Star wars: The force Awakens

Lucas films:

It is owned by current president Kathleen Kennedy but was founded by George Lucas in 1971. Lucas films is best known for producing the Star wars and the Indiana Jones saga's. In 2012 is was bought by Walt Disney for an estimated £4.06 billion pounds. It was written by Lawrence Kasdan; J.J Abrams and Michael Arnit and was directed by J.J Abrams. J.J Abrams is known for directing well received films such as 1998's Armageddon; Mission impossible 3, Ghost Protocol and Rogue Nation And the Star Trek remakes.

Star Wars:

So far there are 7 officially Released Star wars with another 2 being released at a later date. The official released ones are: (all begin with Star wars) The phantom Menace; Attack of the clones; Revenge of the Sith; A new Hope; The empire strikes back; Return of the Jedi and The Force awakens. The 2 to be released at a later date are Star wars: Rogue one which comes outs 16th December 2016 and Episode 8 which is set for a 2017 release.
 Overall Star wars has made $8 billion dollars at the box office, with adjusted inflation over the years this goes up to $21 billion dollars with the original being the highest grossing at over $3 billion dollars followed by The force awakens at over $2 billion dollars   ( link to all Star wars films Gross Table).
The original Star wars was released in 1977 and will have its 40th anniversary in the year episode 8 comes out.

ILM:

ILM was founded in 1975 by George Lucas and stands for industrial light & magic. They are a visual effects studio and were considered to be one of the most advanced during the 1980's working on films such as Star wars; ET; Back To The Future and others. It was founded to create visual effects that had never ben seen before in films.

Production of The Force Awakens:

A casting Director is the person who is responsible for assembling cast members for films during pre-production, they work with the director to go through auditions for roles in films and decide who would be best for that role.

Filming:

Filming began in Abu Dhabi and the whole film was shot on 9mm film which was used for the original trilogy of Star wars films. The film was shot using Panavision lenses to recreate the feel of the originals and utilized Imax lenses and Aerial plates (Arri Alexa). They used Pinewood Studios in London for a large portion of filming as that was also where the original trilogy were filmed. Also the Pinewood Studio is famous for filming several series of films such as: the Bond Films; Carry on Series and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. The Bond films are linked to Star Wars because Daniel Craig plays a small uncredited cameo in the film when Rey uses a Mind control trick with the force on a Storm-trooper who is holding her prisoner.The final scene of the film was shot at Skellig Michael, an island off the coast of Ireland. When it came to the moment Han Solo and Chewbacca returned to the Millennium falcon. over 200 members of the crew watched it from the monitor in the back. Also J.J Abrams was recorded to be going 'Oh my God!' afterwards.

Maz Kanata and Motion capture:

The inspiration for Maz Kanata came from J.J Abrams old english teacher Rose Gilbert which was the main source of inspiration used to create Maz, Maz was created using motion capture which was placed on the actor and CGI. She was played by Lupita Nyong'o Who won the Academy award for best supporting actress in 12 Years a Slave. Supreme Leader Snoke is played by Andy Serkis who is most known for his work with motion capture as shown in films such as Gollum in the lord of the Rings and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.

Music Score:

The score for Star wars was composed by John Williams who has done all of the Star wars films as well as Jurassic park; The Indiana Jones series and the First Jaws film.

Auditions; BB-8 and SFX

According to J.J Abrams. John Boyega auditioned for the role of Finn 9 times before being picked for the role. Auditions began around November 2013 but the final was not finalized until the 29th April 2014. BB-8 was operated by 2 puppeteers: Dave Chapman and Brian Herring. BB-8 was mainly used with practical effects and puppets however they were robot versions which were remote-controlled.The operator had to wear a green suit as so to blend into the green screen they used so they don't show up on the camera and can be edited out. SFX used in was mostly green screen. however there was more of a reliance on practical effects so SFX were rarely used along with CGI.

Miscellaneous and IMAX:

During the end credits, Simon Pegg is thanked for his role as the rations dealer on jakku who tries to buy BB-8 and then Rey and Finn steal the millennium falcon off. The film received a age rating of PEGI 12 in the UK. The UK taxman also paid out £31 million pounds to help pay for the film's production. Also Harrison Ford was paid £16.7 million to reprise his role as Han Solo for The Force Awakens. Meanwhile Daisy Ridley and John Boyega were paid in between $100-$300k for their roles in the film. IMAX is A technique of widescreen cinematography used in cinemas which produces an image which is roughly 10x bigger than standard 35mm film and was aired in 391 IMAX Theaters.