Star Wars: The Force Awakens

How Producers Target Audiences

The Force Awakens

The seventh film in the Star Wars franchise

was announced shortly after Disney acquired

Lucasfilm in 0ctober 2012. It is directed by JJ

Abrams from a screenplay written by Michael

Arndt. It is currently scheduled for release on

18th December 2015. It is set 30 years after

the events of Return of The Jedi (1983).

Trailers•The first teaser trailer debuted on 28/11/14.•The second teaser trailer for the film debuted online on 16/04/15.• According to thehollywoodreporter.com the second trailer reached over 64 million views on youtube in its first week and Disney announced it had gotten 88 million views across various platforms in its first 24 hours.•Both trailers have been analyzed in publications such as The Guardian and Empire Magazine to try and glean information about the hotly anticipated film.•The trailers have reportedly given Disney a $2 billion stock boost. •The first teaser did not include any of the cast members from the original film however the second trailer did include voiceover from Mark Hamill, a possible shot of Carrie Fisher and an appearance at the end from Harrison Ford and Peter Mayhew. This has sparked much debate online and in print over whether they will appear as main characters or cameos.

Trailer youtube viewing figures courtesy of www.thehollywoodreporter.com

Watch the second teaser trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCc2v7izk8w

Watch the parody https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYHdQUyOunA

Teaser #2 and fan made parody

Cast

The Force Awakens will include appearances

from Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill and Carrie

Fisher from the original Star Wars trilogy. Other

cast members include John Boyega as Finn,

newcomer Daisy Ridley as Rey, Adam Driver as

Kylo Ren, Oscar Isaac as Poe Dameron, Andy

Serkis, Max Von Sydow, Lupita Nyong’o and

Domhnall Gleeson.

Lupita Nyong’o Won an Academy Award for her role in 12 Years a Slave (2013).

Max Van Sydow famous for his roles in The Seventh Seal (1957) and The Exorcist (1973) continues a tradition of veteran actors appearing in the Star Wars franchise such as Alec Guinness, Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing and Vincent Price.

Oscar Isaac is an award winning actor with a diverse body of work including Drive (2011), Inside Llewyn Davies (2013) and Ex_Machina (2015).

Andy Serkis is famous for his motion capture performances in The Lord of the Rings trilogy and King Kong (2005) sparking speculation that his performance in The Force Awakens may be a motion capture one.

Campaigns

The Force for Change initiative is a campaign

which has raised over $6 million for charity

UNICEF. Fans who donated to the charity were

able to win a chance to visit the set, meet the

cast and cameo in the film. The higher the

donation the more entries were given. Runners

up could win other rewards such as t-shirts and

posters.

Magazine ArticlesAcclaimed photographer Annie Leibovitz visited the set of The Force Awakens and took photographs for Vanity Fair Magazine.

Many publications such as Total Film, Empire, The Hollywood Reporter and The Guardian have run articles analysing the film’s trailers and anticipating it’s success. This article from The Guardian predicts that the film could make $2 billion at the box office. http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/jun/24/star-wars-the-force-awakens-likely-to-make-2bn-at-box-office

PostersOn the left is the official teaser poster which was showcased at the Star Wars celebration on 26/04/15. On the right is a leaked poster which appeared on fansite www.theforce.net. It is not confirmed if this poster is for the film or upcoming computer game but the fact that it has caused so much discussion shows how highly the film is anticipated.

FansCosplay is when fans dress up as their favourite characters. Here are a few of the most inventive Star Wars fans.

Star Wars fans are very creative making

original art work and crafts projects.

Convention

Star Wars Celebration is a Star Wars convention

which began in 1999 ahead of the release of the

prequel trilogy. The 2015 US event attracted 150,000

fans, five times the number of the previous year. It

was also live streamed on youtube. As well as

appearances from cast members the event included

costumes from the film and news on Rogue One a

planned spin off film to be directed by Gareth

Edwards.

Websites and Social Media

Official Website

Official Facebook page : The official

facebook page has 13,833,736 likes.

Official twitter account : The official

twitter account was created in February

2009 and has 1.38 million followers.

Merchandise

• Lucasfilm and Disney Publishing Worldwide announced

plans for 20 books in the run up to the films release.

• Lucasfilm announced 4/09/15 as Force Friday and the

official launch of merchandise from the movie at 1 minute

past midnight. They are already urging fans to use the

hashtags #forcefriday and #midnightmadness to

document their experience on social media. This indicates

they are anticipating a great interest in the event and

shows their awareness of the importance of social media.

As well as official Lucasfilm brand merchandise licenses are given to companies to make a diverse range of Star Wars items from memory sticks to refrigerators. The interest in Star Wars memorabilia is huge and very profitable.