Eventually Consume Its Own Moon?

Trivia

Hard

Which Major Video Game Company Also Owned A Major League Baseball Team?