P5-D-Learners demonstrate their understanding of their chosen media product by analysing

P5-D- Role of relevant regulatory bodies.
The role of the regulatory bodies- which is the British Board Of Classification is designed with statutory responsibility for the classification of video works under the Video Recordings Act 1984. The Board Of Classification is consulted on difficult decisions. They are appointed by the Council Of Management. The president is Patrick Swaffer and the Vice Presidents are Gerard Lemos and Alison Hastings.
The role of the BBFC is to protect children from unsuitable and even harmful content in films and videos and to give consumers information they might need about a particular film. The BBFC examines and age rates films before they are released.
In the past BBFC have taken a more lenient approach to Star Wars films; the first three films are all rated U. However, the BBFC board have said Star Wars: The Force Awakens, is to  be rated  12A, because of it violent scenes, and threats, throughout the whole film, therefore children under the age of 12 must be accompanied by an adult.
The BBFC was worried violent scenes such as the one i have put below would upset younger children which therefore led them to rate the film and its violent scenes 12A. The village scene within Star Wars: The Force Awakens proves how the film has a 12A rating due to the mild violence. The scene itself is commonly known as the slaughter scene, it is the opening scene to Star Wars.
















As you can see from this screenshot from Entertainment.com, the Stormtroopers are surrounded by fire with guns in their hands and this shows that there is violence within the film that would be deemed unsuitable for children under the age of 12.

In addition, there is very mild language such as 'hell' and 'damn' that has also contributed to the rating the BBFC rating.

P5-C-Learners demonstrate their understanding of their chosen media product by analysing

P5-C- Relevant legal and ethical issues within Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
JJ Abrams’ film The Force Awakens has many legal and ethical issues. Star Wars: The Force Awakens is given a 12A certificate for violence. This therefore shows it is illegal for any children under 12 to view the film without a parent or guardian over the age of 18. The film has this age rating by The British Board Of Classification; because of the scenes of moderate violence and threat.
There have been royalty issues; a main issue was when Harrison Ford broke his ankle on set of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, this became and health and safety issue. The 73-year old said although it was an accident, the hydraulic door “came down on me on my left hip because I was turned to my right.” A health and safety organisation, Health and Safety Watchdog, sued the Star Wars company, and Ford was compensated £1 million for this accident which happened on set. This accident delayed the filming of Force Awakens for 2 months.
A legal issue which happened when The Force Awakens came out was when Disney Enterprises and Lucas Film Entertainment Company Ltd, filed a lawsuit against a company they say is ruining their reputation and illegally selling and making money off their film by selling Star Wars The Force Awakens products. Court documents obtained by Daily Mail Online show that Plug Your Holes, which is a jewellery and accessories company, stole the properties that are owned by Star Wars. Plug Your Holes copyrighted trademarked products from LucasFilm and Disney. 
The mass consumerism of goods/ merchandise from the film sold by Disney need to ensure they are not copyrighting any other products on the market or selling anything offensive to the public in their shops, and also need to be aware of other companies such as Plug Your Holes, and ensure they do not steal their trademark merchandise to sell by their own company.
Carrie Fisher, who plays Princess Leia in all Star Wars films, received hate off social media after starring in the Force Awakens for ‘not ageing well’ and says she was pressurised by hate to lose 16kg.  An important ethical issue is age, as Carrie was just 19 when starring in 1977 Star Wars film but was 59 starring in the 2015 The Force Awakens. Age is an important ethical issue and there has been a debate if Fisher is too old to play the part of Leia, while other fans disagree.
in addition, in the orginal Star Wars films, Leia caused contrversory over wearing a golden bikini in the scene were she was 'slave Leia'. There was criticsms of her being sexualized in the 12A film and even Carrie Fisher told Daisy Ridley, who plays Ray in the new film; 'Don't be a slave like i was, You keep fighting against that slave outfit'. Many people said in anger the scene was too inappropriate for a film that families watch. It also goes against Disney's values which would deem films that sexualize women innapropriate. Disney are a family-orientated company and their much loved company would not want to allow women to be sexualized figures within their subsidiaries film  (LucasFilm). They  banned figurines and all merchandise of Slave Leia as it sexualizes Leia and being the only woman in the orginal Star Wars films while also in a gold bikini held captive comes across sexist in modern society and people in anger called for all merchandise of this to be banned.

