The Big Picture

The Hunger Games movies have used different visual styles to capture the chaos of the opening of The Games, and the same is true of The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. The new movie features a very different version of The Hunger Games, one that’s underdeveloped and lacks the wealth of advanced technology seen in the 74th and 75th Games. Director Francis Lawrence tells us all about pinpointing the perfect visual style for the 10th Hunger Games, and about the appeal of making a new Hunger Games movie but, this time, while focusing on the rise of a villain.

There are countless high pressure items to tackle when making a new Hunger Games movie, but one thing that’s fairly high up on that list is figuring out the best visual style to capture the beginning of The Games.

A fairly hot talking topic when the first film was released in 2012 was the excessive use of the handheld/shaky cam style to photograph the 74th Hunger Games’ cornucopia massacre. Personally, I thought it was quite well done and appropriately enhances the chaotic nature of the start of The Games. In Francis Lawrence’s first Hunger Games movie, Catching Fire, there is some handheld material that solidifies the frenetic nature of what happens after that first cannon fires, but it is noticeably more refined and controlled. Again, a style that suits this particular Games because its participants are all experienced past winners.

The Hunger Games featured in the new movie, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, is a totally different beast though. The movie takes place 64 years before Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) volunteers for her Games. The Hunger Games is an underdeveloped experiment in its infancy and while The Capitol is no longer in complete ruins, it’s far from the city of excess, opulence and advance technology we see in the 2012 film.

With The Ballad of Songbirds and Snake due in theaters on November 17th, I got the chance to chat with Lawrence about the making of the movie and made sure to ask how he went about finding the right visual style for the opening bloodbath with cinematographer Jo Willems. Check out what he said about that, exceptional tribute actors you must keep an eye on, and about working on the character of Dr. Gaul with Viola Davis in the video interview at the top of this article or in the transcript below.

Also, stay tuned for more. This is only half of my conversation with Lawrence. The spoiler half will be release as soon as the movie is in theaters.

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes 64 years before Katniss Everdeen volunteered as tribute, and decades before Coriolanus Snow became the tyrannical President of Panem. The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes follows a young Coriolanus (Tom Blyth) who is the last hope for his failing lineage, the once-proud Snow family that has fallen from grace in a post-war Capitol. With his livelihood threatened, Snow is reluctantly assigned to mentor Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Zegler), a tribute from the impoverished District 12. But after Lucy Gray’s charm captivates the audience of Panem, Snow sees an opportunity to shift their fates. With everything he has worked for hanging in the balance, Snow unites with Lucy Gray to turn the odds in their favor. Battling his instincts for both good and evil, Snow sets out on a race against time to survive and reveal if he will ultimately become a songbird or a snake. Release Date November 17, 2023 Director Francis Lawrence Cast Rachel Zegler, Hunter Schafer, Viola Davis, Tom Blyth, Peter Dinklage, Jason Schwartzman, Burn Gorman, Fionnula Flanagan Rating PG-13
PERRI NEMIROFF: Why direct another Hunger Games movie? Obviously, it’s a very popular franchise and an exciting opportunity, but what about for you as a director always continuing to hone his craft? What was it about this book that made you think, “I have more to gain from playing in this world again?”

FRANCIS LAWRENCE: Part of it, honestly, is working with the people. So it’s working with Suzanne again, with Nina again. We had such a great time, so that was great. I love being a part of the Hunger Games world, and because Suzanne created a book with new thematic material, that was really exciting. But I really fell in love with doing a villain’s origin story. And also, I love world creation in movies, and so to go back 64 years and be able to really recreate this world and in a much more sort of rudimentary sense, was really exciting.

Jumping ahead a little bit to the Games, one particular sequence I really wanted to ask about is the start of the Games and figuring out how to capture it with Jo [Willems]. The first movie is very chaotic with a lot of handheld camera work. Same with the Catching Fire, but maybe a little more refined in that respect. What was it like jumping off those two and figuring out what best suited the start of the 10th Games instead?

LAWRENCE: One of the things that is always important to me is when you’ve done Games, so I knew that the beginning of my games in Catching Fire had to be different than they were in the first one, right? So just emotionally it has to feel different. Visually, of course, very different kind of arena. Same with this. Visually, a very different kind of arena. What I love about this and because it’s rudimentary is instead of fancy elevators and glass pods and all of this, they’re basically walked in at gunpoint, or dragged in if they can’t, and put on their spots. It’s just a basic arena, but of course, these explosions have happened and there’s rubble everywhere. That was really exciting for me.

But it was really the draw of — and this is actually sort of similar to Catching Fire — the draw of Rachel’s character trying to find her friend. If you remember from Catching Fire, it’s the same with Katniss, that Katniss is trying to find Peeta, and she doesn’t know where he is. So, sort of two parallel similarities there.

Image via Lionsgate

Bringing up her trying to find Jessup in the arena is making me think of all the other tributes because in every single one of these movies, or at least the ones that involve Games, one of my favorite things about them is watching newer actors that I’m less familiar with take on these tribute roles and, even with less screen time, making them feel like full living breathing people. If you could isolate one actor whose name we need to know, who really surprised you on set and made more of what was on the page than you ever could have imagined, who would you choose and why?

LAWRENCE: Jeez, only one?

I’ll take more if you want!

LAWRENCE: I’ll give you two. I’ll give you three, actually. So one is Irene [Böhm] and she plays Lamina. She blows me away. I basically watched her grow up because I’m a fan of Babylon Berlin, and she plays the younger sister to the lead actress in that and grew up sort of making that series. [She] came to us and doesn’t say a word in our movie and has the most amazing face, is so talented, and was so game, especially running around up on top of that crossbeam. She’s great.

Dimitri [Abold], who plays Reaper, is also a phenomenal actor. He would improvise a lot, and I think we just got a lot of great emotion and strength and kind of nobility from him. And then I’ll say Sofia [Sanchez], who’s the young girl who lasts to the end of the Games who has Down Syndrome, and she’s just an amazing actress and an amazing kid, and everybody fell in love with her. So, I think those three are big standouts for me.

Image via Lionsgate

A more familiar name I have to bring up; Viola Davis is just absolutely perfect as Dr. Gaul. One thing I’ve heard someone mention that I wanted to ask you about is that it was her choice to make sure the character had two different colored eyes.

LAWRENCE: It was her choice.

Did she ever explain to you precisely why that was important to her?

LAWRENCE: No, she just came up with the idea. I thought it was fun. You know, weirdly, we had a long Zoom and we chatted about the themes of the book and how her character connects to the themes. My reference, and I was a little nervous to say this to her, but my reference for Gaul was actually Gene Wilder’s Willy Wonka. There’s sort of a creativity to the job and this kind of sinister underpinning to everything and the joy that they find in the creativity, and I think she, luckily, totally understood it, got it, was really excited to do something different. But yes, having the blue eye was her idea.

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