The Hunger Games- Storyboard and Analysis

This scene opens with a close-up shot of the protagonist of this film, Katniss Everdeen. The only audio in this shot is a sort of drilling sound, which is uncomfortable to listen to. Opening the scene with a close-up of the main character lets the audience know that they will be a focal point of the scene. The intensity of this shot combined with the audio help to set the atmosphere for the rest of the scene, and give the audience an idea of what’s to come.

The next shot is a slow pan of the setting, showing the characters’ surroundings. This shot shows the enormity and scale of not only the place that the characters are in, but of the scene itself. It creates more drama, as the characters appear to be small and insignificant compared to their surroundings.

The third shot shows a series of Medium Close-Ups of the various characters in the scene. The characters all look either quite solemn or threatening, which helps to get the seriousness of this scene across. This also allows the viewer to get a good idea of how many characters are in the scene, and the MCU allows us to detect how each one is feeling by judging their facial expressions. This also helps to set the mood for the scene.

The next four shots demonstrate the varying reactions of different groups of people in their society. Shot 4 shows people dressed in bright, colourful clothes, looking excited and cheering. This contrasts with shot 5, which shows people dressed in dull, plain clothes looking slightly distressed, and clearly unhappy with the situation. Shot 4 is a Medium Long Shot, while shot five is a High Angle shot. Shot 4 shows the people more closely, which makes the people in shot 5 seem unimportant as they are filmed from further away. It also creates a sense that the people in shot four are in control. The characters in shots 6 and 7 relate to those in shot 5, as they too look concerned and upset, and their clothes are similar. Focusing more on these characters than the people in shot 4 shows the viewer their suffering is more important than the celebratory aspect of the story.

In shot 8, we see Katniss, the protagonist, engage with another character in a non-threatening way. This shows that the other character is an ally for Katniss, and reassures the audience that she is not completely alone in what she is about to do. An Extreme Long Shot is used for shot 9, again to show the scale on which the events are taking place.

Shot 10 is a ‘Worm’s Eye View’ shot. This is a very intense shot, as it is filmed from the point of view of a character being stabbed. It gives the character doing the stabbing dominance over not only the victim, but the audience as well. This shot is used to have a direct effect on the audience, and to showcase the brutality and savagery of what is happening in the scene. Shot 11 is an Over the Shoulder shot, which also gives the audience an idea of what the main character is experiencing. The final shot is a Long Shot, used when Katniss is running away from the clearing in order to show where she is going.