Cumnock Media

The control room is completely created through the use of CGI and green screen. The set consists simply of bare desks and actors who mimic movements which are later matched which computer generated images.

Examples of CGI can be seen when one gamemaker creates a fireball in the control center and then pushes it towards Katniss.

 

Another gamemaker creates a hologram of a mutt on a touchscreen interface and places it in the arena near Katniss and Peeta. Both the fireball and the Mutts are created  with CGI but look extremely realistic.

 

Point of view shots – the camera aims to show us what the character would see. Example when we see the target just before Katniss shoots her arrow towards it.

Reaction shot – usually a close up or extreme close up so we are aware of the character’s emotions – Example when Katniss is overcome when she is interviewed by the TV host and she asks him to repeat the question because she hasn’t heard it and her embarrassment makes the studio audience warm to her.

Shot-reverse-shot – where the screen shows us the close up of two characters having a conversation, alternating between the two. Example when Katniss and Peeta are talking intimately on the window ledge prior to the games beginning.

Insert shots – where the cinema audience knows something the main character doesn’t know yet. Example when the computer generated large dogs are created and about to go in to the game or when the fire and projectiles are planned so that Katniss will be in even more danger.

Establishing shot – The camera is set far back to show/ephasise the location or the setting. (Forest, District 12, Capitol)

 

Slo-mo – A moment replayed very slowly – used for the flashback of Katniss’s dad being in the mining explosion.

 

Pan shot – The camera moves horizontally taking in all the details along the way – used when the train is coming in to the Capitol.

 

Tracking shot – Follows the action – used with a handheld camera to follow Katniss when she was running through the forest – made us feel part of the action.

 

 

Generating interest for the Hunger Games – the need to make a profit

Marketing techniques used by Lionsgate

Lionsgate used all the usual old-media tricks — giving away 80,000 posters, securing almost 50 magazine cover stories, advertising on 3,000 billboards and bus shelters.

More unusually they also had a year-long digital effort built around the content platforms cherished by young audiences: near-constant use of Facebook and Twitter, a YouTube channel, a Tumblr blog, iPhone games and live Yahoo streaming from the premiere.

Lionsgate  generated this high level of interest with a marketing staff of 21 people working with a relatively tiny budget of about $45 million. Bigger studios routinely spend $100 million marketing major releases, and have worldwide marketing and publicity staffs of over 100 people. The studio has been able to spend so little largely because Mr. Palen has relied on inexpensive digital initiatives to whip up excitement.

One important online component involved a sweepstakes to bring five fans to the movie’s North Carolina set. Notably, Lionsgate invited no reporters: The studio did not want consumers thinking this was another instance of Hollywood trying to force-feed them a movie through professional filters. “People used to be O.K. with studios telling them what to like,” Ms. DePalma said. “Not anymore. Now it’s, ‘You don’t tell us, we tell you.’ ”

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/19/business/media/how-hunger-games-built-up-must-see-fever.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

 

The final countdown…

 

Hunger Games Hair and Make up

 

3,000: People who were processed through the hair and makeup tents each week. “Extras couldn’t just have their normal hair. Everyone had to be in the style of the time,” said Flowers.

 

500: Cast members and extras who had their eyebrows bleached, including Elizabeth Banks, who plays Effie Trinket.

 

400: Cast members and extras wearing wigs in a single day of filming. “We went with odd permutations of colours like dusty rose and chartreuse,” Flowers said. “The challenge was to make them look couture and sophisticated.”

 

45: Hairdressers working in a single day.

 

20: Minutes spent creating Katniss Everdeen’s signature braid for Jennifer Lawrence.

 

3: Coloured wigs worn by Elizabeth Banks: One pink, one green, and one lavender.

 

1: Wig worn by Stanley Tucci, who plays Caesar Flickerman. “It’s a dark navy blue wig in a Karl Lagerfeld-style ponytail,” she says.

