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Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Star Wars: The Force Awaken

Who owns LucasFilm?
LucasFilm is owned by Disney which the largest film production company in the world. it was founded October 16th 1923 in Los Angeles California, United States. The founders of the company are Roy O. Disney and Walt Disney.

Who formed LucasFilm?
George Walton Lucas, Jr. is an American filmmaker and entrepreneur. He is best known as the creator of the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises, as well as the founder of LucasFilm and Industrial Light & Magic.

What year was LucasFilm formed?

LucasFilm was founded in 1971 in San Rafael, California. Most of the companies operations were moved to San Francisco in 2005.

Who is the president of LucasFilm?

Kathleen Kennedy is president of LucasFilm. she became president on October 30th 2012.

What other major films have they worked on?

Other Major films that LucasFilm has worked on out the Indiana Jones films,

How much was LucasFilm sold for?

LucasFilm was sold for $4.05billion. George Lucas said that he would donate most of the money to his education funds.

Who wrote Star Wars: The Force Awakens?

Lawrence Kasdan, JJ Abrams and Michael Arndt

Who directed Star Wars: The Force Awakens?

JJ Abrams directed the last Star Wars Film who is an American film director, producer, screenwriter and composer.

What other major films is the director responsible for?

Other films that JJ Abrams has directed are mission impossible 3 2006, Star Trek 2009, Super 8 2011 and Star Trek into Darkness 2013.




How many Star Wars films have there been so far (list them)?
There has been 7 Star Wars films so far.
IV- A New Hope, May 25th 1977
V- The Empire Strikes back,May 21st 1980
VI- Return of the Jedi, May 25th 1983
I- The Phantom Menace, May 19th 1999
II- Attack of the Clones, May 16th 2002
III- Revenge of the sith, May 19th 2005
VII- The Force Awakens, December 18th 2015


How much money have they all made at the global box office?
IV- A New Hope, May 25th 1977. $786,598,007
V- The Empire Strikes back,May 21st 1980. $534,171,960

VI- Return of the Jedi, May 25th 1983. $572,705,079
I- The Phantom Menace, May 19th 1999. $1,027,044,677
II- Attack of the Clones, May 16th 2002. $656,695,615
III- Revenge of the sith, May 19th 2005. $848,998,877
VII- The Force Awakens, December 18th 2015. $2,058,662,225

When was the first Star Wars film released?
IV- A New Hope, May 25th 1977


What does ILM stand for and what does it do?
Industrial lights and magic is an American motion picture visual effects company that was founded in May 1975. It is a division of the film production company, LucasFilm, which Lucas founded, and was created when Lucas began production of the film Star Wars. ILM was considered the leading industry standard production house for computer graphics in film; many studios other than Lucasfilm sent scenes to the studio for CG. It is also the original founder company of the animation studio Pixar. Lucas wanted his 1977 film Star Wars to include visual effects that had never been seen on film before. Lucas named the group Industrial Light and Magic, which became the Special Visual Effects department on Star Wars.


What do casting directors do?
Casting directors find and audition the actors for the characters.


Where were the first scenes for Star Wars: The Force Awakens filmed?
Filming for "The Force Awakens" took place at Pinewood Studios, located near London, but the cast and crew traveled to several locations around the world to film scenes for different fictional planets. The galaxy of Jakku was filmed in the desert Rub' al Khali desert, Abu Dhabi. Other places that were filmed in were the Forest of Dean, Berkshire and the Lake District.


What format was Star Wars: The Force Awakens shot on?
the new star wars film was shot on Kodak film


What types of camera were used to film Star Wars: The Force Awakens?
Panavision creates a new set of lenses for the film as JJ Abrams wanted to preserve the original look of the film. Panavision started with C and B series cylinders, and developed a hybrid version that used some T Series technology. Some desert exteriors and effects plates were shot with 15-perf IMAX. On those shots, the lenses included T-2 80mm and T-2.8 50mm models refitted with Panavision mechanics and Panavision proprietary glass. They filmed it on film instead of digital to make me it look more like the first three films. 


What studio was used to film a large portion of the film?
Pinewood Studios


Where is the studio?Pinewood Studios is a British film studio and television studio located in Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, England, approximately 20 miles (32 km) west of central London and 7 miles from Windsor.


What major franchise is famously filmed at this studio?
the James Bond films


How does said franchise link to Star Wars: The Force Awakens?
the James Bond Films were being filmed at the Pinewood studios at the time. Daniel Craig happened to walk onto the Star wars set and was given a Camio in the film as a storm trooper.


