Review

1. BradleyMcGonigle
Review of The Force Awakens trailer
General overview:
Director- JJ Abrams
Studio- Disney, Lucas Film and Pinewood studios
Release date- 17th
of December 2015
Country- USA
Budget- $306 million
The purpose of the film being made is mainly to make profit for Disney, this is the
main purpose for every film maker and is what they set out to achieve however there
are other purposes for making a film. Before Disney could start to produce the film
and release it they first had to buy Lucas Film, this cost them just over $4 billion to
buy which is a lot of money but it enables them to release the Star Wars films which
will make profit in the long term. The budget they had for the film was $306 million
and after they produced the film and paid the actors and everyone involved the profit
they made over $2 billion. Another purpose of making and releasing the film is to
entertain people who watch the film, a lot of the people producing the film are
probably Star Wars fans themselves which means they would want to produce the
film so that they can watch it themselves and enjoy it, they also want other people to
watch and enjoy the film that they make. Finally, they would want to produce the film
because the producers feel like there is still some of the story to be told, between the
last Star Wars and The Force Awakens there was a 32-year gap, and many fans
thought that the franchise was over. Disney believed that the franchise still had more
to tell which is part of the reason why they took over Lucas Film and produced the
Force Awakens along with the fact that it will make them a lot of money. The film
would appeal to both younger and older generations, it would appeal to younger
audiences as within the film there are lots of action scenes and explosions which
interest the younger people, it would also appeal to older audiences as there are lots
of iconic scenes from the old Star Wars such as Han Solo and Chewbacca on the
Millennium Falcon and R2-D2 with Luke Skywalker which would excite them as there
are in the other ones.
Throughout the film there are many codes and conventions of the SC-FI genre. For
example there are lots of fights in spaceships, this is seen nearly straight away at the
start of the film when Finn takes off his mask and helps Poe escape the Empire after
they catch him. This suggests that the audience that it is targeting younger people
who are new to Star Wars as they are trying to attract their attention with the SC-FI

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genre as it is associated with action scenes and other things that young people enjoy
watching. The spaceship fights will keep younger audiences interested if they are not
as interested in the story line of the Star Wars franchise. Another example of a
convention of SC-FI used in The Force Awakens is the robots that are in the film
throughout, some of these robots are CP30, R2-D2, BB-8 and there are other robots
at different scenes. The use of these robots promote the genre of SC-FI which will
make both younger and older generations excited as kids like robots which will make
them enjoy the film more and they will also be able to buy toys of the robots to play
with which will make Disney more money. Both CP30 and R2-D2 would appeal to
older generations, as they are old characters that have been in the franchise for a
long time and would be recognisable for the older generations and the old Star Wars
fans, which would bring enjoyment for them whilst watching the film. The film also
shows bleak elements of dystopia despite it being set in the past as there is lots of
destruction and there is the dark side.
Since the exhibition of the film was in cinemas they has to film each scene to work
with what they wanted the scene to look like. They did this by using different
technology for different scenes. For example when they filmed in the studio they
used a 35mm camera to portray they style of the scene which would be indoors and
wouldn’t need as high resolution, but on the other hand the producers used 65mm
camera for different scenes for example when Rey is walking alone with BB-8 in the
desert which has a lot of scenery in the background which highlights the fact that
Rey is alone through the empty desert you can see. They used the 65mm camera to
add better resolution to emphasise this to everyone watching.
JJ Abrams has gone for the film to be nostalgic for the primary audience; this is so
that whilst they watch the film it reminds them of the old Star Wars, which will bring
them enjoyment, and entertainment, which is one of the purposes of making the film.
Making it nostalgic is done by old characters being in the new films to bring back
memories from the old films and it is also done by the film not having too many SFX
so it keeps the same style Star Wars always has but they have to add some to keep
it interesting for mew audiences and to keep up with the general trend of films today.
At the start of the trailer the first thing we see as an audience is a medium close up
of a mysterious looking character who isn’t identified as a human yet, this straight
away makes the audience question who this person is as it is unknown to everyone
watching. This is good as the purpose of making a trailer is so people question what
is going on so they want to watch the film. It then
changes to a clip of the unknown person climbing a
mysterious figure, which also will make the people want
to watch the film, as they will want to know what the
character is doing. The first thought that people will have
is that this person is a scavenger and is looking for

