Star Wars: The Force Awakens Facts

1. Who owns Lucasfilm? Walt Disney and the Walt Disney Studios.
2. Who formed Lucasfilm? George Lucas
3. What year was Lucasfilm formed? 1971
4. Who is the president of Lucasfilm? Kathleen Kennedy
5. What other major films have they worked on? Major films such as All Star Wars films, Indianna Jones and then other films such as land before time, willow etc.
6. How much was Lucasfilm sold for? $4 Billion
7. Who wrote Star Wars: The Force Awakens? J.J Abrams, Lawrence Kasdan and Michael Arndt.
8. Who directed Star Wars: The Force Awakens? J.J Abrams
9. What other major films is the director responsible for? Star Trek, Armageddon and mission impossible etc.
10. How many Star Wars films have there been so far (list them)? How much money have they all made at the global box office?                                                                                                                             Star Wars (1977)- $786,598,007                                                                                                                   The Empire Strikes Back (1980)- $534,171,960                                                                                      Return of the Jedi (1983)- $572,705,079                                                                                                          The Phantom Menace (1999)- $1,027,044,677                                                                                        Attack of the Clones (2002)-$656,695,615                                                                                              Revenge of the Sith (2005)-$848,998,877                                                                                                      The Force Awakens (2015)- $2,058,662,225
11. When was the first Star Wars film released? 1977
12. What does ILM stand for? Industrial Light and Magic.
13. What do ILM do? Industrial Light & Magic is an American motion picture visual effects company
14. Who created ILM? Founded by George Lucas in 1975
15. Why did they create ILM? They it created to use at the beginning of the production of Star Wars.
16. What do casting directors do? Decide who gets the roles of which characters and hire actors.
17. Where were the first scenes for Star Wars: The Force Awakens filmed? Abu Dhabi
18. What format was Star Wars: The Force Awakens shot on? Film
19. What types of camera were used to film Star Wars: The Force Awakens? Filmed on Imax Cameras
20. What studio was used to film a large portion of the film? Pinewood Studios
21. Where is the studio? Buckinghamshire, England
22. What major franchise is famously filmed at this studio? 
23. How does said franchise link to Star Wars: The Force Awakens?
24. Who was the inspiration for the character Maz Kanata? J.J. Abrams late English teacher Rose Gilbert
25. What technology was used to create Maz Kanata? Motion Capture
26. Who played Maz Kanata & what other roles is she famous for? Lupita Nyong'o and famous for playing lead role in 12 years a slave.
27. Who played General Snoke? Andy Srkis
28. What is he renowned for in the movie business? Played Gollum from Lord of the Rings and Ceaser from Planet of the Apes
29. Where was the final scene filmed? Ireland
30. Who composed the film score? John Williams
31. How many Star wars films has he composed the music for? All 7
32. What other famous films has he created the music for? Indianna Jones, Jaws, E.T, Home alone and lots of others.
33. How many times did John Boyega audition for the film (according to JJ Abrams)? 9
34. Over what period of time did these auditions occur? 7 Months
35. How many people operated B-B8? The puppeteers are Dave Chapman and Brian Herring.
36. What type of technology was the main version of B-B8?
37. What colour suit did the B-B8 operator wear? Green
38. Why did he have to wear such a suit? As this colour is used so he can be edited out to make it seem like B-B8 is rolling himself
39. What type of special effects (SFX) were employed on Star Wars: The Force Awakens? Special effects used were things such as light sabers, fire/explosions, some ships, Lazer guns etc.
40. How many people were behind the monitor watching the scene when Han and Chewie returned to the Millenium Falcon? 
41. Why was Simon Pegg thanked in the credits for Star Wars: The Force Awakens? For playing a role in the film.

Star Wars:The Force Awakens Research

Producers/ Production companies - 

• Kathleen Kennedy, 
• J. J. Abrams, 
• Bryan Burk.  
• Lucasfilms 
• Bad Robot Product productions.

Director- J. J. Abrams, born June 27th 1966. He is known for his work in drama, action and sci-fi films. He is a American film director, producer, screenwriter, and composer. 

Screen writer-

• J.J Abrams, 
• Michael Arndt, 
• Lawrence Kasdan. 

Actors- 

• Harrison Ford as Han Solo
• Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker
• Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia
• Adam Driver as Kylo Ren 
• Daisy Ridley as Ren
• John Boyega as Finn
• Oscar Isacc as Poe Dameron
• Lupita Nyong'o as Maz Kanata
• Andy Serkis as Supreme Leader Snoke
• Domhnall Gleeson as General Hux
• Anthony Daniels as C-3PO
• Max Von Sydow as Lor San Tekka
• Peter Mayhew as Chewbacca

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

Locations- The Force Awakens has been filmed basically in England, Ireland, Iceland and the United Arab Emirates.
Greenlight date- October 30th 2012.                                                                                       

Screens shown on 

• In America it was shown on 4,134 screens and in cinemas for 4 months.
• In the UK it was shown on 670

Critical reaction
Rotten Tomatoes; A critic/review site rated the film a 92% and the audience rated it 89%. Anthony Lane a top critic for Rotten Tomatoes said 'The new movie, as an act of pure storytelling, streams by with fluency and zip.'                                                                           Box office figures: worldwide, US, China

• Worldwide opening weekend- gross was $529 million.
• US- $2.066 Billion
• China- 30.7 million

Music 
The composer of the famous Star wars theme tune is John Williams. The song is played in every star wars film
Marketing (teaser trailers, trailers, TV spots, posters, websites etc)
When the film came out in cinemas there was a lot of buzz for the new film. Lots of posters advertising the film were shown. Teaser trailers were released to get more viewers when the film was about to go into cinemas. There were magazine articles and TV adverts too. Star wars also have an official website. 

Tie-in products
A variety of tie-in products were made things such as: Toys, Clothing, Lunch boxes, Posters, accessories etc. Even household appliances such as toasters were made just for star wars fans. 
SFX (special effects - technology used)
There are a lot of special effects used in the film, this is one of the reasons the film is so popular. John Dykstra is the special effects designer on the Star Wars films. Most of the sounds in the film are special effects to make it seem more realistic. CGI played a big part in this film and is what made it look so spectacular and gave it the sci-fi element. Camera work is very important as this provides the viewer with the action aspect of the film and makes it more gripping.
Any issues
Many Star Wars fans were not happy with the little screen time Luke Skywalker got in the film.