Recreated scene from The Hunger Games- Evaluation Essay

In my scene from The Hunger Games, my main goal was to match the tense atmosphere that is shown in the actual film. To increase my chances of doing this, I made sure to pay close attention to the actual scene so I could understand what made it so tense.

I think that one of the key features that made it so dramatic is the type (and lack of) sound effects used in the background. The only sounds are a countdown, the beat of a drum, and a type of irritating buzzing/ringing noise to make the audience feel uncomfortable. During the fighting, there is music which reaches a dramatic crescendo.  There is no dialogue in the scene, so the sound effects and camera angles are heavily relied on to explain what is happening in the scene. For this reason, we used the same sound effects as used in the actual film, as we felt this was the only way to capture the feeling of unease that the film scene gives off.

The types of camera shots used in this scene also contributed a lot to creating a sense of fear and intensity. Our opening shot was a close up of Rainbow, who was playing Katniss- the main character of the film. Beginning the scene with a close up of one particular character shows that they are important to the plot, and also allows the audience to see how the character appears to be feeling by getting a clear shot of their facial expression. This can help to set the tone for the whole scene, and allows the audience to begin to make an opinion on the character.

The next technique we used was ‘whip pan’. We used this to pan from one character to the next. This technique worked really well, as in this scene it’s important that the audience sees every character and is able to make judgements on them before following their actions through the scene and deciding what their final opinion on the character is.

We also used ‘extreme long shot’ in our scene. This allowed us to show the setting of the scene, and the scale of the area in which it is set. It also enabled us to fit all of the characters into one shot. I think this helped to make the scene seem more dramatic and powerful as it shows the vastness of the scenery around the characters, and how it almost engulfs them- they are surrounded by forest.

Another technique we used was the ‘worm’s eye view’. We used this camera angle for a particularly brutal scene in which one character is stabbing another. The scene was meant to look as if you were watching it from the point of view of the person being stabbed- the character you could see was clearly in control, which makes the scene look even more threatening.

Overall, I think that the filming techniques combined with the sound effects we used in our scene really helped to make it as dramatic and tension-filled as we were hoping for, and I am happy with how it all turned out in the end.