Film Clip Analysis. 

The film clip that I have chosen to analyse is the first two minutes of the  “I volunteer as tribute” scene from The Hunger Games. The scene starts with a long shot of Effie as she is standing in the middle of the stage in a pink/purple outfit. Even though in this long shot Effie isn’t the only character that we can see, our attention is still drawn to her because of her colourful outfit amongst the plain black or white outfits. Also the light is more angled on her, causing her to seem brighter and thus more important. In this shot she announces “Primrose Everdeen” to be the girl this year who will be taking part in the Hunger Games for her district. The camera then goes into a close up of Primrose. In this shot she has a very sullen and pale face. Everyone around her turns to face her, which leaves her isolated despite being in the middle of a crowd, this makes the audience feel sympathy toward her. It then immediately goes to a mid shot of Katniss Everdeen (her older sister), which shows her to be distraught due to the horror of realising that her sister’s name has just been called out. The camera shoots back to another close up of Primrose, but this time her facial expressions has changed to a pitiful emotion as she desperately looks around before slowly beginning to walk forward. In the background you can hear the non-diegetic sound of Effie saying through the microphone “Well come on up” in and encouraging yet almost sarcastic tone. As she begins to slightly speed up (yet she is still cautiously walking) the camera follows her in a close up from behind and pans down to show us her tucking her shirt into her skirt. This gives the impression that she wants to look presentable but also we sense that she does it out of nerves because everyone around her is staring. Afterwards, the camera slightly pans to the right to show a short snippet of a few girls watching her with a sorrowful but also relieved facial expression before showing a close up/mid shot of her mother’s emotionless and unfazed face. At this point, everyone is silent and all you can hear is the footsteps of Primrose as she is gingerly walking through the people. As she gets to the end of her row, Katniss abruptly walks to the end of her row and watches as the guards begin to guide Primrose to the front. Katniss then shouts “Prim” in a worried tone, which causes her to turn and face her older sister with a helpless and hopeful face. She repeats “Prim” again but this time she attempts to walk toward her until two guards (who are dressed in white suits with a black helmet which implies that they are ready to deal with anything) stop and hold her back as she tries to fight through. The sound is still silent.  As she is trying to wrestle her way past these two guards she breaks the silence by screaming “I volunteer” twice. The guards then release her from their grip, which allows her to compose herself before announcing in a calmer tone, “I volunteer as tribute”. Out of shock, the crowd then begins to mumble. The camera goes back to showing their mother, but this time she gasps a little in a confused manner.  A close up of Effie is shown again as she announces in a surprised voice, “I believe we have a volunteer”, on the “I” she stutters a little proving that she wasn’t expecting this. Katniss is then allowed to rush to her little sister where she hugs her and tells her to “go find mom”. However Primrose is fighting back and refusing to go which causes Gale (Katniss’ best friend) to go to retrieve and carry her away.  As she is refusing, Katniss is pleading her to go in a desperate voice because she wants her sister to be safe. Primrose is then screaming whilst being carried away and a close up of Katniss shows her frightened, nervous face through her dropped jaw. Gale is shown carrying Primrose to the side as she is screaming “no” out of terror for what Katniss is about to be apart of. Effie states “what a dramatic turn of events here in District 12” as the guards push Katniss to the front. The tracking shot shows them guiding her to where Effie is standing which creates tension and suspense because it is quite a rough shot. Also it helps the audience to connect to the scene and feel apart of it. A high angled mid shot then shows Katniss to nervously walk up the stairs to join Effie, it then changes to Katniss’s Point of View shot which shows Effie standing with her hand out, encouraging her to hurry. We also see behind he a big screen that is showing Katniss walking up the stairs. As she gets the top of the stage, Effie is then physically moving her to where she needs to stand. This gives the impression that Effie is quite impatient and wants this to be over with. The camera then goes to a close up of the two of them as Effie is trying to ease the tension by asking her name. We then see Primrose crying into her mothers hug as she tries to comfort her daughter. This helps the audience to empathise, as they immediately feel sorry for the both of them. During this shot, you can hear the non-diegetic sound of a whimpered voice announce “Katniss Everdeen” and to this Primrose opens her eyes but is still distraught. A long shot then shows Effie and Katniss, through the crowds view, as Effie asks if it was her sister who she volunteered for to which Katniss replied with a very sullen “yes“ before the camera goes to a close up of her highly distressed and anxious face. Effie then attempts to begin a round of applause for Katniss as she is the first volunteer from District 12, however the rest of the district do not join in retaliation, to prove that they do not agree with The Hunger Games. Instead they all do the salute of putting their three fingers on their left hand in the as a sign of unity, admiration and means of goodbye. Dramatic music then begins to play in the background causing tension; the salute is an act of defiance against the Capitol (who organise the Hunger Games).