Star Wars analysis

Producers/ Production companies- The three main production companies involved in the film making were Lucasfilm. However, George Lucas (the creator of the Star Wars franchise and owner of the Lucasfilm company) sold his company to Walt Disney. But, Bad Robot facility were asked to shoot a minor portion of episode VII in the United States and Truenorth Productions also helped produce the star wars films. All three of which, played important roles in the creation of this film. There are also three producers that all helped produce Star Wars the Force Awakens, these producers were J. J Abrams, Kathleen Kennedy and Bryan Burk.

 

Director-Jeffrey Jacob Abrams is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and composer

 

Screen writer-

J.J Abrams, Lawrence Edward Kasdan, Michael Arndt

 

 

Actors-

Harrison  Ford- Han Solo

Mark Hamill- Luke Skywalker

Carrie Fisher- Princess Leia

Adam Driver- Kylo Ren

Daisy Ridley- Rey

John Boyega- Finn

Oscar Isaac- Poe Dameron

Lupita Nyong'o- Maz Kanata

Andy Serkis- Supreme Leader Snoke

Domhnall Gleeson- General Hux

Anthony Daniels- C-3PO

Max von Sydow- Lor San Tekka

Peter Mayhew- Chewbacca

Gwendoline Christie- Captain Phasma

Budget- $306 million (gross) $245 million (net)

 

Locations- There was a lot of secrecy around the filming locations of the new Star Wars movie. But finally, the continuation of the saga created by George Lucas has been released, and it's confirmed that The Force Awakens has been filmed basically in England, Ireland, Iceland and the United Arab Emirates.

 

Greenlight date- December 18^th 2015 (release date)

 

Screens shown on (opening weekend, peak figure, weeks at cinema)

USA & Canada-

• Biggest opening weekend and single weekend gross – $247.97 million
• Biggest opening day and single day gross – $119.1 million. It was the first film to gross over $100 million in a single day. This figure incorporates the $57 million it earned from its Thursday night previews. Excluding this amount, it earned the third biggest "single Friday" gross with $62.1 million.
• Biggest opening week (Friday-Thursday) – $391.5 million

• Biggest second weekend – $149.2 million. Its second weekend was also the 12th highest grossing weekend of all-time. 
• Biggest IMAX single day pre-sales – $6.5 million.

China-

• Biggest Saturday opening day – ¥217.5 million ($33 million
• Biggest Disney opening day – $33 million.
• Biggest Saturday to Sunday opening weekend – $52.6 million.
• Biggest Saturday to Sunday IMAX opening weekend – $8.1 million.

Worldwide-

• Biggest worldwide opening weekend and single weekend gross – $529 million.
• Biggest December international opening weekend – $281 million.
• Biggest Disney international opening – $281 million.
• Widest worldwide IMAX release – 937 IMAX screens. This includes 391 IMAX screens in the United States and Canada, 270 screens from China and 276 screens in other markets for a worldwide total of 937 IMAX screens
• Biggest IMAX worldwide opening weekend – $48 million

 

•Critical reaction (Rotten Tomatoes & Metacritic)

Rotten tomato-

 

 

 

 

 

Metacritic-    Meta score     User score

	81

 

 

 

 

Box office figures: worldwide, US, China-  

Worldwide- $1.9 billion

USA- $815 million

China- $124 million

Music (composer of score/ soundtrack)- John Williams

Marketing (teaser trailers, trailers, TV spots, posters, websites etc)- They used all of these marketing techniques to promote the film and create success.

Tie-in products- There are lots of tie in products that apply to all age ranges for example- there are toys and merchandise for children, there are also Star Wars themed children clothing that were brought out to promote the film. For adults there are collectable figures

SFX (special effects - technology used)- They used practical puppeteering, animatronics, suits, circus performances and full CG to produce highly realistic special effects, so the characters didn’t look like special effects but characters, which allowed the audience to see the changes in character and emotions for the characters. Green screen and walls were also used to produce the backgrounds for the scenes.

