Representation: The Hunger Games trailer

 

 

The trailer of the Hunger Games starts out with a male and female character talking about talking about running away from their lives and starting afresh somewhere else. We soon come to find that the film is set in the near, and this is proven through the technologies and gadgets used in the '12 districts of Panem'. By this being the first thing that the audience see, they are socialised into the ideology that a man needs a woman and a woman needs a man in order to survive this world.

 

The trailer tells the story of a girl, Katniss Everdeen who volunteers in place of her sister (who is chosen) to compete in the annual Hunger Games, against 11 other district (and 23 other children). We find out that she risked her life in order to protect her younger sister. In relation to most traditional films of a similar genre, the main character (and the one competing) would have been a male, and this twist on tradition challenges many stereotypes about the strength of females.

One of the characters that we come across during the trailer is filmed using extreme long shots, with the mise-en-scene taking the form of a forest. They are dressed in a camouflage-type outfit, and holding a bow and arrows. This indicates that the character in hand is likely to be male, as most stereotypes predict that anyone using weapons in a film will be a man, rather than a woman as traditional stereotypes predict that men are the breadwinners and women the caregivers. As the trailer continues we see the back of the head of a girl, and the representation of females as a gender develops as we come to understand that the main character and what would be classed as a 'Hero' by Propp is Katniss Everdeen.

 

Another female character represented in this film is Primrose or 'Prim', Katnisses younger sister. She is shown to be naïve and extremely innocent during the scenes within the trailer, and this may have been used to exaggerate the strength that her older sister contains. By using a traditionally stereotypes weakness in the younger sibling, the older sibling is able to challenge the stereotype. Tis is not the only stereotype in relation to gender which may be considered challenged by the audience, as about 20 seconds into the trailer, the male character is already seen as being an aid or help to the main (female) character when shooting for prey, which is something considered a male trait by many. This puts the male character is a position of lower authority than the female character, which in most cases (such as the Nuclear family) and pretty much every gender-based stereotype, defies the norm.

 

In the scenes containing the contestants training, all ages, races and genders are considered equal, with all shown as relatively strong (shown to be using weapons in self defence and combat), which again differs from most stereotypes, whether this is right or wrong.