The document provides an in-depth summary of the film Star Wars: The Force Awakens. It discusses the director, studios involved, filming locations and budget. It then analyzes the purpose of the film in continuing the Star Wars franchise for old fans and bringing in new audiences. Key scenes and characters like Rey, Finn, Kylo Ren and the Millennium Falcon are introduced. The document also examines the film's genre, form, style, mise-en-scene, and how it pays homage to the original Star Wars trilogy while continuing the overarching story and themes of the franchise.

1. Star Wars – The Force Awakens
General Overview:
The director of The Force Awakens is Jeffrey Jacob Abrams (J.J. Abrams). There are 4 main
studios that created the movie; Lucasfilm, Walt Disney Pictures and Bad Robot Productions.
It was made in 2015, filming took place over three days at Skellig Michael, an island off the
coast of County Kerry, Ireland. In July they then went to North West England in the Lake
District for Landscape shots. The overall budget grossed $306 million.
Purpose:
Of course the main reason of making a
movie is to make profit, and if the movie is
going to be another Star Wars movie we
are talking about a lot of profit. But in this
case the new movie had to create a
beginning for a new trilogy which
everybody knew was going to be a tough
job.
The main purpose of making a new
movie for Star Wars was that the
franchise needed, a strong, hugely
enjoyable entry that brought back the
wonder and magic of George Lucas’
original trilogy. The main target audience
therefore was the old generation Star
Wars fans. The movie has scenes that are
there to relate the first Star Wars fans
who are now adults.
Some of the crucial parts in the movie
are when we get Rey and Fin find the
Millennium Falcon, the fact that Kylo Ren
is dressed like his grandfather Darth
Wader and the Starkiller Base which is
originated from The Death Star, Rey
finding Luke Skywalker’s lightsaber, R2D2
and so on.

2. Genre:
Star Wars movies are always known to have each one of the main genre codes and
convections which makes Star Wars unique.
One of the main genre The Force Awakens has is the Sci-Fi (Science Fiction). We get to see
Sci-Fi genre codes and convections throughout the movie. Some of the codes and
conventions are; the fact that they are on a different planet with aliens around them,
spaceships and light speed– enhanced technology, what happens in future, controlling
superpowers - The First Order is trying to control and destroy anyone in their way
One example is the scene where General
Hux's gives a speech to Storm troopers
just like it was done in Nazi Germany by
Hitler which also relates to today’s
problems.
Other genres included are robots, clones
and drones, space and space travel,
dystopian futures and even a bit of
western. The codes and conventions of
these sub-genres are; spaceships – X-
Wings, clones – Storm troopers, desert
locations etc. These codes and
conventions suggest the idea that this
movie targets all sort of audiences. From
people who like action, clones, explosions,
and western this movie will suit them all.
Form:
Given that Star Wars is one of the biggest franchises in the world, interest was
understandably high in specifically what kind of technology would be bringing the series
back to the big screen, which made it difficult for producers to satisfy the fans’ interest in
terms of quality.
Abrams has long been a proponent of shooting on film, and indeed, he used 35mm to
capture the majority of The Force Awakens. However, in addition to 35mm, Abrams has also
used 65mm IMAX cameras for one specific scene, the Millennium Falcon chase that is also in
the trailer.
The movie is made both in 2D and 3D upon release but The Force Awakens’ also being
showcased in IMAX 3D, which is where the fans will get the full benefit of the IMAX footage.
This shows how much effort Lucasfilmhas put in to satisfy their audience. One of the main
factors that show that they still target the older generation is the Millennium Falcon chase.

