Movie Review - The Hunger Games

 The "Hunger Games", starring Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Alexander Ludwig, Woody Harrelson, and Elizabeth Banks. Directed by Gary Ross, and written by Suzanne Collins. 

 The biggest difficulty when a book is turned into a movie is pleasing the audience. These are die-hard fans hoping for everything to be just perfect and exactly like the book. I have read Harry Potter, Percy Jackson & The Olympians, and The Hunger Games, before I saw the movie. What I do though is that I refuse to read the books right before watching the movie, and I keep an open mind. There is no possible way that they can put every single word of a book into the movie, they have to cut little parts to put more important things into the movie, that may be significant to the rest of the sequel.

 Most book-turned-movies are never as good as the book. Sometimes they even just fail miserably *cough*Twilight*cough* (Even though the concept in that book wasn't even very good. At all.) but with Hunger Games... they succeeded. They stayed pretty true to the book.

Acting/Casting

The casting for all of the characters was quite great. Stanley Tucci as Caesar Flickerman, well, Stanley Tucci in general is just a great idea to add in to any movie. Jennifer as Katniss did an amazing job. She kind of reminded me of her character from "Winter's Bone", very strong and takes care of her family. Josh Hutcherson surprised me, because the last movie I ever saw him in was "Bridge To Terabithia" and he was so young then, and in this, he was just so... sexy. Along with Liam Hemsworth, whom I was skeptical about because I hadn't seen anything he's been in before, he did alright. Sometimes he sounded a little scripted, but that may just be how his character talks, or it’s the fact that he's doing an American accent when he's really Australian. Elizabeth Banks as Effie... gah, I love her. She's just talented. Woody Harrelson as Haymitch, I didn't expect him to look like that, but that's make-up and costume design. Other than that, he acted very Haymitch Abernathy-like. Lenny Kravitz as Cinna, and Donald Sutherland as President Snow, they both aren’t shown very much in the movie, but you know they’re more than just what they show. Overall, a great cast. A “power” cast in my opinion, because these actors all appeal to different ranges of groups and ages of people going to see the movie, or what/who gets their eye, pulls them in, that makes them want to go see this movie.

Makeup

 Without giving away any spoiler, this movie is set in the future in a dystopian society. The main character comes from the most dystopian “district” (like a state or province). The makeup is very plain, as if they wear none at all. In the "Capitol", where everyone is wealthier, they can spend their moolah on plastic surgery, 3-to-whatever-inch nails, strange eyelashes, and a new skin tone like sea-foam green. Oh, baby. That's hot. No? Okay...
 In this film adaption, it completely worked. Everything just blew my plain, boring, white socks off. The image on the left is Seneca Crane (Wes Bentley) and I heard people say, "what's up with the beard?" You know what? It's hot. For the movie. I said it. It worked so well. It gave him character. On the right is Effie Trinket (Elizabeth Banks), and her makeup, nails, hair, and clothes completely fit her character. She believes in the high fashion of the Capitol and she made it work. Cinna, Katniss' stylist going into the games, was very clean and only wore the tiniest bit of gold eyeliner at the edges of his eyes, meaning he's not crazy like the other stylists. He's realistic. All of the background actors, acting as the citizens of the Capitol, every single one of them had a distinct, strange look to portray the change from today, to this future in the movie and the book. 

Directing

The Hunger Games was directed by Gary Ross, who has only directed two other films before, one of which was Seabiscuit. I'm quite skeptical when it comes to a director who hasn't done much, or anything before, when taking on such a huge project like this series.

Camera

The angles, the speed, the distance from the focal point - Everything was so... meshed well together. There was only one point in the film where I felt the transition was a little "cutty". On the left, the picture is taken from afar and shows the setting, the area, and what kind of place they're in. On the right, a talk show scene, they use the camera in a low angle which emphasizes power, and "strength" in the scene.

Music/Audio
 Two words to describe the score throughout this film: sublte and intense.

Words words words

Costume Design

From Capitol to District 1 to District 12, the fashion varies quite a bit.

Set Design
Because the movie is set in such a strange dystopian society, everything to the higher people must be bigger and better. The set for the Caesar Flickerman Show

Special Effects


Why no 3D? Quote, "[on minimizing the use of special effects in directing The Hunger Games (2012)] We would be doing exactly what the Capitol is doing if we used 3D. We'd be exploiting what the book condemns: a mediacentric society where entertainment in that culture devolves into spectacle, and that spectacle evolves into political control."

FILM ROLES - Set Designer

Also known as Production Designer, they were previously known as "art directors" until the new term was coined by William Cameron Menzies (Academy Award-winning production designer) while working on "Gone With The Wind."



This job is during pre-production.


Salary
 Production designers make an average salary of $32,230 to $420,460 / year

Education
 Most successful production designers have a degree in Architecture or Environmental Design. Though there are no requirements truly needed except for basic design skills. Getting to where you need to be, you will learn other ideas and techniques from lower jobs before you get to wear you need to be in this career.

Key jobs and responsibilities of that role
 The biggest responsibility for a production designer is that it is crucial in creating the "look" of a film. They are responsible for the overall look of a filmed event such as films, TV programs, music videos or adverts. They work side-by-side the Director and Producer to select the settings and style to visually tell the story. They also work with many other departments while creating the set, like the art department, the costume designer, the key hair and make-up stylists, the special effects director and the locations manager (among others) to "establish a unified visual appearance to the film" and "to implement the scenic elements of that vision."

The kind of equipment associated with this film role
 Really, the production designer's main equipment are the people he/she has to work with in order to know what sets and props are being created for every scene.