Film of the week: Star Wars: The Force Awakens

COULSDON COLLEGE: MEDIA TEXT INFORMATION SHEET

TITLE:

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

YEAR OF PROD:

2015

TYPE:

FILM

TELEVISION

DOC.

MUSIC

ADVERT

MUSIC VID.

OTHER:

DIRECTOR

J.J. Abrams

PRODUCER

J.J. Abrams, Bryan Burk, Kathleen Kennedy

WRITER

J.J. Abrams, Lawrence Kasdan, Michael Arndt. Based on characters created by George Lucas.

PRODUCTION COMPANY

Lucas Film Ltd. Bad Robot Productions.

KEY CAST /ARTIST

Harrison Ford (Hans Solo), Adam Driver (Kylo Ren), Daisy Ridley (Rey), John Boyega (Finn), Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca) and Anthony Daniels (C-3PO).

KEY CREW

Music: John Williams, DP: Daniel Mindel, Editors: Maryann Brandon, Mary Jo Markey and Production Design: Rick Carter, Darren Gilford.

GENRE

Action, Adventure, Fantasy

BUDGET

$200 million

BOX OFFICE

$1.161 billion

THEMES

Friendship, betrayal, love, revenge, teamwork, good vs evil, destruction, rage, death, torture, redemption.

AWARDS

NARRATIVE: The IMDb description: “30 years after the defeat of Darth Vader and the Empire, Rey, a scavenger from the planet Jakku, finds a BB-8 droid that knows the whereabouts of the long lost Luke Skywalker. Rey, as well as a rogue stormtrooper and two smugglers, are thrown into the middle of a battle between the resistance and the daunting legions of the First Order.” My opinion on the film: I had previously only seen two Star Wars films and they never really appealed to me so when Star Wars: The Force Awakens was released, I did not really intend on watching it. However, I did end up watching it and it exceeded my expectations. Before watching it, I had seen so many positive comments on social media regarding the film so I did go in with high hopes. I thought the storytelling was brilliant and I understood it the whole way through which was good as I did not know much about Star Wars and it was great to see some familiar characters such as C-3PO. Personally for me, the cinematography is what made the film outstanding, it was beautifully shot and I was completely transported into their world. There were too many stunning shots and compositions for me to pick out just one favourite but an example is the wide shot of the bridge which Hans Solo and Kylo Ren are standing on- this was shown near the end. So the camera and special effects apartment have done an incredible job. I watched it in 3D which was good to start with but then I got a bit of a headache and it probably would have looked better in 2D but I’m not complaining because it was still great. I would recommend you to watch it whether you are a fan of Star Wars or not. 8/10.

COMPARABLES: All the Star Wars films.

PROGRESSION OF KEY CONTRIBUTORS: Since Star Wars: The Force Awakens, J.J. Abrams is working on a lot of projects: Portal (Producer-announced) Half Life (Producer-announced) Westworld (Executive Producer- filming) 11.22.63 (Producer- filming) Valencia (Producer- post production) Star Trek Beyond (Producer-post production) Roadies (Executive Producer- pre production) M:I 6- Mission Impossible (Executive Producer- filming) Untitled Cloverfield Sequel (Producer-announced)

ANY OTHER BUSINESS? “The production had a preference for using real locations and miniature models over green-screens and computer-generated imagery whenever possible in order to make the film aesthetically similar to the original Star Wars trilogies.” “Mark Hamill claimed George Lucas nonchalantly told him over lunch a new Star Wars trilogy was going to be made by Disney, and if he did not want to be involved, Luke Skywalker would simply be written out of the script. However, Hamill immediately agreed to reprise the role. Hamill admitted, however, that he pretended to also be nonchalant about it so it didn't seem like he was excited for the role.”