Textual Analysis of 'Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens' Opening Scene

Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens 

Link to Star Wars Opening

The film opens with the conventional 'crawl' technique used in every Star Wars movie. The franchise title 'STAR WARS' is the first thing to be shown, as seen above in the first shot. The narrative is in a linear order. This means that the shots are all in chronological order, from start to finish. Having a non-linear order in the opening scene of a movie is slightly confusing because it becomes unclear where the movie is set, who the characters are and other important conventions of a beginning scene.

One of the first shots in a close up of a Storm Trooper. This helps establish the genre and the setting as most people will associate this character with Star Wars. The whole frame is filled with Storm Troopers, that have a very space/ futuristic/ Sci-Fi look.

The shot after the storm trooper is an establishing shot of the planet 'Jakku.' This works alongside the image of the storm troopers to help establish the setting and the genre.

The new characters, Poe and BB-8, are shown in the next scene. When BB-8 enters through the curtain, he uses the Droid Binary language which consists of whistles strung together to resemble sentences. The way in which the Droid speaks conveys some urgency and worry, which tells the audience that something bad is about to happen. It is a very fast cut of BB-8 and then Poe saying 'We've got company', which also conveys urgency.

The next screenshot is an eye-line shot through Poe's hi-tech binoculars. This reinforces the genre because it uses futuristic props as symbolism of the scientific advancement and the alternative timeline of the franchise, 'Star Wars.'

You see the Storm Troopers come out of the space ships and attack the village of Jakku, which you see in a fast paced but slow cut establishing shot. The slow cut manages to heighten the chaos of the scene as you can see all the laser rifles, guns, ships and fighting. The scene involves lots of sound effects, such as; laser shots, explosions, shouting and other manic noises. There is also typical music that represents the villains.

In this screenshot, Poe gives BB-8 a drive, consisting of a map to find Luke Skywalker. The shot used was a close up. This typically shows that the item/ person is an important feature of the move, which the drive is.

For the first time through-out the Star Wars franchise, you see a storm trooper as a person (actually bleeding and dying.) You also see FN-2187, or Finn, for the first time, and this drama of his fellow storm trooper dying, already creates this sense of sympathy for a member of the Imperial Army, whom have been represented as the villains through-out every movie.

To add to this point, when Finn stands and becomes inclusive of the battle again, the action around him is fast based and wild, where-as his movement isn't as fast. It is portrayed as a moment of realisation for the charcter. The music is not as action-packed as it was before, as it has now become more representative of Finn's situation as opposed to the surrounding action. In this clip, you can hear Finn's panicked breathing as he takes in what is happening, which creates shows us how he is perhaps feeling about being a part of the attack on Jakku.

When Kylo Ren, the main antagonist, enters the scene, the music becomes a lot deeper and more serious, telling the audience that he is an important villain. The first time we see the lightsaber, Kylo Ren slays down Lor San Tekka. Again this creates a dark, villainous personality for Kylo. The lightsaber has evolved from the previous movies where they used hilts with rods inside them, later to be edited with the blue, green, purple or red glow around them. In the Force Awakens, they used a custom Force FX Lightsaber from a retail store. They blades were then customized to give off the right amount of glow and illumination for each scene's lighting demands. ILM then step in and colour the lightsaber blades to look as we know them in the classic films while the lighting of the blade was naturally cast upon the actor as it would have been if the lightsaber was real and filmed on set. It also made the actors feel like they were really holding a lightsaber, adding another level of immersion for the performers.