3. This does make sense; the older audience now was the first ever-Star Wars fans back in
1970’s from the first movie and trilogy. The fact that one specific scene is being filmed with
one specific camera is there to attract one specific audience. The attention to detail for the
Millennium Falcon tells us main audience is the older generation as The Force Awakens is a
New Hope targeted at them.
Style:
J.J. Abrams has made the Force Awakens retro style, and it is all about making it like the
original movie. JJ Abrams has said; the prequels failed most audiences because they did not
model themselves on the original trilogy. So, he decided to create the new Star Wars movie
just like the original one, A New Hope. Some of the facts from the movie supports that he
has delivered what he promised.
Some of these are; the fact that Rey looks like a young Leia but shares Luke’s modest
childhood in a desert landscape and her Hans Solo, close friend Finn, we also have another
Hans-like character, free-spirited pilot for the resistance, Poe Dameron which again
resembles the original movie and so on.
All these factors in the movie make it clear that JJ Abrams wanted to make this movie like
the original Star Wars which brings us to the conclusion that The Force Awakens’ main
audience is clearly the middle-aged people who were the first ever Star Wars fans when it
came out in 1977. To make it even more retro they have a created 3 different metro style
posters for the movie as shown down below.
Other points to mention are the fact that; Han Solo and Chewbacca are back with the
Millennium Falcon, Kylo Ren is the bad guy like his grandfather Darth Vader and we do get
to see his partially burned mask, and the Starkiller Base which is just like the original Death
Star etc.

4. The original trilogy creator George Lucas, in one of his interviews about The Force
Awakens, said, “Star Wars, it’s all about generations and it’s about issues of fathers and sons
and grandfathers, it’s a family soap opera.” Which tells us that The Force Awakens is a
movie for everyone, for the whole family where they all can benefit from the movie which
then brings us to the second audience which is likely to be teenagers and young adults. They
are there to see action and explosions and spaceships.
Content and Meaning:
Mise-en-Scene;
First Introduction; the movie starts with
Rey staring at the camera, but we don’t
yet know who she is or if she is actually a
human. We then see her from a wide shot
where she is in somewhere abandoned
and it is quite dark but partially lighted up
with sunlight. Then there is a long shot of
where she is, that helps us to see and
understand the lifestyle of Rey, the fact
that she is a woman and alone creates a
new story for the movie and reminds the
old fans Luke Skywalker.
Rey is then walking in a desert-like place with a robot and holds a long stick that tells us
the movie includes Sci-Fi codes and conventions, so we can expect to see Clones, drones,
robots, spaceships and etc. We then see a plane-like ship flying in the air which is also
another code of Sci-Fi.

5. Then we see lots of Storm-troopers standing in front of General Hux who is giving a speech
to them. This scene goes back to 1940’s Germany where Adolf Hitler gave speech to Nazi
soldiers. This gives us the codes and conventions of “The sad situation of the world” which
shows us the real-life situations in the movie. This scene tells the audience that this guy in
front of them is in charge and he is in dangerous, we should fear them. This is also
supported by the red flag connotating danger.
Second Introduction; we then see our
second character, Finn, taking off his
helmet. And in the next scene we see a
spacecraft crash and then see Finn
walking on a desert location just like Rey
and he doesn’t have his helmet or any
stormtrooper props at all.
These scenes show that Finn is our
second main character and he is different
from other stormtroopers. He is not sure
what he is doing, and the next scene gives
us a clue about the fact that he somehow
escaped the First Order and came to Jakku
where Rey lives. And the audience is likely
to think that two of these are about to
meet.
This scene is very important to the
audience as it is on a desert location. We
have seen Rey alone and on a desert
location which is also where Finn will
come later, but this location shows the
audience that this movie has the same
storyline as the original Star Wars movie,
where Luke Skywalker was alone and also
on a desert.

6. After Finn we get our third introduction, Kylo Ren. In the trailer Kylo Ren is shown from
behind and the camera zooms in to him and then we get a close up to his face where we
have his mask with lots of marks from battling. This sort of camera shots show that he is the
only one important in that scene and the red colour throughout scene shows that he is bad
and dangerous which gives the audience the idea that he is likely to be the bad guy in the
movie.
When we see his face in close up we don’t actually get to see his face we just see the mask
with marks from his battles. With the mask Kylo Ren resembles Darth Vader so this scene is
there to appeal to old generation, old Star Wars fans. The mask is also there to not show
any emotion which makes him look dangerous.
During that scene Kylo Ren says
“Nothing will stand in our way” and then
“I will finish what you have started” and
we see the burnt mask of Darth Vader.
This shows that Kylo Ren does relate to
Darth Vader in a certain way and he
inspires him. He even behaves and
dresses like his grandfather to be more
like him.
We then see Kylo Ren holding his hand up
and Poe Dameron’s head and then his
face which clearly show he is in pain. This
scene shows that Kylo Ren also has
powers of the Force and he can use them
to inflict pain on his enemies, while he is
in pain his face fades into a scene of
destruction of trees and earth. This scene
shows how the pain makes him feel like.

