What the 'Crawl' from Star Wars can teach us about storytelling, writing, and adaptation.

The novelisation of Star Wars came out before the film premiered. Which creates an interesting paradox about 'original work', and complicates the notion of what the 'real story' is.
But this is a short video looking at the 'Crawl' from the novel, from an early draft of the screenplay, and from the cinematic release to talk about how different media and different audiences can impact what is said and understood, and what information we can glean from the variations.
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Intro and Music by Professor Trip.

[@PhilipChaseTheBestofFantasy]

I was not aware of the evolution of the opening crawl, so this was great fun. Cheers, A.P.!

[@ACriticalDragon]

Darth Philip, scourge of KZbin. The sinister and malign force seducing people to the Dark Side. 😂😂😂

[@eugenemurphy6037]

Awesome comparison and examination between the three different crawls/prologues. Had never seen the two others before.

[@ACriticalDragon]

It is not often in literary analysis that you have easy access to multiple versions/drafts. I find it fascinating to be able to look at how various changes to emphasis were made.

[@thefantasythinker]

It's amazing how there are so many ways to tell a story. It's also a wonder that authors are ever able to settle on one way, hoping they found the one that works best for them and/or their intended audience. Great video A.P.!

[@ACriticalDragon]

I am always interested in the choices that writers make. I think that people often underestimate how much medium can dictate approach and style.

[@MacScarfield]

If you have not already seen it, I can highly recommend watching SFDebris’ 12 (mostly) short video essay series about the making of the original «Star Wars», fittingly called «The Hero’s Journey», which really give some amazing insight into George Lucas’ creative prosess and those aiding him: Francis Ford Coppola, his wife (and editor) and many more! A personal favourite story is that since they filmed in Tunisia near the Algerian Border, they had to be cleared by military inspections, so that the Algerians would not believe that the Sand Crawler was some kind of prototype Tunisian Super Tank! 😂

[@EricMcLuen]

Was Jeff Vader in the novelization? We rarely get a look at prior drafts to see how it evolved. Or how little Lucas actually had planned not expecting Star Wars to be so huge. The crawl and the opening scene of the star destroyer overhead was very formative to my 7 year old brain. I highly recommend the episode of The Toys We Grew Up With on the figures.

[@ACriticalDragon]

Listen, Mr. Stevens the Head of Catering doesn't need any cheek from you... 😂😂

[@MagusMarquillin]

And, making it punchier and concise allows them to "crawl" the enormous yellow text slowly over a vista of stars and let John William emphasize ever syllable with his own storytelling. It's genius how much perfecting this part of the old Buck Rogers catch up, has got the audience immediately on board for an amazing "Once Upon an Time" story, that when you break it down is pretty conventional in the first film. It's also interesting that they had Palpatine's name from the beginning, but chose to never let it out for the whole trilogy - he's not a man, he's the "Emperor" who we don't see till nearly the end. Much like how they obscured Vader's humanity behind evil robot armor - we learn that in the proper time.

[@josephnizolek3975]

Interesting remains me of reading Return of Jedi for the first time and there’s a line from Obie-wan that Luke and Leia mother fled instead of dying like in Revenge of Sith , I remember rewatching the film, just to see if those lines were in the film

[@ACriticalDragon]

I think that people often overestimate how much Lucas had planned when making these things, and often don't realise how much that ended up on screen was due to various changes and editing passes on the various screenplays.

[@josephnizolek3975]

That’s true, but lines did bring me into reading StarWars novels, and generally into fantasy and science fiction more

[@greenteamlegendarium]

Is this your way of telling us you want to do a Star Wars episode together? :P Jokes aside, great video.

[@ACriticalDragon]

Like many of my generation, I am a Star Wars fan.

[@MagusMarquillin]

Now, were you aware that William Shakespeare wrote Star Wars: Verily, A New Hope? O.K. fine, Ian Doescher did a pastiche in 2013, and he has since done Iambic Pentameter plays of all the main numbered films (plus other stories like Dracula, Frankenstien, Back to the Future and the Avenger's apparently). It's pretty amazing! Here's "Shakespeare's" take on the opening: Prologue _Outer Space_ _Enter_ CHORUS. CHORUS: It is a period of civil war. The spaceships of the rebels, striking swift From base unseen, have gain'd a vict'ry o'er The cruel Galactic Empire, now adrift. Amidst the battle, rebel spies prevail'd And stole the plans to a space station vast, Whose pow'rful beams will later be unveil'd And crush a planet: 'tis the DEATH STAR blast. Pursu'd by agents sinister and cold, Now Princess Leia to her home doth flee, Deliv'ring plans and a new hope they hold: of bringing freedom to the galaxy. In time so long ago begins our play, In star-crossed galaxy far, far away. _[Exit._ Even concise then the movie - for the only time most likely!

[@ACriticalDragon]

I actually had those versions. They are a lot of fun.