The Hunger Games, Catching Fire and Mockingjay Part 1 Poster Analysis

On this post I will be analysing 5 posters from The Hunger Games Franchise. The first poster is from the second Hunger Games film, Catching Fire.

 

This is one of the many posters used for the marketing and promemotion of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. It is similar in the styles of some character portaits that were released later on in the marketing campaign. It has a painting-like texture and cracks are even visible on the poster. It has the main character slightly off center and she is holding her iconic bow along with an arrow. The clouds are forming 'wings' behind her, which give her a heroic stance, as in the film she is the peoples hero, thier Mockingjay.

 

This was the first teaser poster for Katniss for The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1. The darkness of the poster reflects the tone of the film and the 'wing' like armor symbolises the Mockingjay, a pivitol symbol throughout all three books and films. As this is a teaser poster, only a tag line 'I am. I will' and the release date has been revealed, but as this is now a very well know franchise, the name of the film is not needed, as the film is also recognisable from the Mockingjay symbol and Katniss's iconic hair braid and archery gear.

 

This poster was one of the first released for the first Hunger Games films. The poster depicts the Mockingjay pin that Katniss is given within the first film, and here it is presented engulfed in flames. This has major symbollic meaning with the film as both fire and the Mockingjay have occurances and meaning throughout all of the books and films.

Harry Potter Poster Analysis

This poster is for the first Harry Potter film, Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone. The actor Daniel Radcliffe is placed in the center of the poster, suggesting to the audience that he is the main character in this film. Surrounding him are several other important charaters and important objects from the film and also locations included within the film. The characters are wearing school uniform which suggests to the audience that the events of a film takes place at a school of some sort. The owl, candles and castle in the background are connotations of magic and wizardry. Also, fog is surround all of the characters and objects within the poster, suggesting that the world that we are about to go into is mysterious and dark, nine like we have ever before seen. The tag line for the film reads 'Journey beyond your imagination', suggesting to the audience that this is a magical world filled with imaginative ideas, targeted toward the younger audience. The title of the film is also central to the poster. The yellow colouring of the text draws the readers eyes to the poster as it is a stark difference from the blue colourisation of the background.

This is a poster for the 4th Harry Potter film, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. The colours within this poster is noticably darker than the first poster, as within the Harry Potter series the narrative gets darker as the audience grows with the films. The main character is sized the largest within the poster and other main characters are positioned behind him, informing the audience of his role within the films. The tag line of this film is "Dark and terrible times lie ahead", and with our characters wands in view, this suggests that this film includes danger as a wand is a form of protection for a wizard or witch, and the darkness of the sky and the darkness of the poster also accentuates the danger. Hogwarts can be seen in the background, and further in the foreground we can see a lake with three audience stands visible. This foreshadows the events within the film.

This is one of the last posters of the Harry Potter franchise. I really like how dark the posters and the feel of the films have gotten and really like the use of fire ember in the foreground of the poster surrounding the characters and the title. The fire like embers suggest that destruction could be a theme within this film, or fire. This poster shows the three main characters running from something, but the audience are not sure what they are running from, thus surrounding it with mystery. In the foreground, the audience can tell that the characters are in a forest of some sort, which is different from the usual background of Hogwarts, suggesting that the narrative of this film has forced the characters to go out of their comfort zone and into a completely different environment, also connoting danger by the darkness of the forest. The tag line of this film is 'The end begins' suggesting that the characters times are almost up, and also signifying the end of the worlds most successful franchise ever, which also plays with the audiences emotions as most of them would have grown up with the characters form the books and the films, and now it is all ending.

I'm not going to to analyse this poster, but I really liked the idea of a moving poster. I am not sure of how I would achieve a moving poster, but I thought that it is a very good way to grab people attention towards both the poster and the film. 

The Maze Runner Poster Analysis

The Most of the posters for the Maze Runner films are dark and desaturated in appearance. This may be because of the audience that The Maze Runner is targeting. As TMR is a Young Adult fiction book, and is under the dystopian genre, the posters are reflecting the dark times that entail within a dystopian based society. 

The first poster is showing a small segment of the Maze and a character jumping mid air across a gap in the Maze. With the character positioned in the middle of the poster, and in the middle of the air, this heightens the emotion and feel of danger that could be present within the film. The Maze itself is shadowed and is clouded in darkness, suggesting to the audience that the Maze is mysterious and could also hint that the Maze in the antagonist within the film. The canted angle of the shot of the poster also suggests to the audience that the Maze, or the character is not as it seems. A canted angle also suggests abnormalities with people's sanity/mind, and if people have watched the film, we would know that this is true. The title of the film is then placed at the bottom centre of the poster. 