7. After Poe Dameron’s pain we get a hero music and the Millenium Falcon flying in the air
and being chased by First Order fighter jets and at the same time Rey says “There were
stories about what happened”. Millennium Falcon is one of the most iconic Star Wars prop
in the whole trilogy. It shows the audience that there will be some sort of connection with
the old Star Wars trilogy.
In the next scene we get Rey and Finn
standing and Rey is standing on the front
which shows that she is the main
character whereas Finn is the second main
or her sidekick character. And we see Han
Solo saying “It’s true, all of it”. This scene
basically answers Rey question and also
gives the hint that old characters will be
included in the movie which is there to get
old audiences excited for it. One other
detail is that all characters are being
partially showed in blue colour which is
there to attract young kids, probably aged
around 12 and that these guys are good
guys without actually giving too much
than they can take.
We then also see the classic Star Wars
space travel scene with Millennium Falcon
in it. This is another iconic Star Wars code
and convention. We already have lots of
evidence to show that this movie is aimed
for first trilogy fans.

8. In this scene we get Kylo Ren standing
with couple of First Order soldiers. The
key part of this scene is the fact that he is
holding a Lightsaber and it isn’t just a
normal Lightsaber, it is unique to him with
2 extra side light holes which is there to
inflict more damage.
We then get an image of a battle scene
with fighter jets and explosions which are
Sci-Fi and Action genre codes and
conventions. This scene is there to show
audience what they will get in the movie.
This tells them if they like Sci-Fi they will
get Sci-Fi and if they like Action, they will
get action.
In next couple of scenes we get codes and
conventions for Robots, Clones and
Drones which is there to appeal even
wider audiences. On the second scene
though we get someone touching R2D2
with a metal hand. There is only one
character we know that has a metal hand,
Luke Skywalker. These are two of the
main Star Wars characters. This scene is
also here to tell old fans their thirst will be
ended. At the same time Han Solo says
“The Dark Side, The Jedi, they are real.”
Which basically means the storyline will
still be about the Jedi and the Dark Side.
On the next scene we get Storm troopers
walking around a destroyed place then
Kylo Ren taking out his Lightsaber and
cutting something. On the next scene we
get Rey crying. 2 of these scenes mean
that an important character in the movie
is going to get hurt. This scene will get the
audience’s attention because they will
want to know what happened.

9. After that we get even more scenes of action with Fighter Jets and Storm troopers.
We then see old characters reuniting. That tells the older audience that they again will get
something like the original Star Wars.
We then see Finn holding a Lightsaber and
then him battling with Kylo Ren. This
scene says that the audience will still get a
classic Lightsaber fight scene, and as usual
most likely to be at the end because that’s
where all explosions in the trailer happen.

10. At the end of the film we hear Maz saying “Just let it in.” which is another clue about her
being important. In the original movie Luke Skywalker was being challenged to join the dark
side. So from the trailer the audience is likely to understand that Rey is likely to have the
power of the Force, it can also be identified form the fact that she is the main character and
she has had a life that is much like Luke Skywalker had.
At the end we see the date it is coming out and it will be on 3D and IMAX 3D so they show
the quality they offer in the cinemas. We also see that it says tickets are available now
which means that fans can just go and buy tickets now and get ready for the action.
Resources:
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http://uk.businessinsider.com/star-wars-force-awakens-before-and-after-visual-effect-
2016-1?r=US&IR=T/#the-hangar-was-a-mix-of-green-screen-and-physical-elements-with-
the-tie-fighters-and-view-of-space-added-digitally-14
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/dec/31/george-lucas-attacks-retro-star-wars-the-
force-awakens
http://screenprism.com/insights/article/how-does-star-wars-the-force-awakens-return-to-
the-style-of-the-original-tr
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGbxmsDFVnE&safe=true