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Watch the opening scene
Last week you watched the trailer. Now watch the opening scene.
A
B
Watch it again and make notes using the two boxes below. The whole film is on Netflix if you have access.
How does the director create a tense atmosphere and grab the audience’s attention?
Look and listen for: camera shots and angles · music and sound · silence · lighting and colour · setting · costume · facial expressions · how fast the scene moves. Press a button to add it to your notes.
Frame: “The director uses ___, which makes the audience feel ___ because ___.”
How many features of dystopian fiction can you identify? Why have they been included?
Tick every feature you spot in the opening scene.
Think: what is the writer or director warning us about? What do they want us to feel?
Challenge What happens next?
If you have not seen the film or read the book, what do you think might happen next? If you have, how faithful is this opening to the book?
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Read the opening of the novel
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (2008), Chapter 1
Open the extract (Task 3 in the booklet)
Background: in the country of Panem, every year each district must send two young people to fight to the death on television. The ceremony where they are chosen is called the reaping. The narrator, Katniss, lives in District 12, a poor coal-mining district.
Read the extract once. If you print it, annotate it: circle words you do not know and underline dystopian details. If you cannot print it, use the notes below.
Step 1 · Understand the hard words
Step 2 · How successfully does it hook the reader in?
Hooks to look for: a short dramatic sentence · a narrator speaking directly in the present tense · something we do not understand yet (what is the reaping?) · a contrast between love and danger · an unusual detail (the ugliest cat). Frame: “The opening hooks the reader because … The sentence ‘…’ makes us wonder …”
Step 3 · What dystopian features does the writer use, and why?
Choose the four details you think show this is a dystopian world.
0 of 4 chosen
Step 4 · Which opening is more effective: the book or the film?
Compare the book with the film clip you watched in Task 1.
| The book | The film | |
|---|---|---|
| Atmosphere | ||
| What we learn about the world | ||
| What hooks you |
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The 200-word challenge
Opinionated and entertaining
“Films based on books are never as good as the films themselves.”
In around 200 words, give your views on this statement.
In around 200 words, give your views on this statement.
- You can completely agree or completely disagree. Try to be biased one way or the other!
- You can include examples from any book that has become a film.
- Your writing should be opinionated and entertaining.
Step 1 · Pick your side
Step 2 · Plan it
Step 3 · Tools to make it entertaining
Step 4 · Write your 200 words
✓
Finish
Save your work or send it to your teacher