Introduction and Institution. Star Wars: The Force Awakens is an upcoming science fiction film, releasing on 18 th December It was directed, written and produced by J.J. Abrams who is known for producing the blockbuster franchise Star Trek. StarWars:The Force Awakens will appeal to large audience from male science fiction fans aged or people who has heard about the franchise before hand due to it being known world wide from 1977 being the classic well known science fiction film. These people will be able to experience the more modern graphics comparing to the old graphics on which the Star Wars franchise started with. The film also has a female leading role which may appeal to women between who would enjoy seeing a female lead in a science fiction film. The film stars two unknown actors, Daisy Ridley as Rey, John Boyega as Finn and Harrison Ford as Han Solo who also played Han in the original Star Wars movies. It was produced by Disney, who bought Lucas Films, the original company who created the Star Wars universe and only took one year to make. They did this to keep any information from leaking and also they has a massive budget of million dollars which allowed them to film multiply scenes at once with more than one film crew going to different places in the word. During filming they had two minor set backs. Harrison Ford (Han Solo) had a hydronic door fall on his leg, breaking it, although he had a speedy recovery, Abrams hurt his back while lifting the door off of Ford. He kept this to himself to not slow down filming any more

Title Official release date Cast, directors and producers Main image Related companies

Conventions of a film poster ( continuation form previous slide) This film poster for Star Wars: The force awakens used many typical film poster conventions such as an official release date, a main title and list of cast members, producers and directors. They do this so we can tell what genre of film it is and when it will be coming out. Conventions in a movie trailer Company Logo Main character shot Establishing shot Questioning voice over Action(Montage of shots) Words Quick sentences spoken Release date Close shot Range of characters Music changing with the trailer Film not yet rated In the trailer, Star Wars: The Force Awakens there are a number of trailer conventions, such as the first thing you see is the LucasFilms logo, relating to the original owners of the franchise. Then there is an establishing shot which contains a shot of Tatooine and a starship leaving the planet, and the trailer shows us some old characters from the old movies.

In the official release poster in Star Wars: The Force Awakens the main character Rey (Daisy Ridley) is resembled as powerful, aggressive and masculine. We see this with her facial expression and how she is holding her weapon ready to strike. Also she has a sun shining behind her showing that she is an important character. Also the fact that she is in the middle of a Sith (red lightsaber) and Jedi (blue lightsaber)suggest that she is not good or evil, showing independence which is not normal for a main female character in a SyFy movie. The character Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) is resembled as dark, strong and evil. We see this with his red weapon and dark cloths., red resembling evil and strength and black resembling mystery. The fact that he is covering half of the poster suggests that he plays a big part in the film. Also the fact his weapon and Rey’s weapon are close together may suggest a constant battle between good and evil. The character Han Solo (Harrison Ford) is resembled as protective and rebellious. We see this with his weapon drawn and in front of Leia (his wife), showing how protective he is of her and how he is still fighting even though he is older. Also the fact he is in the centre of the poster suggests his previous importance in the older movies Representation of a character on the poster

The first official trailer release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the main character Rey (Daisy Ridley) is presented at the start of the trailer as alone and explorative. We see this at the beginning where we see her not showing her face but with a mask on showing that she is a shy character. Also when the music playing a single note slowly with an echo showing sadness and her voice over saying answering the question “Who are you? with "I ‘m no one” this is shown because she is not scene with any other character but a small droid. She then is seen in the middle of the trailer with Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and Finn (John Boyega) listening to Han Solo explaining how the “Force” is real, she then starts to look interested and surprised. Near the end of the trailer we see her with an aggressive and emotional face while holding a weapon firing. This shows that she has gown as a more confident character becoming more aggressive and fighting. The first official trailer release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the main bad guy Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) is first shown with a voice over and a build up of dramatic music in the background. He says “Nothing will stand in our way, I will finish what you started". He says this while we get a head shot of Kylo’s masked face in a dark area with only him shown. Then a shot of Darth Vader’s almost destroyed helmet is shown when he finishes the line. Kylo is then shown torturing a unknown character as the music builds up with his mask is shown with a red sheen across it. Later he is shown in the rain, suggesting sadness or depression, where he is leading a small squad of soldiers with his weapon ignited. After we see him giving the final blow of death killing an unknown, it seems that it was important due to Rey was crying in the next shot. We then see him beginning the fight of the typical good vs evil battle.

Costume and props Lighting Body language Language Hair and make-up Camera shots Colour palette

How successful was the marketing for Star Wars: The Force Awakens. I think the official poster image of Rey (Daisy Ridley) does not resemble the character in the trailer because in the trailer she seems to be a much more complex character, but in the poster she is only resembled as strong and aggressive. I think the trailer does show the basic plot to the movie. I think this because we know that Rey and Finn meet Han Solo and get told about the force, there is a different version of the “Galactic Empire” called the “First Order” who are fighting the “Resistance” which have the same ships and costumes that the original “Rebel Alliance”. There is also a final fight between lightsaber Kylo Ren and Finn. The poster and multiple trailers released creates a lot of excitement with the audience because the Star Wars franchise is one of the biggest Sy-Fy movies ever which is also well known around the world. It has also been 10 years since the release of the latest Star Wars film (Star Wars: The Revenge of the Sith) which was the last prequel to be filmed and fans thought this was the end of the movies because George Lucas said that he is no longer going to make anymore movies himself, so when Disney bought LucasFilms and the rights to own the Star Wars franchise, there was of course going to be a sequel and excitement grew throughout the fan base, everyone eagerly waiting for it to come to cinema screens. When the official trailer released it got over 128 million views in the first day showing how much fans want to see this amazing sequel. The marketing did all work together because the poster does not reveal anything about the plot of the movie only about the main characters and only specific objects and images that are needed to be shown to make fans thinking about the plot and what may happen in this movie. The official poster was released online and it spread throughout social media and making everyone in the world has seen the poster or heard about it. The official trailer was also released online but before that there has been lots of little teaser trailers showing little hints and tips towards what is going on in the movie. This creates tension between fans because we don’t know how well J.J.Abrams is going to make this film, but we know it is going to be good due to him creating all the successful Star Trek movies. The trailer is also shown at cinemas which shows even those who are not interested in the franchise to let them know that there is another movies coming soon.

In the official trailer and poster of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the used and gratification theory could be applied to it. This is because some fans will be able to recognise some of the major character and objects in the trailer or poster. The trailer can also entertain all fans with the amazing action shots, battle scene and story which are only in the trailer. It can also be able to used for social interaction because people who have seen the trailer or the poster will; be able to talk about different theories of theirs and can talk about weather they like or dislike the trailer due to Star Wars being one of the biggest action, Sy-Fy films ever created, also the fact the George Lucas told fans that he will not be making any more movies but others may make fans also talk about the new director (J.J Abrams) and how he may or may not do a good job on the new film. In the official trailer and poster of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the male gaze does not apply to the poster or trailer because in this film the main character is a female who is resembled as strong and masculine. You do not need to view this poster and trailer through a heterosexual male because you can see how strong the main character is and it is not showing any main stereotypical female characteristics such as weakness and needs a male to protect her, from the trailer we can see that she has been brought up alone and learnt to survive through savaging.