Colour Symbolism Chart – What colours were used in The Hunger Games?
Red: Excitement, energy, passion, love, desire, speed,   strength, power, heat, aggression, danger, fire, blood, war, violence, all   things intense and passionate. Remember the “Girl on Fire Dress”? What did the colour represent?
Pink symbolizes love and romance, caring, tenderness,   acceptance and calm. Remember Effie Trinkett? She cares about her District 12 Tributes.
Beige and ivory symbolize unification. Ivory symbolizes quiet   and pleasantness. Beige symbolizes calm and simplicity.
Yellow signifies joy, happiness, betrayal, optimism,   idealism, imagination, hope, sunshine, summer, gold, philosophy, dishonesty,   cowardice, jealousy, covetousness, deceit, illness, hazard and friendship.
Blue: Peace, tranquillity, cold, calm, stability, harmony, unity, trust, truth, confidence, conservatism, security, cleanliness, order, loyalty, sky, water, technology, depression, appetite suppressant.
Turquoise symbolizes calm. Teal symbolizes sophistication.   Aquamarine symbolizes water. Lighter turquoise has a feminine appeal.
Purple: Royalty, nobility, spirituality, ceremony,   mysterious, transformation, wisdom, enlightenment, cruelty, arrogance,   mourning.
Lavender symbolizes femininity, grace and elegance.
Orange: Energy, balance, enthusiasm, warmth, vibrant,   expansive, flamboyant, demanding of attention.
Green: Nature, environment, healthy, good luck,   renewal, youth, spring, generosity, fertility, jealousy, inexperience, envy,   misfortune, vigour. Remember the forest scenes?
Brown: Earth, stability, hearth, home, outdoors,   reliability, comfort, endurance, simplicity, and comfort.
Grey: Security, reliability, intelligence, staid,   modesty, dignity, maturity, solid, conservative, practical, old age, sadness,   boring. Silver symbolizes calm.
White: Reverence, purity, birth, simplicity,   cleanliness, peace, humility, precision, innocence, youth, winter, snow,   good, sterility, marriage (Western cultures), death (Eastern cultures), cold,   clinical.Remember President Snow? Cold, clinical, death “snow”
Black: Power, sexuality, sophistication, formality, elegance,   wealth, mystery, fear, evil, unhappiness, depth, style, evil, sadness,   remorse, anger, anonymity, underground, good technical colour, mourning,   death (Western cultures).Remember President Snow – power, formality, mystery, wealth, evil, death…

Try this one…Hunger Games mind map

How a film audience responds to a character is often subconsciously based on how a character looks and what they say or do.

Film makers are forced to condense a lot of material into a short time. They rely on a fixed, exaggerated image of a person as a kind of summary between them and the audience – or films would end up 10 hours long.  (Ain’t nobody got time for that!)

Stereotypical female

A lead fantasy woman on film is seldom unattractive, overweight or disabled. The character of Katniss in the book is half-starved but the actress on-screen looked healthy and beautiful despite the fact she was from a poor district. Women are stereotypically on-screen to be looked at and admired for their physical perfection. The Hunger Games film played around with the whole idea of image and we saw Katniss being cleansed and prettied up so that she would appeal to the TV audience for the Hunger Games around Panem. Coincidentally that made her more attractive for the cinema-going audience who had paid their money to watch this product.

 

 

Blockbuster – How to make a profit

 

The film industry depends on blockbusters. On average 350 films are released annually but only 35 make serious money. The Hunger Games is classed as a “blockbuster” because when the film released, it set records for opening day ($67.3 million) and opening weekend for a non-sequel. At the time of its release, the film’s opening weekend gross ($152.5 million) was the third-largest of any movie in North America. It is the first film since Avatar to remain in first place at the North American box office for four consecutive weekends. The movie was a massive box-office success by grossing $685 million worldwide against its budget of $78 million, making it the third highest grossing film in the United States and ninth highest grossing worldwide of 2012. It was released on DVD and Blu-Ray in the August of 2012 and was the best selling DVD of 2012.The HG movie etc had made $691,247,768 by the October of 2012 according to Box Office Mojo.

 

How was this achieved?

 

The delivery date was carefully chosen so that there wasn’t much competition in the cinema for the target audience at the same time

 

Merchandising was carefully done to make sure the name, Hunger Games, was always in the public eye. Before the official The Hunger Games film came out, a lot of merchandising came out to promote the film’s upcoming release.

 

Some of the merchandise included the following:

 

• Mockingjay pins
• Clothing
• Pillow Cases
• Backpacks
• Magazines
• Dolls/Action Figures
• Nail Polish
• Cardboard cutouts
• Calendars

 
Even some websites were created to further more promote the movie in any way they can, such as Capitol.pn where a user could take a quiz to find out their district and connect with Facebook to learn the latest details on the film.

 

Lionsgate had the advantage, of course, of huge built-in awareness for “The Hunger Games.” The trilogy of books by Suzanne Collins on which the film is based have already sold 23.5 million copies worldwide. As a result, the studio had not only been able to afford a more cost-effective advertising campaign, but was able to get away with not showing any footage in commercials and trailers from the actual Hunger Games, in which teenagers hunt each other to the death in front of a televised audience. Lionsgate’s marketing strategy worked spectacularly well. The entire advertising budget was only $45,000,000.

 

Product placement – there was one example of an advert for Sprite – a Coke brand –  which appeared on a billboard about 40 minutes into the film. The film makers made money out of placing the product in the film. It did not happen by accident.