Animation in The Hunger Games

A few weeks ago, the film The Hunger Games was released on DVD. Being a fan of both the books and the film, I was really excited to buy it. The best part about having it on DVD, though, was that it came with a lot of behind-the-scenes features, and I'm a total nerd for those. One of the coolest aspects of the special features, was definitely learning about how animation was used to build parts of the film.

film poster

While I'd seen the film in theaters- twice- I had never noticed just how graphics-heavy it was (which is probably a testament to how good they are). They even essentially built an entire city (the Capitol) using motion graphics. The architecture alone of the buildings is amazing, but the fact that they also had to make the gamemaker's control room almost entirely in 3D was really cool. I thought it was really interesting how nothing in that room was real except the tables and the chairs, and yet they made such a complex and detailed room.

The Control Room used by the Gamemakers

The Capitol city in the film

Overall, I think the use of animation in this film was perfect. It provided the film with enough futurism to make it seem like it was taking place in a different time and era without being over the top or overkill. If you haven't seen the film yet, I highly recommend it. I'm a big fan of Gary Ross and I think he did a beautiful job on it (apart from the abrupt ending, but we won't get into that now.)
See you all on Thursday!