The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

Seven Key Areas By Niamh

Sygrove

1. The Issues Raised By Media Ownership In

Contemporary Media Practice

The type of film made and its potential success, all depends on the influence
from whoever owns a media company. Reason being, the bigger the film
company actually is, the more likely they are to end up producing bigger films in
the industry, that most of the time end up being successful. These films are more
likely to be successful rather than other films, simply because they follow the
rules of Mark Kermode, ones that would make a film absolutely impossible to lose
money from. Kermodes rules are the following: it must have a newsworthy
budget, it must have spectacular visuals, it must not be a comedy, and it must
include an A list star. As all of these big film companies have a lot of money,

they can have larger budgets for their films, unlike other companies who dont
have as much. Because of this, they have plenty of money to spend on all of the
different aspects of the film, which can likely lead the film that they are
producing to become very successful as a whole.
Walt Disney could be considered as a great example of a big film company. They
are one of the most renowned film production companies within the entire
history of the film business. They now hold over 15.3% of the entire US/Canadian
market share, and they produce extremely successful movies like Frozen and
Tangled. Walt Disney are a company who manage to create these successful,
popular films, that will always be remembered by the public. They are seen as a
company who produce a lot of family films that are adored by millions of people
all over the globe. Because they are so well known within the media, they are
always most likely to be a success, regardless of what their next films storyline
may be about. This is because the public automatically presume that it will be
good, just because it has the Disney name attached to the film, and so they will
go and see it, giving the film even more money, making it another success within
the film industry. Walt Disney then have tons of money to produce even more
films in the future, meaning that their films will be able to have a large budget
when it comes to producing them.
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire was produced and distributed by Lionsgate.
Lionsgate is one of the top producing companies, and is well known for the films
that they create. This film alone had a budget of $130,000,000 million, which
therefore classes this film as a high budget film. The film managed to gross a
total of $424,645,577, which is more than triple the budget and because of
Lionsgate being a well-known company, they were able to get a lot of publicity
for this film, so that lots of people would have heard about it and got excited
over the movie being released. This meant that more people were likely to go
and actually see the film, because they thought it was good, or because they
were already a massive fan of the other films that Lionsgate have produced in
the past.

2. The importance of cross media convergence and

synergy in production, distribution and marketing

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, is a 2013 American superhero film, based on
the Hunger Games trilogy (novels) written by Suzanne Collins, produced and
distributed by Lionsgate Movies. It is the second instalment in the Hunger Games
Trilogy.
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire: the importance of cross media convergence
and synergy in production, distribution and marketing: Who publicised and
distributed the film? How did these companies work together? What roles did
they undertake?
Lionsgate announced that a film adaptation of Catching Fire would be released as
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire on November 22, 2013, as a sequel to the film
adaptation of The Hunger Games, with principal photography to take place in
September 2012. Simon Beaufoy was hired to write the script for the film and
wrote two drafts before leaving after Gary Ross, director of The Hunger Games
decided not to direct the sequel. The shooting timeframe was co-ordinated
between Lionsgate and 20th Century Fox, in order to allow time for Jennifer
Lawrence to shoot X-Men: Days of Future Past, the sequel to Fox's X-Men: First
Class, in January 2013.
On November 16, 2012, the first teaser trailer was released with The Twilight
Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2 and revealed the official logo and tagline for the
film. Lionsgate announced a sweepstakes competition where 12 fans would have
their name listed in the film's credits. On January 11, 2013, Entertainment
Weekly released a 2013 Preview edition of their magazine, with the first look of
Lawrence as Katniss and Claflin as Finnick on the cover as well as several stills
showcasing scenes from the film. On February 22, both Hitfix and the official
Facebook page debuted two viral posters of the Victory Tour featuring Jennifer
Lawrence (Katniss) and Josh Hutcherson (Peeta).
On January 28, 2013, CapitolCouture.PN, a promotional site for the film's fashion
and culture, opened and could only be unlocked with a passcode. Once in, a
picture of a blue chair appeared and told readers to check back on March 4. On
March 4, 2013, the site began to release portraits of the various characters.
Alongside the announcement of the teaser trailer premiering at the 2013 MTV
Movie Awards, Lionsgate revealed a new website called
TheHungerGamesExplorer. On April 10, the website was updated and fans had to
tweet using the hashtag #HungerGamesExplorer to unlock new stills from the
movie. A still could be unlocked every day leading up to April 14, 2013, the
teaser trailer's release date.
The teaser trailer thus debuted at the 2013 MTV Movie Awards on April 14,
presented by Liam Hemsworth, and the trailer was posted on
TheHungerGamesExplorer and YouTube after the ceremony. "Beyond Fire" by
T.T.L. was played as the trailer music.
An exclusive new trailer debuted at the San Diego Comic-Con International on
July 20, 2013, also being released online on that day.[58] Walmart released the

