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  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

Discussion TFA Opening Crawl - THE most important ever?

Discussion in 'Star Wars: New Films - No Spoilers Allowed' started by episodenone, Oct 21, 2015.

  1. episodenone

    episodenone Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Jun 13, 2001
    I'll stipulate A New Hope since it started it all.
    Obviously The Phantom Menace was important -- but ultimately in my opinion - The PT crawls did not really fit perfectly with the story. The Phantom Menace could have opened up all sorts of Pandora's Boxes of useful Easter Eggs for us to muse on for ever and ever. But it didn't. It talked about Trade Route Taxation.

    So...

    That brings us to TFA. Arguably it has to fill in ~30 years of "what we've missed" while still setting the stage for the ST. That's no small task. If done right -- it could blow our minds in the first few seconds of TFA. If done right it could fill in so many holes and allow the movie itself room to tell its own story.

    I feel like it will be done right -- but it's no easy task.

    So would you all agree it will be as important if not more important than any other has been to date?
     
  2. Seagoat

    Seagoat Former Manager star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Jan 25, 2013
    Very important. I don't want to have to read a bunch of books or whatever to understand how the GFFA got to be in the state it'll be in
     
  3. DBPirate

    DBPirate Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Jun 20, 2015
    To be honest, as long as it says Episode VII in the crawl, which they've been careful to never feature in the marketing for some reason, I'll be fine with it. There's still a lot of gaps that need to be filled in though. I agree with Seagoat. We shouldn't need to have to read a bunch of books (and no, that's not a Plinkett reference).

    I don't think we really needed much to be explained of what happened before TPM in the opening crawl as I think that's the time period people (or at least average moviegoers) would be interested in the least. I don't wanna start any prequel arguments here though.
     
  4. TCF-1138

    TCF-1138 Anthology/Fan Films/NSA Mod & Ewok Enthusiast star 6 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Sep 20, 2002
    On my tickets, it says "Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens". And the Comic Con reel has JJ saying "We're here on the first day of shooting on Star Wars Episode VII".

    The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi were just called that as well. No Episode V or Episode VI.

    What am I trying to say?
    The crawl will read "Star Wars Episode VII - The Force Awakens".
     
  5. ChewieWe'reHome

    ChewieWe'reHome Jedi Knight star 1

    Registered:
    Aug 25, 2015
    My ticket says "Star Wars Episode" then it gets cut off :oops:thanks, Cinemark.
     
  6. CowMoo

    CowMoo Jedi Master star 3

    Registered:
    Aug 12, 2001
    ...make sure that you've seeing the right episode ! [face_laugh]

    although, to the main point, I think the crawl should be simple, and straight to the point. I don't think any major surprises are needed for the opening crawl other than a brief overview of where the galaxy is at the present.
     
  7. Big Bad Yoda Daddy

    Big Bad Yoda Daddy Force Ghost star 4

    Registered:
    Mar 8, 2000
    Believe it or not, my favorite part of a new Star Wars movie experience is the crawl. When you're sitting in the theater, and that fanfare blasts and you start to see the crawl, the feeling sets in: "I'm about to see something new. I have no idea what's going to be on this crawl, because I haven't seen this particular movie a thousand times."
     
  8. TCF-1138

    TCF-1138 Anthology/Fan Films/NSA Mod & Ewok Enthusiast star 6 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Sep 20, 2002
    I'm sure that would be my favorite part too, had the prequels not had the crawls in Swedish here. That totally takes me out of the moment :oops: So I just hope TFA will have the crawl in English. But I suspect it will, since TFA hasn't even been given a Swedish title (first Star Wars movie, with the exceptions of The Clone Wars, that doesn't have a Swedish title).
     
  9. ObidioJuan

    ObidioJuan Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Nov 1, 2002
    Here are my predictions for the crawl:

    This will be at the top:
    Star Wars Episode VII
    THE FORCE AWAKENS
    • Then we will have 3 paragraphs.
    • The first paragraph will mention the antagonist group (bad guys) and what they've been up to.
    • The second paragraph will mention the protagonist group (good guys) and something about either the location or their immediate goal/needs.
    • The last paragraph will introduce the protagonists from the first scene of the movie and what they're doing right before it pans to the action. The last paragraph will end with "..."
    I predict that it won't really say anything about what happened in the 30ish years since ROTJ. It may be some passing reference about struggle since the fall of the Empire without a group really calling all the shots or something. But I think it will just drop us into what's happened recently. Kind of like ANH or TPM for that matter.
     
  10. Seagoat

    Seagoat Former Manager star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Jan 25, 2013
    No four dot ellipsis?
     
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  11. ObidioJuan

    ObidioJuan Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Nov 1, 2002
    I predict it will be just 3 this time:D
     
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  12. episodenone

    episodenone Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Jun 13, 2001
    Interesting thoughts -- it is completely possible that they will say next to nothing about the past 25+ years --- and find another way to fill us in.

    They may expect us to seek out the comics, novels, tv shows, etc --- which is a riskier approach but might ultimately pay off as a lot of peeps might just make them a bit more money and in the internet age -- if new fans want to know more, there are plenty of websites that will have sections that cover the intermediate years in digest format
     
  13. ObidioJuan

    ObidioJuan Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Nov 1, 2002
    Or they could just do it so you can start into Star Wars like some of us did back in '77.
     
