textual analysis.docx

7/24/2019 Textual Analysis.docx

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Textual Analysis- The Hunger Games Catching Fire

The Hunger Games Catching Fire is an actionadventure movie, with science fction elements, setin a dystopian uture and the ruined nation oPanem.

The plot o Catching Fire takes place a ewmonths ater the previous installment !atniss"verdeen has now returned home saely aterwinning the #$th%nnual Hunger Games along withellow tri&ute Peeta 'ellark, &ut must still takeplace in the #(thdue to having &een previouslyvictorious. Throughout the story, !atniss sensesthat a re&ellion against the oppressive Capitol issimmering through the various districts andprepares to fght &ack.

The flm is also &ased on one o the novels in thetrilogy )o the same name* &y +uanne Collins, andthe flm ollows the order o these &ooks in the waythat the flm is the second installment in TheHunger Games series and is the se-uel to theoriginal movie The Hunger Games.The flm generally received positive reviews rom critics and wasconsidered to &e an improvement over its predecessor and waseven received numerous nominations or awards ranging rom /0est%ction Film to /0est %ctress. 1t had a &udget o 234563$5 million,&ut had an impressive &o7 o8ce num&er o 29:( million. The flm

set records or the &iggest ;ovem&er opening weekend andsurpassing the frst flm


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The flm also starts oB with an esta&lishing shot o an aerial viewoverlooking a orest, whilst slowly moving along it &rining a sunriseinto view. This is -uite appropriate considering everyday starts oBwith this and this is how the flm is starting, &rining the eeling o anew and unknown day into the conte7t o the movie as it is new and

unknown to us too.

The darkness andmystery o the woodland &elow

contrasts with the &right and resh light rom a&ove the mountains.The orests are slightly more in ocus as theyre in the oregroundcompared to the slightly more &lurred out and misty &ack. uringthis time, there is very -uiet and peaceul, &ut still -uite mysteriousor magical, music playing which seems to echo as i it would overthis kind o landscape. 1t seems to &e made almost entirely up o thesound o an instrument similar to a Dute and can possi&ly &edescri&ed as sounding -uite tri&al too. This helps add to theatmosphere in many ways, such as how the instruments &eingplayed could almost &e associated with the setting o a orest and akind o antasy setting or &y helping us imagine a new and reshmorning &eginning. +e-uences that give an overview o the settingin the way o when, where etc, along with this type o music aretypical o certain types o action movies that &eneft rom the slow,story driven start.

This shot shows one o the main characters, !atniss, silhouettedagainst the area in ront o her, as the camera very slowly ooms inand the music continues. +ince she is the frst character we see and

shes &eing shown in such a peaceul and concentrated setting,most people will immediately think she may &e the mainprotagonist. The camera is positioned &ehind her to show theaudience what she is seeing, thereore immersing us into the wholesetting more. The water also is also shimmering and reDecting thesurrounding area, creating an interesting view and adding light tothis part since the whole lake is &ordered &y the darkness o thetrees around it. This can help draw our attention to it as it is outlinedor us to look at and the way that the sun is peering out a&ove theline o trees also gives us this impression as it is, once again, a lightand dark contrast. >verall, the whole shot seems to &e outlined and

mirrored as the darkness o trees and land outline, and the waterand sky are similar in reDection and colour. 1t is also clear that ourattention is also supposed to &e drawn towards !atniss, as she is inthe very center o the shot showing her as an important part. Theway she is crouching can show that she may have &een stationerythere or a while, whilst also &eing prepared or any possi&lehappenings. The &ow and arrow that are visi&le in the silhouettereinorce this &y showing us that she has them or a reason, whetherit &e hunting, practice etc. However, it could &e said that since shehas this gear that is typical o men as they usually use this

e-uipment or the hunting and tasks that involve them as they


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generally do these, rather than women !atniss is su&verting thestereotype that may come with them.

This shot shows !atniss looking out o the shot and into thedistance. The way she is positioned to the right with the space to

the let urther reinorces the act that she is looking away as itgives us the area withoutully showing it all tous. %lso, thelighting isocusing the sunlight onto the let o herace, while the right, which aces thewoodland, isshadowed. Here7pression is-uite sternand ocused, &ut in a way that also makes her seemworried, an7ious or saddened and like she is thinking deeply a&outsomething may&e making the audience relate and empathie, &utalso wonder what she is thinking. Her ace is also lit in a sot wayand the red colour o her cheeks and nose show us that the weatherand season is wintery and cold, which is also &acked up &y the actthat she seems to &e wearing a wooly Eacket and the way her hair isgently &lowing in what we can assume is a light &reee. The musicthat has &een continuing to this point seems to have changedslightly to a point were it &uilds up slightly more adding to

atmosphere and tension, until the music &ecomes silent and wehear the snap o a twig triggering a startled reaction rom !atniss,as she moves rom peaceul concentration to &eing ready or action.

This shot is lit in a very dark way and once again has the space tothe let o the main character ocus. The shot is taken over theshoulder o !atniss, almost rom her point o view, as we can alsosee the &ow she is holding at the ready, out in ront o us. ue toprevious event o !atniss &eing startled &y this person, we may atfrst assume that they are &ad and a protagonist, &ut this is -uicklychanged when we notice his hand out in ront o him signaling her in

a reassuring way that its fne and to stop. e also fgure out thathes not what he seems when he steps rom the shadows into thelight, almost showing the audiences their own thoughts o how hewas originally portrayed as evil, &ut turns out to &e good. %lso, sincehe was originally in the shadows, it conceals his identity and addingmystery to who he may actually &e. The clothing he is wearing isvery similar to that o !atniss, in the way that it is appropriate orthe setting and weather, &ut it is actually -uite darkly shadedcolours too, mostly consisting o &rown and green which can onceagain relate to the woodland and orest surrounding them. The

music that had cut out &eore to signiy the change, has nowreturned to keep the atmosphere similar to &eore. %lso aside rom


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&acking music and some dialogue, theonly other sound that can &e heard is that o &irdschirping -uietly and the odd actionsound, or e7ample the strain othe string on the &ow or

the shuing o eet, also adding to this calm atmospheresurrounding them with very little diegetic sound.

The camera then cuts to a shots used to show!atniss e7pressions and reaction to what has Eusthappened. +he is once again the ocus o thisshot which is more clearly shown this time asthe &ackground &ehind her is lighter than what she isin making her stand out, &ut there is also a shallowocus since the &ackground is &lurred and o&scured. Thereis also once again this space &esideher, which is used &ecause itshows the direction she is acing and looking, &ut is also or flling upthe gap that the person she is speaking to should, and technically is,flling. The e7pression on her ace still conveys a sense o surprise tous, &ut is now more rela7ed and relieved. +hes also &reathingheavily ater the -uick encounter and her &reath can &e seen in the

air too, once again &acking up the act that thetemperatures are reeing cold.

These last two shots are cuts to each character

or dialogue purposes, showing who isspeaking and when. For the last shot, similarly tothe previous ones, there is the space to the side

o him showing which direction hes speaking andhas &een put into ocus along with the contrasts in light and dark. 1t also lets us

ok at his acial e7pressions and reactions now, which show him s-uinting -uiteavily, most likely due to looking in the direction o the sun shining and lightinghis ace. %lso, again similar to !atniss, he is shown to have red cheeks and nose

king &ack to the whole setting.

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