Genre Research: The Hunger Games

 

Welcome back to my blog reader! 

To begin, multiple elements of the dystopian genre that we choose to base our final task on were displayed in the Hunger Games film. My team and I choose to make our protagonist a strong female character as well as this film does. The strong female character being the lead has become a common/ more popular element over the years in dystopian movies. Usually, the protagonist of this genre has something that sets them apart from the society in which they live and the individuals that surround them, such as their attitude or the way they think and perceive what is happening around them. The protagonist of this film, Katniss Everdeen, holds this element of dystopian films. Katniss lives in a society where 1 female and 1 male tribute from each of the 12 districts are going to become custody of the Capitol (their government), where she is going to be taken to an arena and is going to have to fight till death until one of them remains which is going to be crowned “victor.” Towards the end of the movie, due to her actions (embodying the role of the protagonist of a dystopian film) she is going to become a symbol of hope for her society which makes the government tremble and will be developed in further movies. Of course, the plot of this movie is similar to many other dystopian films as she is fighting to survive in an unjust world where its citizens are oppressed by the government. The setting of the movie bases itself for the first half of the film on district 12 which is where Katniss lives to the Capitol, and then the second half is based on her being in the actual hunger games. The film had overall low-key lighting (mostly in the poorer districts like district 12) to create a dark/dramatic mood in order to show the harsh reality that the protagonist lives in. They also showed this through the costumes, as when they were selecting the tributes in district 12, the audience could see the difference between the individual from the Capitol who was hosting the event named Effie as she was wearing bright colorful fancy clothing whereas the residents of the district had monotone dull clothing in order to show the conditions of the individuals because of the autocracy of their government (the government having everything while its people are powerless). In addition, the sound was applied very well in this film as there were times where Katniss was isolated and she had to relied on the digenic sound around her whether that was screams or voices coming towards her, this helped the audience as much as it helped her due to that it aid the audience in knowing what was happening while also increasing their anxiety levels and keeping them on their toes.  

Furthermore, when my team members and I watched this film, the elements of the dystopian genre that we like that The Hunger Games holds as I mentioned previously was specifically their use of diegetic sound in order to help the viewer understand what is happening in the story while maintaining them intrigue to know what is going to happen next. This film also appealed to us due to how they played with the characters' costumes, as they reflected how their society worked through the costumes (those citizens who live in poverty were in dull monotone clothing while those who were part of the government were wearing fancy flashy clothing). 

Moreover, my group members and I agreed that the elements of this film that did not appeal to us was that even though the low-key lighting was wonderfully applied in this movie as it helped reflect to the audience the harsh reality of the protagonist of the story. However, in some scenes of the film it was not truly necessary which led to the scene being difficult to see because of how dim it was. Outside of this, my team and I found this film very entertaining. 

Well this is my cue to leave, till next time reader!