  14. ChewieWe'reHome

    ChewieWe'reHome Jedi Knight star 1

    Registered:
    Aug 25, 2015

    I don't remember the ANH crawl featuring any prequel backstory in it. I don't see why new fans can't jump into this movie the same way. Of course that's assuming J.J. decides to make this story independent of the original trilogy. I know we have characters from the OT making key appearances, but we had no clue who "prequel-Obi Wan" was when ANH came out. And that old Ben Kenobi still worked as a great character.
     
  15. TheYodaPagoda

    TheYodaPagoda Force Ghost star 4

    Registered:
    Apr 23, 2002
    I absolutely, 1000% agree with this!! ^^^^ If we get some exposition, it'll be during the movie, not in the crawl. I'm sure they thought "let's jump right into the action" much like how ANH opened up.
     
  16. KBGreedo

    KBGreedo Jedi Padawan star 1

    Registered:
    Oct 27, 2015
    Episode one's opening crawl gave us exactly what we needed - necessary information to process what was happening at the start of the film. I can only assume Episode VII's crawl will do the same.
     
  17. Chris_Fives

    Chris_Fives Jedi Master star 3

    Registered:
    Apr 16, 2015
    THIS!
     
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  18. CowMoo

    CowMoo Jedi Master star 3

    Registered:
    Aug 12, 2001
    I think most of the years in between the episodes would be filled in as the film and the saga moves forward. There isn't really a need to go through a lengthy dialogue to say that Han and Leia got married (assuming that they did in this set of new films). By introducing a character as "our daughter" or "our son", it infers that there probably was some kind of marriage.

    "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" probably would work fine as a standalone film, and it is not likely that it would require going to external sources for understanding the film. However, I do think that the expanded universe would probably go more in-depth than the movie will.
     
  19. Alienware

    Alienware Jedi Master star 3

    Registered:
    Apr 19, 2013
    Word!

    [​IMG]

    But yeah, I agree that it's gonna be very important to get the crawl right. Especially because this is the longest time period between any two movies in the saga.
     
  20. DARTHVENGERDARTHSEAR

    DARTHVENGERDARTHSEAR Force Ghost star 5

    Registered:
    Jun 8, 2002
    Right. No need to worry about it. They've only been calling it Episode VII for the last three years. So why would they change that now?

    JJ's just trying to keep the focus on the title, that's all. It's better that they do, and not just for nostalgic reasons, either.
     
  21. ArchStanton1862

    ArchStanton1862 Jedi Knight star 3

    Registered:
    Oct 18, 2014
    Exactly. Referring to them by episode numbers was an invention of the prequels marketing. The OT never referred to themselves as Episodes V or VI, they were just The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. I suppose emphasizing Episode I, II, and III reminded people that they were watching prequels to the original trilogy rather than sequels. We don't really need to be reminded that these are sequels and emphasizing episode numbers wouldn't even help with that since we're six movies in and this would be episode seven. That says nothing about which trilogy came immediately before. And in case you dismiss that as something that everyone will know anyway I have to remind you that we're all fanboys and therefore bad judges of what normal people know. My uncle did have to ask me if this was a sequel to the prequels (which he hasn't seen). The trailer had him excited. Airing it during a football game made people excited. The marketing department made the right move.
     
  22. DARTHVENGERDARTHSEAR

    DARTHVENGERDARTHSEAR Force Ghost star 5

    Registered:
    Jun 8, 2002
    Star Wars

    Episode VII

    The Force Awakens

    It is a time of despair. The remnants of the Empire have regrouped to form a new government called the First Order.

    As many battles rage across the Galaxy, and destruction and death spread to worlds in every corner, the newly established Resistance is in danger of being extinguished.

    During this time and on a small planet in the middle of nowhere, a young woman is scavenging through the remains of the carnage that has befallen her world....
     
  23. ChewieWe'reHome

    ChewieWe'reHome Jedi Knight star 1

    Registered:
    Aug 25, 2015

    Hmmm... first two paragraph summaries sound spot-on, but we usually aren't introduced to our "outsider" character until well after the crawl. TPM and ANH both use their third crawl paragraphs to introduce characters already in the middle of the action.
     
  24. CowMoo

    CowMoo Jedi Master star 3

    Registered:
    Aug 12, 2001
    I should mention that you may want to use spoiler quotes. I know that the organization of the antagonists is mentioned officially in the star wars toys and other official outlets, but some folks prefer to know as little as possible. I think there was still some discussion on if the poster itself was tad too spoiler-ish.
     
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  25. ObidioJuan

    ObidioJuan Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Nov 1, 2002
    To be honest I don't think we will start with a young woman.

    I speculate we will
    start in space with a certain character we've seen in the trailers seeing something really bad that makes him question his morality and then he quits his "job" and gets stranded in a certain desert looking planet. After said character crash lands, he gets captured by some locals and loses consciousness. Then we cut to the young character that is stranded is said desert planet going about his/her daily routine as a moisture farmer, erm I mean scavenger...