This is the second poster that I have chosen to analyse. Although the there were round about 10 posters released for The Maze Runner, I feel like the ones I have chosen best represent the feel of the film. This one is a full length body poster of the main character Thomas. Here, he is in a mid shot running pose with the text "Never stop running" in the foreground which makes the audience question themselves, 'running from what?'. The background is blurred, suggesting to the audience that Thomas is running at a high speed, linking in with the text displayed in front of him and with the name of the film itself. Specks of dirt and debris can also be seen near the ground and near his hands. Through the clothes that Thomas is wearing, the audience can tell that his is a slightly different world/way of life than ours. The expression in Thomas's face also makes the audience feel like whatever he is running from is dangerous. 

The third and final poster that I will be analysing is of a mid length body shot of one of the main characters called Newt. His body is slightly turned away from the audience suggesting that he doesn't want to show his full character/personality or perhaps he has a side that other don't want to see or mcould be dangerous. He is wearing clothes similar to Thomas, ragged, brown and leathery in texture, suggesting that they are from the same place. In the background of the poster, the audience can see the Maze in much clearer view. It is foggy and dark which leads the audience to believe that it is mysterious and evil. Newt is also holding some sort of knife, suggesting that he is either a dangerous character or that he needs it to protect himself, which leads to the question, 'what is he protecting himself from?'. Even though this poster in in Spanish, underneath the title The Maze Runner, is says 'Based on no.1 best seller' allowing the audience to see that it has been very successful as a book, which may influence them to read the book before watching the film, and also allows the fans of the books to learn about the film, giving the film an inherited audience. 

HOW THIS HAS INSPIRED ME 

Looking at TMZ posters has inspired me. I might use some the the techniques such as using darkness and fog to create mystery within my poster and might also use the idea of just having text in the foreground of my poster. 

Feedback

1. Complete storyboard

2. Plan film sequences

Locations & Props That Will Be Used

REALITY

   Props

• Harry Potter book
• The Hunger Games book
• The Maze Runner book
• Divergent book
• Narnia book

   Locations

• School grounds
• Class room
• School corridors

HARRY POTTER

   Props

• Two wands

   Locations

• School grounds
• Classroom
• School corridors

THE HUNGER GAMES

   Props

• Bow and arrows

   Locations

• Feild/lightly wooded area

THE MAZE RUNNER

   Props

• N/A

   Locations

• Feild/lightly wooded area

DIVERGENT

   Props

• N/A

   Locations

• N/A (greenscreen)

Feedback

1. Find a clip for each transition to illustrate each mini sequence.

2. Start reasearching posters for each of the films and analyse them all. What has inspired me? Where is there a common link?

3. I need to start thinking of ideas for my own poster.

Feedback

1. Under each strand discuss the location and props that will be used.


2. Under each strand start considering how I will technically achieve this.

Narrative

In this post I will be explaining how my mini stories will flow into one another. I am going to experiment with the use of graphic matches to link each mini story.

Style Inspiration - I have seen a short film in where the background of a shot was removed to reveal a different location so the director could go to two locations in one take. This is something I would like to re-create or at least try to.


REALITY
This is our opening scene. It starts with our main girl sitting down and reading Harry Potter, with The Maze Runner, Narnia, The Hunger Games and Divergent in a pile beside her. Our main boy then comes along and taunts her for reading the book and says that she should be going something more fun, like playing the x-box. When he steals her books, they chase eachother throught the school corridors.


HARRY POTTER
When the young girl confronts the boy in the courtyard, it turns into a wand battle and the run throughout the school casting spells at each other. The boy casts a spell towards the girl and she closes her eyes. This acts as a transition into the next story as when she opens her eyes next, she is in The Hunger Games. This visual device was inspired by La Haine.


THE HUNGER GAMES
The scene starts off with a  close up of the girls eyes. We then see that thier outfits have changed and that both the boy and the girl are outside. After a little exploring, daytime turns to night-time and they hear a canon go of. Then after running from the Mutts (these will only be heard and not seen), a transition swipe running into the trees will transfer them to The Maze Runner.


