Representation analysis

Hunger Games

Representation

The way Lions gate (the producers) show and represent, gender in the hunger games goes against the belief that strong muscly white males should be the main hero. Instead, Katniss Everdeen is the heroine and isn’t really muscly at all, nor is she rich. She comes from a poor back ground and has gained her skills through constant practise just to stay alive and feed her family. An example of her gaining her skill is right at the begging of the trailer where Katniss is hunting with a Bowen arrow.  This could be seen as unusual for a woman to be the heroine as you would normally expect a muscly male to be the hero.                                             Even though there is a herein instead of a hero, there are still male main character. But the representation of gender in hunger games reinforces traditional gender stereotypes. Peeta mellark plays the stereotypical male American action side kick. He is aggressive, brave and intelligent in helping the main character; katness everdeen survives the hunger games. When katniss is on the verge of death that when peeta really steps up to help and be the side kick of the heroine. But all after he has betrayed her once, unwillingly. This is a typical qualities associated with male sidekicks. This may make the audience feel for him and make them feel like he is really trying and giving all he’s got to help the heroine.

Films use unexpected representations in film so the audience will look  at the poster or watch the trailer and realise it’s not what they expected so will then go and watch the whole film as it’s something different to watch and possibly more interesting. But the film has still kept some stereotypical representations, for example peeta meelark. They possibly done this so the audience doesn’t feel like the film has represented all the characters differently to a past feel they enjoyed.

The hunger games also may have changed the stereo type of male men always being the hero as they are trying to get a real life point across. A point like, men are always the hero and women don’t do much but get in the way. So they have changed that, making the female the hero

Narrative Theory

Hunger Games 

The trailer for hunger games uses many narrative techniques, applying the character theory. We have a clear protagonist in hunger games, katniss everdeen. She is shown to be the stronger character we also know that she is the protagonist from the trailer as it focuses on her saving her sister in the disequilibrium of the trailer. Gale Hawthorne, which you could call the mentor or theoretically the Donor of Katniss Everdeen, is also a major character you could call him the doner as you could tell in the first 25 seconds that he and the heroine are hunting together, possibly training together. Another main character is Peeta Mellark. He is the Helper as he helps the heroine, Katniss Everdeen. He acts as the sidekick. These well-known character types quickly help establish the genre, Adventure, Sci-Fi and action Thriller. It also allows the audiences to understand the main relationships within the trailer.

The film's narrative is introduced in the trailer and follows theory of equilibrium. The equilibrium starts at the beginning of the trailer, when the character, katniss everdeen and Gale Hawthorne are hunting freely and seem very happy as they hunt for food to feed their families, as the film is also based around poverty and equal rights. So, it’s not like they can just go out t o a supermarket and buy food. Instead they have to hunt for their food, which has become natural to them, it has become a hobby. The introduction of Effie Trinket creates the disequilibrium. along with the random selection of a male and female, where they are made to represent and gamble their lives for their district in the 74^th hunger games. Which is a tournament where 24 people enter an artificial but only one is meant to come out. The new equilibrium is not shown in the trailer because is important that the audience watch the whole film to enjoy this resolution.

The trailer has many of Barthes' enigma and action codes. These enigmas are there to draw the audience in and encourage them to watch the whole film to resolve their questions. E.g. will Katniss Everdeen die or her helper peeta mellark? what happens to the winning challenger? Or what is the new equilibrium going to be like, is it going to be a lot different or is it going to go back to how it was before? However, enigma codes work alongside action codes. Action codes are there to engage and maintain the interest of the audience.  One of the first action codes occurs within the first 20 seconds, when Katniss and Gale are talking about running away from someone, the next happens not long after when katnisses sister is crying because she is scared of this person/people gale and Katniss wanted to run away from. You could tell that it was giving of an action code by the music, the music change and made more tension appear. And the only way to see what everyone is scared of and the new equilibrium is to watch the full movie. There are many more action codes that happen in this one trailer to draw in more of an audience to watch the film. This is a critical aspect of the film marketing.