The very First thing that we as an audience are shown, are a brief description of the dystopian society that this film is based in. As my film should be more self explanatory than this i will not do be doing this even though my film is a very similar idea. Whilst this is being shown the theme music is playing in the background. This is what I want to do with my idents, only instead of having the theme music playing, I'm going to have the sound effects that will be playing in the actual film opening itself playing.
After the brief description of the dystopian society the characters are going to be based in, it then fades in to the title of "The Hunger Games" The effect of this title introduction is that it leaves the audience curious as to what is going to happen in the film. This is because of the fact that they showed their title after allowing the audience to become intrigued by the film. The music carries on as normal, only it starts to fade out, and then fade into the sound of the conversation between the first two people we see in the film.
In this first shot of the film, Stanley Tucci (Caesar Flickerman) Is the person in focus of the shot. The reason that he is the subject in focus is because he is the person being spoken to, So it allows us to see his reaction to what this other person is saying. Because the shot is taken from behind the shoulder of the speaker, we are able to establish a bare understanding of who it is that Caesar Flickerman is speaking to. The costumes that are seen in this shot are extremely obscene and unlike what we may see in our society today. This is something that the creators of the film would have had no control over. This is because these films were books before they were films, meaning that all of the costumes would have been pre-decided for them.
This shot is the same as the previous shot, only the person in focus is Wes Bently (Seneca crane). These shots continue back and forth until the audience has a strong enough understanding of what it is that these two characters are talking about.
The shot that follows this conversation is an establishing shot of District 12. As soon as this shot hits the screen we hear a scream of a child. This compliments the atmosphere that is clearly trying to be given off because of how well it accompanies what immediately meets the eye in this shot. The mise en scene in this shot shows us that this area is far more glum, unhygienic, and not as well kept, as where ever it was that the first shot was taking place. In the previous scene the two characters were talking about district 12. So by having "DISTRICT 12" displayed in the corner of the screen help[s to clarify the audiences understanding of there where abouts.
The next shot is then a tracking shot that moves up the back of Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence). This shot establishes that Katniss is the carer of the person clinging to her by showing her arms wrapped tightly around her.
Because the shot then tracks up her body to see who the characters are, it gives those of the audience that may have read the books and idea of what may be happening in the film, whilst simultaneously peaking the curiosity of those who are seeing this knowing nothing at all about the films.
This next shot allows us to clearly see the facial expression being displayed by Katniss. This shot also only has Katniss's face in focus with the dark blue and grey background blurred behind her. This is important because it works with the mise en scene in order to show that they do not really live in a very wealthy area.
The previous then slowly tracks down Katniss so that we can see the facial expression of Primrose Everdeen (Willow Shields). This is effective because the slow movement of the tracking shot in keeps with the current feel of the film so far.
One thing that I have noticed from this film opening that I would like to portray in my own film, is that the mise en scene needs to be effective in that it shows that this isn't based in reality, but instead based in a parallel dystopian society.