THE MAZE RUNNER
The transition swipe will transfer the girl and boy into the world of The Maze Runner, and again their clothes have changed. They are then, quite literally, faced with the walls of the Maze and after a bit of contemplating, they finally go inside the Maze. When they walk into the Maze, it will show them walking out of a wardrobe/cupboard, transferring them into Narnia.


NARNIA
As they walk out of the cupboard, they are in their school uniform again. The wardrobe/cupboard has a few flakes of snow drifting out from it and rays of light can be seen, similar to the picture I have posted below in a previous post. When the children leave, a lion roar can be heard from the wardrobe/cupboard.


REALITY
The children walk out from the room where the cupboard/wardrobe was in and they find themselves back in their school. They go and sit back down on their place on the floor where the girl was to start with, and both pick up a book and start reading again. Another boy comes over and asks if they want to play a game on the computer/x-box, and they both politely decline, and continue reading.

Inspiration For Transitions Into Each Story

I wanted each transition of the each scene to be represented through the eyes, as that is what we use to read with. In the opening scene of Pirates of the Caribbean, something similar happens to show a change of time.

  

 Start video at 4.20.

Feedback

1. How will my narrative encourage ypung people to read?

2. Plan four to five mini stories that flow ino one another andhave a key message.

3. Target audience is year 5 upwards into Key stage 3, max 14 yoa.

Need to be done by Friday the 28th November.

Test Shots - Harry Potter

Here are some test shots that I have made using After Effects. I looked at a few tutorials on how to make them, but after a while found them to be of no use, so I decided to try and do some myself, and this is the result. It took me 4 hours to do, and now that I have gotten used to what I will be doing, it will take much less time. These are only draft shots, so the efects used in the film will hopefully be of better quality and standard, considering this is my first time of using After Effects.

A Plan Of Special Effects Used In Each Scene

1. HARRY POTTER

• Spell casting - http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/magical_hits/
• Spell damage

2. DIVERGENT

• Set extention (depending location) - http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/set_extensions/
• 3D Ledge set extention - http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/3d_ledge/

3. THE HUNGER GAMES

• Possible set extention (depending on location)
• Night time effect - http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/day_to_night_conversion/

4. THE MAZE RUNNER

• Set extention

5. NARNIA

• 3D Light rays for object - http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/advanced_3d_light_rays/

Feedback

1. Draft footage and use special effects ov Video Copilot.

2. Start thinking about how film is going to take shape.

3. Got to local library and speak to English Teachers and talk about how my film might encourage young people to read (Primary research).  Could make a poll and find out what it is that attracts young people to read (Qualatitive Research).

4. Will I have a voice over narration? Will I have four mini stories?

Scenes That I Am Going To Recreate

This is the scene that I want to recreate from The Hunger Games. It will be more fast paced then the clip that is shown, and also a lot shorter. It wont match the visuals or narrative exactly, but will use key elements from the clip and I will interperet them into my own adaptation.

  
 This is the scene that I want to recreate from Divergent. The main part that I want to use is the part when the main character (Tris) is running with the Dauntless, but I will use symbols from the book, such as the tattoo that Tris has, to make it recognisable to some of the audience.

  

This is the scene from Harry Potter that I want to use in my film. Although it's not from the first book, it's an iconic scene that people will recognise. This will probably be one of the most difficult scenes to film as there are a lot of SFX included. It will be challenging to film and also be challenging in post production as I will have to learn how to do the special effects needed.

 

  The scene that I have chosen from Narnia is the scene at the end of the credit sequence in the film. It depicts Lucie Pevensie trying to go back to Narnia and the door opens up to reveal light and a Lions roar. I thought that this would be a great ending sequence for the film as it is quiet and the soft light coming out from whatever object will be used would be a nice happy ending for the audience.

 

 

 

 The Maze Runner scene that I wanted to re-create was of them running from Greivers, but as it is quite a recent film, I haven't been able to find a clip depicting the scene that I wanted to re-create.

Feedback

 1. Upload key scenes that I am considering and adapt these into my own production. Add detail of the scene i.e what happens, location ect, as well as the timing of the video.

2. What will the narrative be? How will this create the flow needed for the structure.

3. Need to research educational films that promote reading.

 4. Which locations will I use to create this film.

5. Add the tutorials/screen shots from Video co-pilot to indicate how I will use technology to create these landscapes I want.

 6. Upload storyboards.