P5-B-Learners demonstrate their understanding of their chosen media product by analysing

P5-B- Relevant issues of representation.
In Star Wars original films  and Star Wars: The Force Awakens, gender is represented differently. In an interview with Good Morning America, JJ Abrams, the director of the new Star Wars; The Force Awakens, said that Star Wars was ‘always boys’ who went to see it and a movie that ‘dads take their sons to’ but the difference in the gender of the audience in the new Star Wars force awakens to a film that ‘mothers can now take their daughters to’ is mainly because the new film has more female leads in it, which is less male-dominated and women feel that the new Force Awakens film is more relatable to them because of the increase in women characters.
Star Wars (1977), the first film, Princess Leila appeared to be the only woman featured in the films , thirty five years later, The Force Awakens has a much more realistic gender balance; not only does the universe contain more than one woman; but it actually passed the Bechtel Test. The Bechtel Test is a test that asks films if it has a.) more than one woman, b.) if those women in the film talk to each other, c.) and talk to each other about something more than a man.  The original Star Wars trilogy has one grest female character, but by the standards of the Bechtel Test; it falls short.
In comparison, Star Wars: The Force Awakens has a better representation of women with more female characters in than the original Star Wars trilogy, such as Rey, General Leia, Captain Phasma and Maz Kanata. Unlike the 1977 Star Wars film, The Force Awakens easily passed the Bechtel Test, which shows how female representation has changed positively with more females in the new film.



 Race:
The representation of races in Star Wars (1977) had little diversity. In the first films there was no black characters which caused controversy as the films lacked diversity of other races apart from white characters. In addition, in the prequels, there was one black character, which still didn’t represent racial diversity within the film industry and the Star Wars films still lacked characters from other races that were not white.
However, in The Force Awakens, one of the main characters, Finn, created racial diversity across the franchise as he was the first leading black characters in the films. This appealed to other races such as Africian-Amercian fans who can relate to the film as it features a main black character. In addition, the casting of the character Finn (John Boyega) will promote diversity in a genre which was long dominated by white characters. This is therefore progress in the science- fiction genre which is very popular to fans of the films who are therefore glad to see main characters of other races being such a big part of the film.

P5-A-Learners demonstrate their understanding of their chosen media product by analysing

P5-A- Charlotte Tennant
Cultural impact of Star Wars over the years-  Star Wars has had  a massive impact on the science fiction genre. Darth Vader has become an iconic villain. Phrases used throughout the Star Wars films such as ‘May the force be with you’ and ‘evil empire’ have become so popular and household phrases.
Star Wars overall has been a great influence in the science-fiction genre and can be seen in other science-fiction films to draw heavy influence and inspiration from Star Wars.

The films have impacted audiences’ worldwide and have made science fiction genre a blockbuster seller. he
The impact that the Star Wars films have had on society as a whole is positive, they have overall improved the science fiction genre as a whole and made science-fiction more popular. $26.41 million was made in the box office for Star Wars: The Force Awakens; this goes to show the impact that Star Wars has on people as it has a large audience.
It can be argued that the audience are an active audience, which is a theory that the audience do not just receive information passively but are actively involved often unconsciously in making sense of the message within their personal and social contexts.
However, another theory is that the audience are a passive audience; which simply suggests that audiences interact with the film to create meaning. A passive audience is an audience that observes rather than actively responding to it.
The audience of Star Wars: The Force Awakens can be seen to be an active audience as they will be engaging with the film and be looking for how this film links in with the original trilogy of the film. However, people watching The Force Awakens who are unfamiliar with the other Star Wars films are more likely to be a passive audience and not interact and look for links with the new film to the original ones.