Who was the inspiration for the character Maz Kanata?
Maz Kanata is a fictional character in the Star Wars franchise. Introduced in the 2015 film Star Wars: The Force Awakens, she is a CGI character voiced and performed by  Lupita Nyong'o. Maz, a former pirate and smuggler, is over 1000 years old and manages an interstellar tavern in a castle on the fictional planet, Takodana.  The character was originally based on High school English teacher Rose Gilbert. She taught both JJ Abrams and Rick Carter. She died in 2013.




What technology was used to create Maz Kanata?
Motion capture was used for the creation of Maz Kanata. the character was originally going to be a puppet. Motion capture (Mo-cap for short) is the process of recording the movement of objects or people. It is used in military, entertainment, sports, medical applications, and for validation of computer vision and robotics.

Who played Maz Kanata & what other roles is she famous for?Lupita Nyong'o played Maz Kanata and Arti Shah played her double. Maz Kanata was also voiced by Lupita Nyong'o. She stared in other films such as 12 slaves a slave (2013), The Jungle book (2016), Non-Stop (2014) and Queen of Katwe (2016)


Who played General Snoke?Andrew clement "Andy" Serkis is an English film actor, director and author. He is best known for his performance capture roles comprising motion capture acting, animation and voice work for computer-generated characters as  Gollum in The Lords of the Rings film trilogy (2001–2003) and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012), the eponymous King Kong in the 2005 film Caesar in Rise (2011) and Dawn of the planet of the apes (2014)


What is he renowned for in the movie business? he is renowned for his experience with motion capture technology as he has played many roles in films that have used a lot of the motion capture technology.


Where was the final scene filmed?
The final scene of Star Wars: The Force Awakens was filmed at Skellig Michael, an island located 7.2 miles west of the Iveragh Peninsula in County Kerry, Ireland.


Who composed the film score?
John Williams


How many Star wars films has he composed the music for?
he composed music for all the star wars films apart from Star Wars: The Clone Wars who was composed  by Kevin Kiner.


What other famous films has he created the music for?
he has composed music for the world highest grossing films including Jaws, the Star Wars series, Superman, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial,  the Indiana Jones series, Jurassic Park, Schindler's List, and the first three Harry Potter films.


How mant times did John Boyega audition for the film (according to JJ Abrams)?
he auditioned 9 times


Over what period of time did these auditions occur?
these auditions could place over 7 months


How many people operated B-B8?
2 people operated B-B8


What type of technology was the main version of B-B8?
The voice of BB-8 was given by comedians Bill Hader and Ben Schwartz both credited as"BB-8 vocal consultants" in the film. The voice was created by Abrams manipulating their voices through a talkbox, attached to an iPad running a sound effects app. Dave Chapman and Brian Herring controlled BB-8 in the film by wearing green suits that allowed them to be taken out after filming.


What colour suit did the B-B8 operator wear?
the operator wore  green suit


Why did he have to wear such a suit?
A green man suit is the same color as a green screen backdrop, making it easy to delete the people wearing them later during post-production. The green screen suit comes in a variety of sizes and covers the wearer from head to toe. They are completely chroma-key green to match green screen backdrops. The suits are usually close-fitting so that there will be few wrinkles or shadows; this will allow a person to be practically invisible in a shot when filmed against a green screen backdrop.


What type of special effects (SFX) were employed on Star Wars: The Force Awakens?
Abrams wanted the film to look as much like the original films as possible so he used a lot of CGI, other technology that he used are:

• industrial light and magic
• green screens and green suits
• motion capture technology

How many people were behind the monitor watching the scene when Han and Chewie returned to the Millenium Falcon?
200


Why was Simon Pegg thanked in the credits for Star Wars: The Force Awakens?
He was credited as he played a role in the film and he came up with numerous ideas for the film and also him and Abram are friends and he helped Abrams out by playing a role in this film.


JJ Abrams shot part of Star Wars: The Force Awakens in IMAX. What is IMAX?
IMAX is a  widescreen cinematography technique which produces an image 10 times larger than a standard film would be able too


How many IMAX screens was The film available on?
The film was available on 1000 IMAX screens.


What was the age rating of the film in the UK?
12A


How much money did the UK government contribute to the production of Star Wars: The Force Awakens? (Express this figure as a percentage of the total cost and as a figure in pounds).
The UK Government provided the film with £31.6 million to this particular film. This figure was 13% of the whole cost of the film.