first TV spot on their Facebook page on October 14, featuring Coldplay's song,
"Atlas".
On October 27, 2013, during the fifth inning of game 4 of the 2013 World Series,
the final trailer was released. Three days later, on October 30, 2013, a new IMAX
poster for the film debuted.
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire audience breakdown The movie rating itself
was a PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, some frightening
images, thematic elements, a suggestive situation and language. As the film is
an action-adventure/sci-fi movie, the audience range is larger for the male
audience, however, because of the famously used stars like Josh Hutcherson and
Liam Hemsworth, it also features a large female audience. The age range for The
Hunger Games: Catching Fire varies between 13-35, as it is considered a family
film, however, teens around 15, up to the young adult age of 21 are most likely
to enjoy the film because of its features.

Sex & Nudity

3/10

A woman briefly undresses on an elevator, we see this from the back. Her
genitals are covered, but we see the side of her breast, her lower legs,
shoulders, and back. Two men and another woman watch her: One man,
who is much older than her, watches in amused approval and the other
man is in awe and shock. The other woman looks pointedly away.
A boy and girl are shown in bed together three times. However, it is
implied that there is no sexual activity.
Sensuality.

Violence & Gore

7/10

The violence includes deaths by stabbing, shooting, drowning, animal

attacks, and poison, as well as torture, whipping, threats, and explosions.
Most of the violence is shown on-screen but doesn't show much gore.
A thick fog forms and a young woman reaches out to touch it. She screams
and blisters form. Her group runs from it. All are burned by it. One is left
unable to run. An old woman sacrifices herself to save the group. She runs
into it and we see her disappear
A group is attacked by monkeys. We hear screams. The monkeys are
stabbed, hacked, kicked etc. one of the party is held under water by one of
these creatures until someone stabs it. A woman jumps from a bush and is
bitten and mauled by a monkey. We see blood on her neck. She is carried
to water were a young man holds her hand as she dies. We see a flying
vessel carry her body away.
Three characters appear on a beach covered in what appears to be blood.
A woman's throat is cut. We do not see the act, just her attacker behind
her. He is shot in the chest with an arrow. No blood. He just falls into the
water.

A man is whipped in a district square. We see his gashes. A young woman

intervenes and is punched in the face then struck with the whip. The
whipper threatens to shoot her. She tells him to but he is stopped before
any more violence occurs.
An elderly man is dragged to his knees and then shot. We just see the gun
fire. We later see his body taken away.
A woman shoots at a turkey and has a vision of shooting a young man in
the chest. She screams and is calmed down by a friend.
Dead rabbits are shown with some blood.
A man and woman are forced to hear their loved ones scream for an hour.
A man is beaten several times. His body is dragged away and he is seen
with blood on his face.

Profanity
4/10

2 bleeped out F-words, 1 use of "screwed over", 2 "damns", 2 uses "hell",

2 uses of "Son of a bitch", 1 "bloody", 2 uses of "shit".