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goods to sell. After this there is a voice which says, “Who are you?” to the character
who we previously saw and to this she replies “I’m no one” which presents the idea
that she is lonely which is emphasised by the background of where she is walking
being empty and it looks like there is no one in sight. The fact that this character is
unknown and is new to the Star Wars series will intrigue to audience to watch the
film as it is clear she will be an important character in this film and people will want to
know what part she plays in the Star Wars franchise. Also the fact that this new
character is an independent women was different to what normally happens in Star
Wars which people liked as it showed a different ide to what women can be like and
led to a lot of young girls wanting Rey figures which Disney didn’t anticipate, it also
made the film appeal to lot more younger females (which are part of the secondary
audience) as it gave them someone to cheer on and support.
The trailer then fades to black and a shiny logo comes
up on the screen, which reads “Lucas Film”, this is the
first implication that the film being advertised is a Star
Wars film as before there was nothing to show this
before. This will keep fans of Star Wars watching as
they will know that Lucas Film produce Star Wars and it
will intrigue younger people who know of Star Wars.
Then there is a brief image of some stormtroopers, which will ensure people know
this is a Star Wars film as they are iconic to the franchise, the stormtroopers are
gathered round a stage with a big red flag above it. This has connotations of The
Nazi rallies as it looks similar which will present the idea that this is the evil side and
the colour red will be associated with blood, danger and anger.
The trailer then fades to a close up of a new character who we also have not seen
before and we can see that he is a stormtrooper, whilst the scene is focused on him
we see him take his helmet off and we see that his face looks scared and worried.
We can see that this stromtrooper is black which goes against dominnt ideologies
throughout Star Wars as they were thought to be clones which means it doesn’t
make sense for him to look different but the producers stayed and defended the
actor after some drama about it. We then see a clip of a tie fighter going through the
air and it looks like it has been shot down. This would appeal to both the primary and
the secondary audience as tie fighters are common in all the other Star Wars films,
which would appeal to the primary audience, and the clip involves action, which will
attract the secondary audience, as it looks interesting. After this we see the same
character as before but instead of wearing the white stormtrooper outfit he is now
wearing all black clothing and because white
and black are opposites it suggest that he has
changed his identity from being a
stormtrooper and now believes differently.
Because he is shown before and after the tie
fighter crash it suggests to us that he is
involved with what happened which will
intrigue the audience and make them want to
keep watching to see what happened to the