P4- B-Investigate how Star Wars: The Force Awakens reaches its intended audience.

P4-B.) Advertising- How was Star Wars advertised?
The film Star Wars: The Force Awakens was advertised through its trailers which were shown all over the globe, on social media, in cinema trailers, and on TV. The first Star Wars trailer was released 28/11/14 teaser which was 1 minute 37 seconds.

The second trailer was released 16/04/15 and was 1 minute 48.

The third trailer was released 19/10/15 and was 2 minutes 1 second.

The fourth trailer was released 12/11/15 and was 60 seconds

 Star Wars: The Force Awakens was advertised numerous of ways; one way being through billboards. Advertisements with pictures of the characters on were displayed in cities on billboard, and shown the release day of the film and the film title- Star Wars: The Force Awakens. This is a successful way of advertising because millions of people in these busy cities can see the billboards and get excited/ be made aware of when the film was coming out.
 

In addition, posters, with the Star Wars logo, characters, title and release dates were displayed in main retailors and in cinemas, to advertise the new film.

Also, adverts on TV channels across the world were made in order to tell everyone about the new film. This is a good type of marketization as billions of people watch TV and their adverts, so Star Wars being advertised on TV means billions of people will see it. 
The public can purchase merchandise from the film such as character costumes, toy figures, and stuffed toys. They are purchased from shops such as the Disney store, Tesco, Asda, and other retailers.

P4-A- Investigate how Star Wars: The Force Awakens reaches its intended audience.

P4-A.)
Star Wars: The Force Awakens was released by Walt Disney Studios. It premiered on December 14, four days before release on 18th December 2015. The film made a total gross of $2 billion. The Force Awakens broke blockbuster records by making $57 million on its first day and the  IMAX screenings of the film broke their own record across 391 screenings.
 The film was available on DVD 5thApril 2016 and was sold at a retail price of £24.99 in the UK. Star Wars: The Force Awakens made worldwide headlines and broke records by being the fastest selling DVD/Blu-Ray of 2016. It sold 1.89 million copies in the first seven days of sale. The film took over the film Spectre which only sold 987,000 in comparison to Force Awakens. The film is probably one of the most long awaited sequels in the history of cinema; which is a clear reason why it is the fastest selling DVD of 2016.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens also debuted on Home Media Magazine’s rental chart. The film also distributed to the home video market by Walt Disney Studios, outsold all other Blu-Ray Disc and DVD releases.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens DVD’s were distributed to all main retail outlets such as Asda, Tesco, Blockbusters Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, The Disney Store, HMV and all other main retailors within the UK and have been available to purchase from 5th April 2016. The Force Awakens is very easy to be obtained from shops within the UK meaning more people can purchase it.
The film’s DVD  is also internationally distributed to stores in over 13 countries across the globe such as Canada, Denmark, Finland, South Africa and Australia. The film was also available to watch in cinemas in over 13 countries, this shows how easy accessible it is for fans of Star Wars to watch The Force Awakens in many countries.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens made a screen premiere on the TV network Starz on Saturday September 2016. The CEO of the TV network said that they are offering a variety of ways for fans and subscribers to watch- on the Starz networks, on demand, or by streaming on the Starz app.
In addition, you can also ‘rent’ the film on TV networks such as Sky Films on the Sky channel for £6.99, and can also watch the film if you are subscribed to Netflix.

P3/D1 Focus group.

This is our focus group on Star Wars: Force Awakens. We asked questions regarding Star Wars: The Force Awakens such as what are our favourite scenes in the film? Which I answered that I like the village scene due to its excitement and violence which I find interesting. Also, we answered questions such as what are our favourite characters and our favourite genre of film.