How much was Harrison Ford paid to reprise his role of Han Solo?
Harrison Ford was paid £20 million for his role in this Star Wars as it was a come back for his character.


How much were Daisy Ridley and John Boyega paid?
They earned between $100,000 ad $300,000 for their roles in this film.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens research

Star Wars: The Force Awakens research

producers/ production companies

the three producers for the Star Wars: The Force Awakens were JJ Abrams, Kathleen Kennedy and Bryan Burk. The creator of the star wars trilogy, goerge Lucas' sold his production company Lucasfilm and the star wars franchise to The Walt Disney Company. Lucas said "I always said I wasn't going to do anymore, and that's true, because I'm not going to do anymore, but that doesn't mean im unwilling to turn it over to Kathy to do more." representatives from Lucasfilms had a meeting with George Osborne to ask him if he would agree to filming the new star wars film in the UK. Osborne committed £25 million of public money towards the film. The government in total gave £31.6 million towards the film. However portions of the film were filmed in the united.

Director
JJ Abrams was named director in 2013 along with Lawrence Kasdan and Simon Kinberg. everal directors were considered including David Fincher, Brad Bird, Ben Affleck and Guillermol Del Toro.

Screen writer
Michael Arndt worked on the scripts for 8 months, however said that he needed 18 more which was more time then Abram or Disney could give him. Kasdan and Abrams took over script duties. the first draft was completely. he said that he wanted the film to return to the roots of the original films and was based more on emotion rather than explanation. in January 2014, Abram confirmed that the script was complete.

Actors
Daisy Ridley- Rey
John Boyega- Finn
Harrison Ford- Han Solo
Oscar Isaac- Poe Dameron
Carrie Fisher- Princess Leia
Adam Driver- Kylo Ren
Gwendoline Christie- Captain Phasma
Mark Hamil- Luke Skywalker
Peter Mayhew- Chewbacca
Anthony Daniels- C- P30
Kenny Baker- R2-D2
Paul Warren- Varmik

Budget
the production budget the film was $306,000,000 yet George Osborne committed 25 million of public  money to the film, saying that it was a boost for British culture and the British film industry.

Screens shown onthe most popular screen that the film was shown on was the 375 to 400 IMAX cinema screens. It was shown 78 times in the first 24 hours in a Vue Cinema in London. the film was pretty much shown on cinema screens worldwide where It was most popular in the US, China, and the UK

Box office figures: worldwide, US, China
The Force Awakens grossed $936.7 million in North America and $1.132 billion in other territories for a worldwide total of $2.068 billion. the film is the highest grossing film of 2015. It was the 24th film in cinematic history to gross $1 billion worldwide, standing as the fastest film to surpass the mark, doing so in 12 days

Music (composer of score/ soundtrack)
I July 2013, John Williams to confirmed to be composing the score. the music from the first two trailer were a rework from previous John William pieces. Recording sessions for The Force Awakens began in June 2015 at the Sony Pictures Studios'.Barbra Streisand Scoring Stage in  in Culver City, with William Ross conducting most of the music. The first day of recording was June 1, 2015. William continued to conduct the rest of the records. The score was recorded by a freelance orchestra. The 90-piece orchestra recorded 175 minutes of music, although nearly an hour of that was discarded, modified, or rerecorded as Abrams re-edited the film. Williams's theme for Snoke was recorded by a 24-voice men's chorus. The film's soundtrack was released by walt Disney records on December 18, 2015.

Marketing (teaser trailers, trailers, posters, websites etc)
domestic DVD sales- $26,930,021
domestic Blu-ray sales- $128,520,899
total domestic video sales- $155,450,920
on November 28th 2014, Lucasfilms released a teaser trailer to advertise the film. it generated 58.2 million views on youtube in the first week. on December 11th 2014, Abrams and Kennedy released 8 mock Topps trading cards giving names of some of the characters. On April 2016, a second trailer was released. it received 88 million views within the first 24 hours.

Tie-in products
Disney publishing worldwide announced a series of 20 books and comics titled 'Journey to star wars: the force awakens'. Disney consumer producers announced that on September 4th 2015 would be named 'force Friday' where all merchandise would be sold. this began at 12:01am where fans could buy toys, books, clothing and various other  merchandise at Disney stores and other retailors.  Among these products were a remote-controlled BB-8 developed by sphero.

