Inspired by Akira Kurosawa, George Lucas made good use of "wipes" in the Star Wars films. A wipe, of course, is a way of transitioning from one scene to another by "wiping" the new shot across the old one, usually by moving it from one side of the frame to the other or by using a special shape. When an audience sees a wipe these days, they know they're watching Star Wars, because hardly anyone else uses the technique now. Or if they do, it's to make a parody of Star Wars. The wipe is another means of evoking old fashioned serial adventures, just like the story-so-far crawl. It provides a distinctive feel to the films, helping each episode to look like part of a cohesive whole. And with Star Wars, looking slightly old-fashioned is no bad thing - the story does take place a long time ago, after all...