Audience and Institutions

Genre• The Force Awakens is a hybrid

- It is a Science Fiction film- It is also an Action film-It also happens to be an Adventure film

This affects the marketing as there are more aspects of the film to be marketed

TFA was produced by Disney and LucasfilmFilm genres associated with Disney:-Family-FictionFamily films are potentially one of the biggest genres as they can appeal to a wide audience

Lucasfilm is heavily associated with Star Wars and so would help it feel like an old SW film. Disney is a major conglomerate and would be able to produce the biggest budget and distribute it a lot wider than Lucasfilm alone could.

Synergies• Adv- Can help make the film wider known• Disadv- Expensive

Examples of synergy for TFA include- Make-up lines with Covergirl- Laptops with HP- Breakfast cereals with General Mills- As well as including other collaborations with companies such as

Google, Duracell, Verizon and Subway

ConvergenceProduction:- CGI was used in creating the locations- It was filmed on 35mm & 65mm IMAX camerasPost-production:-The film was made into 3DDistribution:-Released on Digital Download as well as DVD & Blu-RayCross media platforms aided the film as it abled to to be marketed towards a wider audience- examples of these included video games, comics and novels. The film was marketed on different media platforms such as TV, posters/billboards and social media.

Pre Production Issues• The concept for the plot built on the previous Star Wars trilogy- it

continued many years after Episode VI: Return of the Jedi (1983)• The first writer for the script was Michael Arndt, he worked on the

script for 8 months but said he needed 18 more, more than what Disney could give him. Early drafts had Luke appear midway through the film, but Arndt found that every time Luke came in and entered the movie, he just took it over. After this, his exit from the project was announced in late October 2013. • After this, Lawrence Kasdan and JJ Abrams took over script duties.

Original idea• The idea developed on from the previous films but the plot was new

and involved new characters.• Although this was the first film produced by Disney, Lawrence Kasdan

was the co-writer for other SW films

• It involved the work of Larence Kasdan (who wrote previous SW films), George Lucas (who directed previous SW films) and JJ Abrams.

Disney & Lucasfilm• Disney bought Lucasfilm for approximately $4.06bn in 2012• Fans may have been conflicted so as to whether Disney would be able

to do a good job with its planned trilogy• They would’ve been anxious yet excited to see what it would be like

since Disney would likely give it a big budget which would allow for more special effects. Big budgets are associated with good films as they must have had a good concept in order to have gotten the big budget.

Finance• There were not many issues with getting the $245M budget as TFA

was bein produced by Disney- as Disney is a major conglomerate, it wouldn’t have many problems with funding this.• The amount of profit massively exceeded the budget, as a result,

Disney gained a lot from pouring so much money into this.

• The budget was $245M- this can be found at IMDB

Costs- The film had a budget of $245M- The cast were paid:

- Harrison Ford: $25M plus 0.5 percent share of the films gross earnings – if the film makes 1.9 billion dollars that would earn Ford an extra 9.6 million dollars.

- Carrie Fisher: $2M (estimated)- Mark Hamil: $5M (estimated)- Daisy Ridley: $100-300k (estimated)- John Boyega: $100-300k estimated)- Adam Driver: $500-700k estimated)

Producer and directorProducer: JJ Abrams, Kathleen KennedyDirector: JJ Abrams

JJ Abrams came to be director after Steven Spielberg suggested him to Kathleen Kennedy

CastingRey: Daisy RidleyFinn: John BoyegaHan Solo: Harrison FordPrincess Leia: Carrie FisherLuke Skywalker: Mark HamilKylo Ren: Adam DriverPoe Dameron: Oscar Isaac

Ford, Fisher and Hamil had previously appeared (and had starring roles) in the original SW trilogy. This would’ve appealed to the fans of the original trilogy.

Sound• John Williams composed the film music• Williams stated that he would return to themes from the previous

films, such as ones for Luke, Leia and Han, in ways that "will seem very natural and right in the moments for which we've chosen to do these kinds of quotes.• He said that working with Abrams was similar to the process he went

through with Lucas in the earlier films• Having Williams work on it would appeal to old fans

Location• Some of it was shot in a studio, but a lot of it was shot on location

(England, Scotland, Abu Dhabi, California, New Mexico, Iceland)

• They chose locations based on how real they’d look in the movie

SFX• Special effects were used widely in the film (lightsabers etc) as well as

CGI (to create the illusion of travelling in space and being on different planets.

Technological convergence• CGI was massively important as almost the entire SW universe is

based in space. As a result, the CGI needs to be incredibly detailed in order to convince the audience that this is real. • Disney would be great at doing this; being a major conglomerate, they

own companies such as Pixar- companies such as these work with things that aren’t there. As a result of this, they would have experience dealing with this (eg. In Disney’s own series, Wizards of Waverly Place, plenty of CGI is used to create the magic.). Also, due to Disney’s big budget, they could afford to get the best technology possible to make the CGI seem as realistic as they could.

Importance of Digital Technology (distribution)DVDs and the like are extremely important in terms of distribution as it is the main way of ensuring that the film gets released for home viewing and the company still earns revenue from it. This film was released on DVD and Blu-Ray.However, in the age of digital technology, many will turn to illegal online streaming services such as Putlocker due to convenience. Because of this, companies will now add in bonus things such as bloopers to encourage customers to buy the DVD rather than stream it illegally. To combat this, Disney released this film for Digital Download on their website- this allowed ease of use for the consumer as they didn’t even have to move to get a legal version of the copy.

Advertising • The advertising for the film consisted of trailers (on TV, social media

and in cinemas, posters, star power, and partnerships with numerous companies (such as Subway, Covergirl, HP and Duracell.) This ensured maximum exposure for the film. • As well as this, there were appearances at Comic Cons and Star Wars

conventions- during one of these, JJ Abrams personally invited the audience to a Star Wars celebration symphony that included a dazzling fireworks display.

Consumption• SW appealed to fans of the original trilogy by using the ‘legacy’ cast,

as well as the special effects- they were also eexplicit about the fact that it would feel like a Star Wars film• However, the hype about the film, the young stars used, and the

special effects helped to draw in a newer, younger audience. The association with Disney encouraged this.

Distributors• TFA was distributed by Disney (who acquired Lucasfilm in 2012)

The American film industry is dominated by the Big Six- combined, they control over 90% of the market. The Big Six consists of Paramount, Universal, 20th Century Fox, Disney, Warner Brothers and Columbia.

As they are a major player, Disney had the means to reach a wider audience, and the budget to do so- this is one of the reasons that TFA was so successful. They were able to reach a wide audience

Target Audience• The target audience (primarily) was males aged 30-50• This was because they grew up watching these films and identified most with

them when they got released. As a result, the new SW film would appeal to them massively• They specifically marketed the film to appeal to the ‘nostalgic’ fans, with Han

Solo specifically saying in a trailer “Chewie, we’re home.”

Release dates• It premiered in the US (in LA)

on Dec 14th 2015• It premiered in the UK (in

London) on Dec 16th 2015

• The latest premiere was in China on Dec 29th 2015

Merchandise• The merchandise consisted of clothing, action figures, toys, costumes,

masks, cosmetics and food (cereals)- there were also household items such as barbeques, toasters and coffee machines.

Exhibition• The film was released in saturation in over 4,000 screens worldwide• In the UK, it was the headliningfilm at many cinemas including Vue,

Odeon and Cineworld.

• It had a rating of 12- the work was certified by the BBFC and passed uncut.

Reviews

Reviews

Takings• Opening Weekend: $248M (USA)• Gross: $1.87B