SFX (special effects - technology used)
As far as visual effects go, they shot as much in-camera as they possibly could. This meant building extensive sets, big models, and using matte paintings instead of relying on the green screen technology that was so prevalent in the prequels. They also used flat forced perspective paintings to do things like make a hallway or corridor appear longer than they actually are, and basically went practical and physical whenever they could.

Any issues
Originally Walt Disney discarded the star wars story lines as they were not that keen. Lucas said that that he would cause trouble because he know that Disney would want to change his ideas and set up for the film. Disney was never keen on George Lucas being part of the film.

Mise En Scene

Mise En Scene

This scene is from the film Burlesque. This scene shows Jack and Ali experiencing an intimate moment after drinking too much at a wedding. They are standing very close to one another showing that they have a very close connection and have strong feeling towards each other. The way that Jack has his hand cupping Ali’s face shows that he has a desire to kiss her. As an audience we know that from their positioning this is a likely outcome. The fact that both are wearing very little clothing also suggests that something will happen between the two.  The background is out of focus and there is little there meaning they are alone and nothing is there to distract the audience allowing all attention to be on Jack and Ali. The lighting behind them is very dark with very little light which gives the room a very deep and romantic feel. However, the front lighting is directly pointing on Ali who is the main character in the film showing that this is one of her key scenes and a moment that has been leading up to in the film whereas Jack in not in the lighting as much however has some shadows on him meaning that he still a main character in the film however is less important compared to Ali.

Film Production

Film Production

Development - This is simply the process of 'finding' a story. Ideas for films come from a variety of sources, they can range from novels, real life events to computer game adaptations. Once you've got an idea you'll need someone to write a pitch for you which you take to a film producer in an attempt to get some funding to make your film. Even at this very early stage you need a very clear idea of who you're aiming you film at so you can include elements that will appeal to them.

Pre-production - Once you've got funding you establish your budget and can begin to get a film crew together, you can storyboard the script. You also need break the script down into individual scenes and identify all the locations, props, cast members, costumes, special effects and visual effects needed.

Production - This is simply the process of 'making' the film. Provided you've done your job properly in the pre-production stage making the film should be straight forward. 'Film' is very expensive and difficult to store so an increasing number of film makers are using digital cameras to save money.

Post-production - During this stage you take all the 'film' you've shot and give it to a film editor. They will then begin putting it together. Special effects will be added, a soundtrack will be added, any missing dialogue will be re-recorded and added resulting in a 'rough cut'. This will be shown to the director and a test audience who will offer feedback. Often this causes scenes to be filmed and added or removed.

Writer
A screenplay writer or screenwriter for short is a writer is practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays which the mass media such as films , television programs, comics or video games are based on. Screenwriting is a freelance profession where no education is required to become a professional screen writer, just the skill of storytelling and a good imagination. They are not hired employees; they are contracted freelancers. Professional screenwriters do not often work for free whereas amateur screenwriters will often work for free and are considered as ‘writers in training.  Screenplay or teleplay all begin with a thought or idea and screenwriters use these ideas to write scripts with intentions of selling them or having them produced.

Producer
they fill a variety of roles depending on the type of producer. Producers plan and coordinate various aspects of the film production process. This includes selecting scripts, coordinating writing, directing and editing and also arranging financing. The producers have the last word on whether anything can be changed such as sound, music, or scenes being cut   

Casting director
casting is a pre-production process for selecting a certain type of actor or singer or dancer for a particular role or part in the script. They are responsible for the casting, arranging and conducting interviews and auditions and working with the director and the producer to understand what is needed.

Director
the film director is the person who directs the making of the film. The film director controls the films artistic and dramatic aspects. They visualise the scripts whilst guiding the technical crew and the actors. The film director has a key role in choosing cast members, production design and creative aspects of the filmmaking process.

Film finance
this occurs during the development of the film making process and prior to pre-production. It determines the potential value of the proposed film.

Camera operator
a camera operator  is the professional operator of the film or video camera. In the film making process the camera operator is responsible for physically operating the camera and maintain composition and camera angles throughout the film.

Editor
the editor is responsible for the creative and technical part of the post production process of filmmaking. The film editor works with raw footage, selecting shots and combining them into sequences to create a finished motion picture.

Production designer
a production designer is the person responsible for the physical look of the filmed event such a TV program, video game, music video or advertisement. They have a key role in the creation of motion pictures and television. They work directly with the director and producer.

Marketing
the marketing team are responsible for the advertisement of the film and selling the film to  the public to ensure that a profit can be made on the film.

Exhibition
exhibition is the showing of the films in cinemas or on DVD to bring media attention through opening evenings and preview events.