Production
Process of Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Development
Development,
this is the first stage of the production process, once Lucasfilm had been sold
to Disney in October of 2012, the new president of Lucasfilm, Kathleen Kennedy,
began to discuss creating another Episode of the Star Wars story. George Lucas,
the creator of the original trilogy attended some of the early story meetings
and advised Kathleen and her team on details surrounding the Star Wars
universe.
The
first screenplay was written by Michael Arndt, early drafts had Luke Skywalker
appear during the middle of the film, although upon review they felt as though
he took it over and made you take less interest in the other characters.
Several directors were also considered, including David Fincher, Brad Bird and
Guillermo del Toro, although J.J. Abrams was named director in January 2013,
with Lawrence Kasdan and Simon Kinberg as project consultants. Michael Arndt
then worked on the script for the next eight months, although he said he need
18 more, this time could not be given to him. Once the production began on
October 24th 2013, Michael left the team and J.J. and Lawrence took
over the script duties. The first draft of the movie was completed within 6
weeks, after Abrams had established the best way to create the new script was
to return to the roots of the first Star Wars film, the script was fully
complete by January 2014.
Pre Production
In
May 2013, it was confirmed that Episode VII would be filmed in the United
Kingdom. Representatives from Lucasfilm met with Chancellor of the Exchequer
George Osborne to agree to produce Episode VII in the UK.
The
film's costume designer was Michael Kaplan, who had previously worked with
Abrams on Star Trek and Star Trek Into Darkness films, along with the film
editors Mary Jo Markey and Maryann Brandon, also long-term collaborators with
Abrams, were all signed to be a part of the films production.
In
August 2013, it was announced that the cinematographer Daniel Mindel would be
shooting the film, other crew members were confirmed in October 2013, including
sound designer Ben Burtt, director of photography Daniel Mindel, production
designers Rick Carter and Darren Gilford, costume designer Michael Kaplan.
Special effect supervisor Chris Corbould, re-recording mixer Gary Rydstrom,
supervising sound editor Matthew Wood, visual effects supervisor Roger Guyett,
and executive producer Jason McGatlin.
The pre-production shooting would take place in Iceland, prior to the
start of the official filming in May, in Iceland they took many landscape shots
that were used for the scenery within the film.
Casting
During
the month of august casting for the Star Wars The Force Awakens characters
began. Open auditions were held in the UK, Ireland, and the United States in
November 2013 for the roles of Rachel and Thomas.
Though
Lucas intimated that previous cast members Carrie Fisher, Harrison Ford, and
Mark Hamill would return for the new film as early as March 2013, their casting
was not confirmed until over a year later in an announcement made in February
2014. Also the actor Daisy Ridley who played Rey in the film was cast and
chosen for the part by February 2014.
On
the 29th April, 2014, the cast was announced with the post of a
photo that consisted of the first table read of the script at Pinewood Studios
near London. The picture captured the director Abrams with Ford, Ridley,
Fisher, Peter Mayhew, producer Bryan Burk, Lucasfilm president and producer
Kathleen Kennedy, Domhnall Gleeson, Anthony Daniels, Hamill, Serkis, Oscar
Isaac, Boyega, Driver, and writer Lawrence Kasdan. The announcement was
originally planned for May 4 (Star Wars Day), but was announced early for fear
of media leaks.
Filming
At
the beginning of May 2014, Abrams said that filming would begin in May and last
around 3 months, it was also announced early that year in March that the
principal photography would commence in May at the Pinewood Studios in England.
In
May 2014, Principal Photography began in Abu Dhabi, the cast and J.J. Abrams
went to Abu Dhabi in early May, where large sets had been built in certain locations,
as well as having built spacecraft’s, a large tower and a big market,
explosives were also used amongst the filming.
In
July 2014, filming took place over three days at Skellig Michele island,
Ireland.
The
landscape shots for the planet of Takodana were shot in July in the Lake
District.
After
returning to England’s Pinewood studios in early August, Harrison Ford
fractured his leg after a door on the Millennium Falcon fell on him, this meant
that production had to be suspended for two weeks.
Production
resumed during mid-august after his recovery was successful. During September,
the former RAF military base in Berkshire was used as a filming location, with
set constructions of several spaceships.
Post Production
Abrams
supervised post-production and editing of the film at Bad Robot Productions'
headquarters in Santa Monica.
In
August 2015, Abrams gave the estimated running time of the film as 124–125
minutes. Abrams made further changes to the film's plot in the editing process
to simplify the film, by removing some sequences shown in trailers.
In
February 2014, Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) had announced they were to
open a facility in London, to help aid with the post production process of the
film including editing and effects. ILM's Vancouver branch also worked on the
special effects for the film.
The
film was also converted to 3D in post-production.
Music
It
was in July 2013, that composer John Williams was confirmed to compose the music
for the film and he began work on the film in December 2014 and by June 2015
had been through most of the film reels, by working on a daily basis.
In
May 2015, he confirmed that he would return some of the themes for characters
such as Leia, Han and Luke.
Recording
sessions for The Force Awakens later began in June 2015 at the Sony Pictures
Studios, recording started on June 1st and John a total of 12
session scattered over a five-month period between June and November.
The
soundtrack was released by Walt Disney Records on December 18th
2015.
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