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new character. They would also want to see what part he plays in the film, as it is
clear he is one of the main characters. When we next see this character, he is in the
same desert scene that we saw the first character, which is shown by a long shot in
which suggests that he is lonely. It could also mean that these two characters will
meet and become an important part of the story together, which will make people
want to watch the film to find out if they meet and how this happens.
The next scene after this is a long-medium shot of a new character which is also
shown by fading from black, by fading from black to each new character it shows to
the people watching that the person about to be shown is important in the film which
intrigues people to watch the film as they want to know how they are important. The
long shot being shown presents the idea that now they are introducing the bad side
of the film as in the background there is a big red light shining on the new character
which shows him to be dangerous. This character is also unknown but straightaway
we know he is powerful as the camera moves towards him. We hear this character
say “nothing will stand in our way” which makes him sound menacing to the good
people and it makes him out to be a leader of people. It then switches to a close up
of this character who is wearing a black mask and is staring at the camera which
makes the audience feel involved. The mask that he is wearing looks damaged and
dented which shows he gets in fights and battles which further presents the idea that
he is dangerous and a bad character. After this it goes to an image of a broken and
destroyed mask in black and white as the character says in a non-human like voice “I
will finish what you started”. This would appeal to both younger and older audiences
as younger audiences would question who this person was and what happened to
them to make the mask completely destroyed. It would appeal to older audiences as
they would know that this character was Darth Vader and he is iconic to Star Wars
as he was one of the main characters which will appeals to older generations as they
would want to know to connection between Darth Vader and this new character.
The next few scenes start to pick up in speed and show more action, this is because
the new characters have been introduced and now the producers want to appeal
more to the secondary audience who care more about action than the storyline of
film. It shows the bad character which we now know as Kylo Ren to be intimidating
someone which shows his power as he is hurting a different character. Next there is
a close up of this person’s face who looks like he is in pain and as the music builds
up it jump cuts to a shot of mass destruction of a forest which is indulged in a red
background which shows to the audience that this has been done by the dark side
which incises people as they would want to know why they have done this. After this
there is a shot of two spaceships fighting which is iconic to Star Wars as it is known
for this kind of scene which attracts an audience as it will bring nostalgia for primary
audiences especially as one of the ships is the Millennium Falcon which is famous
for being Han Solo’s ship and people will want to know how it comes back into the
series of films.
Soon after we see a two shot of both the main characters on the good side that were
introduced to us at the beginning of the trailer, this shows to the audience that at
some point in the film these two characters come together which will attract an
audience as the audience will want to know what it is that causes them to meet each

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other. In this scene Rey is in front of Finn which shows she is the more dominating
character within the pair and it suggest that Finn is just there in support of her. Next
you can hear a voice which is recognisable to Star Wars fans as it is Han Solo
saying “it’s true, all of it” which is about the previous Star Wars films which links this
film to the last one and suggest the film has had a big time gap like the years they
were produced as the last Star Wars film before this one was produced 17 years
before. This will also intrigue the primary audience as they will know what stories he
is talking about from previous films. Then we see the Millennium Falcon again
breaking light speed which is also iconic to Star Wars and will appeal to the
secondary generation.
After this there is some text that comes onto the screen which reads “This
Christmas” which is put there to represent the release date of the film, this goes
against common ideologies as normally the Star Wars films were released in the
summer time but Disney recognised the time off people had in Christmas which was
successful as Disney made over a $2 billion gross profit.
After this there is lots more action scenes from the film which are put there to entice
the secondary audience, for example there is an explosion of a ship where match cut
is used to link the two scenes so that it shows there will be lots of action in the film so
that more younger people go to watch it. There is also a scene of BB-8 and another
robot which are used to show the genre of the film to the people watching in case
they don’t know what Star Wars is about.
After this we see a two shot of a famous robot from the other films which is R2-D2
and another character with a silver metal hand. This appeals to the primary audience
as it involves old characters and if you have seen the other Star Wars films you will
know that the person with the metal hand is Luke Skywalker. There is also a scene
of Han Solo and Princess Leia together which does the same thing.
We soon after see close up’s of the good characters faces looking in distress which
shows that at some point in the film things will go wrong for them which will appeal to
people watching as they will want to know what is happening to them.
One of the final scenes is Kylo Ren and Finn fighting, Finn is holding a blue
lightsaber where as Kylo Ren is holding a red one. This shows that Finn becomes a
jedi and fights Kylo Ren who is part of the dark side. This would appeal to the
primary audience as they would want to know how he became a jedi and they would
want to know the outcome of the fight which is similar to how it appeals to the
secondary audience as it appeals to them as they would want to see the battle and
would be interested by the lightsabers.
Over the last few scenes of the trailer there is a voice that says “the force, its calling
to you, Just let it in” this is aimed at Rey but it also attracts the audience as it could
be taken that she is talking to the people watching the trailer which would make them
want to go and watch the film because they feel involved in it. As she says this it
fades to black which puts all the attention on what she is saying to further emphasise
this. There is also recognisable music from the other films throughout the last few
scenes which attracts the primary audience as it will bring them nostalgia from the

6. BradleyMcGonigle
other films that they have seen and will make them want to see more of the star wars
series of films which is the main target for the advert being released.