Alcohol/Drugs/Smoking
4/10

The trainer for the fighters is always drunk/drinking

A girl takes one sip out of an alcohol bottle, but doesn't like it, so she
stops.

Frightening/Intense Scenes
7/10

The violence includes deaths by stabbing, shooting, drowning, animal

attacks, whipping, and poison, as well as torture, threats, and explosions.
Many intense scenes such as battles and deaths. Not forgetting that there
are also many emotional and tear-jerking scenes.
A man is brutally beaten to death by peacekeepers, which was very
unexpected, frightening and sad.
The movie does not have a happy ending, as the protagonist learns that
her home has been destroyed while she was in the arena. It can be very
shocking, as it's shot in a quite dark manner, to first-timers who didn't
read the book.

Peeta's heart stops. Mouth to mouth is used to revive him. This scene is
quite intense.

3. The technologies that have been introduced in

recent years at the levels of production,
distribution, marketing and exchange

3D (3 Dimensional)
3D Media is a motion picture that enhances the illusion of depth perception.
Derived from stereoscopic photography, it is when two cameras are used to film
a scene from two different perspectives. It is also a computer generated image.
Special projection hardware is used to complete the illusion of depth such as
glasses to use during the film. 3D film are not limited to just feature film, it can
be adapted to be used in different aspects of media. 3D film was introduced in
1915, however it did not see much success until the 21 st century, where its
popularity grew as it was used in large blockbuster films, culminating in the
unprecedented success of 3D presentations of Avatar in December 2009.

Blu-Ray
Blu-Ray disck (BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to
supersede the DVD format. It is capable of showing high definition 1080p
resolution; much greater than the original DVDs which could only show 480p
resolution. Another feature is the improved audio quality.

Internet Streaming
Internet streaming is multimedia that is streamed by a receiver while being
delivered by a provider. A client media player can begin to play or watch the
chosen media before the content is fully downloaded.

Downloadable Content
Downloadable content is additional content for video games and films, such as
film soundtracks and character accessories on specific games. This could be on
iTunes or Google Play Store, or any other downloadable content provider.

How they affected the distribution of The Hunger Games:

Catching Fire
All these types of multimedia distributors had a large effect on the success of
Lionsgates The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. In 3D alone, in the opening
weekend, the movie made a gross of $, and a further $ from DVD sales and $ in
Blu Ray sales. Add all of this together and you get $, which is approximately of
the final gross for the movie, meaning that they more than broke even with the
budget just through these methods, showing that these types of distribution are
just as vital to the success of a movie as the basic method. And the movie is still
making money to this day through downloadable content, and internet
streaming, so they are a sustainable source of income as well as an easy one.

4. The significance of proliferation in hardware and

content for institutions and audiences

Since films were first released, film companies have had to alter the ways that
the audiences are able to watch their films significantly. Common ways of
viewing films now are things such as Video on Demand, DVDs/Blu Ray, online
streams, downloading films as well as the typical visiting the cinema. These ways
generally tend to be cheap which is important as many families dont have the
money to all go to the cinema, so for a considerably lower price, they can rent a
film via websites such as Netflix or Lovefilm, or they could purchase the DVD/Blu
Ray from a shop or online. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire was released at
cinemas in both 2D and 3d. It was then released on DVD and Blu-Ray. As it was a
large budget film, it wasnt released on VOD websites like Netflix for a very long

time, because they tend to lose a lot of profit from uploading their media to
sources like VOD. However, it was eventually added a year after the movie was
released on DVD/Blu Ray, when the popularity of the movie started to drop in
size, because of the third film: The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1, and this
kept its profit going, as people would pay for memberships on these VOD
apps/sites.