Hotel Babylon

1. Can I identify what ethnicities people are? 
How? Why?

Throughout the clip there are lots of different ethnicities portrayed, however in the print screen it was easy to identify the ethnicity of the woman in the office. We know straight away that she’s an Asian woman as the BBC stereotypically located her by a computer, with her hair scraped back looking smart and presentable. By locating her by a computer we get the idea that she’s good with technology and is clever enough to be working in the office instead of cleaning like the other ‘immigrants’. She also a submissive character, we know this as in the print screen it shows a high angled shot, which shows that she’s less important that the person talking to her or the shot is used to make her seem scared. She’s also following orders of the person speaking to her. And when she’s in the cupboard later on in the clip, she says ‘thankyou’ many times, which shows she’s having to be polite and brings back the idea of being submissive. The BBC does this as it makes it easy for the audience to understand that she’s an Asian woman, which makes her appear different to the white lady at the front desk.

2. Are people from different ethnic backgrounds shown as different interests, 
 personalities, attitudes, behaviours? If so, how?

The print screens below show a reaction shot, this is used to show the feelings of each of the characters in the shot. It also shows the combination of all of the different ethnicities. Everybody is stood still, and they’re politely not really speaking. This gives the audience the impression that none of the migrants have any interests or personalities, as they are all doing the same, all wearing the same, which makes us feel like the only thing they do is there job. Throughout the clip, none of the migrants show any form of interests, which makes it easy for the audience to associate the similar behaviour between all of the migrants, which separates them from the white people. The second print screen shows a high angled shot, this shot is used to make the character appear weak and it draws attention to the character, allowing the audience to understand that something bad is going to happen to him. The fact that he’s cleaning gives us the impression that he’s poor and all of the characters in both shots are incapable of doing other things, which adds to the stereotypical idea of all immigrants taking all British jobs and being a drain on society.

1. Is their ethnicity represented as being important in their life? 


In the print screen below, it a close up shot. This shot is used to add importance to the photo, so in this shot it also shows the importance of the ethnicity of the man that was taken away by migrant controls as in his locker (somewhere that is private and personalised) it shows a photo of his native tribe. The significance of the locker is that it’s the only belongings each of the migrants have in the hotel and is the only place they keep personal items, which shows that the photo much mean something to the man. By using a traditional native tribe as the photo in his locker it shows that religion and ethnicity is really the only thing important to these people.

 

4. Are people from particular ethnicities portrayed as being better, more 
 powerful, than others

Yes, throughout this clip it shows how the traditional white people are superior and have power over the other races. For example, in the print screen below, it shows a white lady at the front desk. A close-up shot is used to show a conversation between the white man and the white lady, unlike any other conversations in the clip a polite tone is used and smiles are exchanged which shows that the two white people are important. This shot could also be an over the shoulder shot, which could convey the white man’s perception of the character. This lady gives out orders as tells the black people what to do e.g. she gets the African man to tell the other migrants about the arrival of immigrant control, when she could’ve easily done it herself. The authority of the white men (migrant control) shows how this particular ethnicity is viewed as being more important and more powerful, we know this as the white men are able to take away the African man with no valid reason other than the fact he’s black. However, these men also have the power to scare the other races, we know this as all of the races hide so that they don’t get taken away.

 

5. Are people from particular ethnicities portrayed as being abnormal /weaker/ 
 more pathetic than others? 


In this print screen it shows an over the shoulder shot, this shot is used to show another character’s point of view of the situation, almost like everyone is watching the police officers take the man away. This shows the weakness of the black man, as not only is no one defending him but he can’t defend himself. As its seen as because he has no power, he doesn’t have the right to argue against being taken away, it also means that he’s viewed as being different as he was specifically picked out from the entire hotels and taken away. This shows that he’s abnormal and because he doesn’t fit in he has to be taken away. All of the police officers in this clip are white, which adds to the idea of the white being inferior and the black being superior as they have the power to take him away with no valid reasoning however he has no power so cannot argue against being taken away.

6. How do other characters in the clip treat the characters from different ethnic
 backgrounds?

This shot is an over the shoulder, close up reverse shot however this is used to show the importance of the white men. As its drawing the attention to the man at the front, and the triangle of people ae significant in the way they show authority. As seen in this print screen the white people are treated with respect and are spoken to kindly, for example in this clip it shows the white man talking to the white woman at the desk and they smile at her and talk to her politely, however when they see the black man they show no sign of acknowledgment that he exists or that he is a real person as they drag him around like he has no value. The white lady at the counter also orders the workers to do simple jobs for her e.g. when she tells the black man (who was with customers) to put the file away when she could’ve easily done it herself.

7. What is the message the clip is trying to portray about ethnicity? 


The message of the clip is to show that people of different ethnicities are treated badly by society, and ethnic minorities are hunted down and selected based on the way they look.