5. The importance of technological convergence for

institutions and audiences

Color Forces The Hunger Games: Catching Fire was produced and was one of the
biggest films of 2013. Color Force is owned by Lionsgate, so therefore this
automatically tells us that they had a large budget for this film, as Lionsgate are
the 7th biggest film production companies. Lionsgate have had high budget films
out in the business for a very long time now, so it would be unusual for them to
do anything low budget. The amount of money that went into Catching Fire was
$130,000,000, and for a movie to actually make a gross, they have to make over
twice the money of the budget, something which Catching Fire did with a
$424,645,577 gross in the US alone.
Other small companies were involved with the film, in which they created the
soundtrack, posters, e.t.c., however they werent as strongly credited as
Lionsgate were for actually producing the film. This shows that small companies
do in fact work alongside the big ones, but they dont take much credit for it,
keeping them below the bigger companies, and some arent even credited at all.
Overall, the importance of cross media convergence is vital to film production as
its all the small companies working together to produce posters, soundtracks
e.t.c, with larger global companies working together and producing together,
which gets a larger audience due to the size and popularity of the big production
company.

6. The issues raised in the targeting of national and

local audiences (specifically, British) by
international or global institutions

Film production is the practice of promotion specifically in the film industry, and
usually occurs in coordination with the process of film distribution. Sometimes
called the press junket or film junket, film promotion generally includes press
releases, advertising campaigns, merchandising and media, and interviews with
the key people involved with the making of the film, like the actors and the
directors. As with all business, it is an important part of any release because of
the inherent high financial risk; film studios with invest in expensive marketing
campaigns to maximize revenue early in the release cycle. Marketing budgets
tend to equal about half the production budget. Publicity is generally handled by
the distributor and exhibitors.
Catching Fire is the second movie from the Hunger Games trilogy, and was first
promoted in 2013 through trailers, posters and music. On November 11 th, the
cast and crew went to London, UK for the premiere of the movie. The film then
premiered in Brazil on the 15th, followed by the USA on the 18th of November.
Multiple countries all across the globe then followed afterwards. During the time
of the release for this movie, Twitter and Facebook accounts were taken over
promoting the movie with the likes of Q&A sessions, competitions and short
video clips and images. This gave the movie a load of hype over social media. A
website was also created to promote the movie and give out more details if
people wanted them about the film. The film was then released on DVD and BluRay and was featured on iTunes to download. Later on it was featured on Netflix
for home streaming.
It was shown throughout the media in which the USA and the UK mainly use
online for marketing, whereas China and European countries followed the ideas
of trailers, reviews and online screenings of the film. They are also interested in
A-list stars that are well known globally, ones that the Chinese people would
know about. A big part of the marketing of English speaking films is to make sure
that there are appropriate subtitles on the film, for countries that cannot

understand this language. Catching Fire being a large budget film, and having
lots of marketing and press, was bound to have large amounts of money funded
into the quality subtitling for the Hunger Games movie franchise.

7. The ways in which the candidates own experiences

of media consumption illustrate wider patterns and
trends of audience behaviour

Firstly I think that the influence big companies have on the types of film made
and its success is huge, a prime example of this is if you compare Dredd to The
Hunger Games: Catching Fire. It is clear that due to the sizes of the companies
producing these films, their success potential differed. The Hunger Games:
Catching Fire for example, was released on the 11 th November 2013, but
marketing however started when the film was promoted all over social media
and TV adverts beforehand. This started to create hype for the film months
before the release, and then there was further advertising closer to the release
as well. All of this advertising led to the fact that Catching Fire took
$424,645,577 at the box office. When compared to Dredd (produced by smaller
companies), which only made $41 million, we can see a drastic difference that
production companies make when it comes to the success of a film.
I think that the main advantage that being made by a big company brings is their
ability to invest a large amount in the budget; this is also shown in the Dredd vs.
Catching Fire comparison, as Dredd had $45 million, and Catching Fire had a
comparatively massive budget of $130 million. In my ophinion, the big
companies only have to follow a few guidelines to make a film a success (based
on Mark Kermodes theory), whereas lower budget films have to do more things
to ensure success.