Latest news, videos and pics from Hunger Games: Catching Fire

Catching Fire is heating up ahead of the November 21st release date and I am lucky enough to be catching a preview screening tomorrow night in London for Starburst Magazine. While I was not the world's biggest fan of the first film, I did love the first and second books in Suzanne Collins' trilogy. I'm also not a huge fan of new director Francis Lawrence either and I think its a real shame that Lionsgate will always push for a 12A rating on these films to maximise their box office potential.

However that is all neither here nor there when it came to seeing the trailers for Catching Fire as I'm now almost as excited as any other Hunger Games uber-fans. Like many others, I'm a little in love with J-Law after her slapstick stunt at the Oscars and constant cute outbursts in interviews. If you've seen Winter's Bone then you would have known immediately this is the perfect girl to play Katniss and she did a fantastic job in the first film.

At least Catching Fire was delivered to the BBFC and got the 12A immediately without having to make any compromising cuts this time. On the other hand some might argue a few cuts might be welcome in a film that is going to be released with a bum numbing running time of 146 minutes. Still if I had my way, a film about a gladiatorial style fight to the death between teenagers would get a 15 or 18 rating on premise alone. Then the filmmakers would be free to go wild with the blood, guts and carnage.

Empire Magazine have a tantalizing new clip and the Facebook page is full of lovely pictures from the film. Oh and Twitter went nuts yesterday because J-Law has appeared with a new haircut so I though I'd share it for those of you interested in such things. Should provide a great bit of free publicity for promoting Catching Fire.

My review will be up on the Starburst Magazine website as soon as the embargo is lifted and will also hopefully be included in the print edition of the magazine asap.







Do you care about Jennifer Lawrence's haircut?

The Effects of Films: The Relationship between Audiences and Films Part 5

Despite the fact that most people reject the idea that cinema audiences are a completely passive mass who do not question or interpret films in different ways, some theorists have argued that films can have serious and damaging effects on viewers. In the past, the media (particularly tabloid newspapers) have been quick to blame films and video games when individuals have committed terrible crimes. The murder of the three year old James Bulger by two ten year old boys was blamed on the murderers having been exposed to the film Child’s Play 3 with calls for the film to be banned despite no real evidence that the boys had seen the film. Natural Born Killers and A Clockwork Orange were also blamed for copycat violence with the argument that some people see bad things in films and want to copy them.

The main effects that people are concerned about are desensitisation, fear, violence in society and viewer aggression. If people see a lot of violence in films, the argument is that they might become desensitised to real life violence. The more blood you see on screen, the more you get used to seeing blood and the less shocking it will be. The concern is that particularly children could be affected if they see too much violence and pain on screen, perhaps they will not feel as strongly about it when they see it in real life. This could make them dangerous human beings that do not empathise with people in pain and therefore they would be capable of being more violent in real life. 

Similarly if there is more violence in films, there is an argument that society will become more violent. Films will make audiences feel that violence is an acceptable part of life and being violent is an acceptable way to behave. If film characters solve their problems with fights and killing the bad guys, people might follow. This also ties in with viewer aggression. If a viewer watched lots of violent films or films that make them angry, they might be more aggressive. I have had more than one student in the past tell me that watching a film like The Football Factory actually does make them want to fight. Again the real concern is children who are considered to be more impressionable. Will watching Ninja Turtles or Power Rangers or even Spiderman or Lord of the Rings make them more aggressive and enjoy the idea of fighting more? However this is why we have the BBFC and age ratings to stop children from seeing things that society deems unsuitable. The BBFC are very good at researching what the public views are on things like sex, violence and swearing. However they still occasionally but very rarely ban or cut films that they argue are too offensive or ‘dangerous’ even for people over the age of 18 due to harm these films could supposedly cause.

The other effect that might be a concern is that with all this violent entertainment, vulnerable people may actually start to fear society and other people. If an elderly, frail person watched a film like Harry Brown or Kidulthood, it may make them fear London youth because of the stereotypes it presents. Horror movie watchers might be more afraid of being alone, women could be more afraid of men and the threat of rape and all because of violent films that people watch for entertainment. 

Did you miss...?

Part 1 on active vs passive spectatorship.

Part 2 on the pleasures of film watching. 

Part 3 on frameworks of interpretation.

Part 4 on media literacy and intertextuality.

Read more:

Part 6 on fandom and film fans.

Part 7 on pre and post-viewing experiences and conditions of reception.

I'm curious about this one. What do you think about the media effects debate? Can films turn us into monsters? Do movies create pscychos? Or do movies make psychos more creative? Drop a comment below if you have an opinion on the matter...

Legal Obligations and the BBFC and Ofcom

The film and TV industries are regulated by Ofcom and the BBFC. In my media classes we already covered contractual issues, employment legislation, ethical obligations and legal obligations. 

Ofcom are a body who are responsible for regulating the TV and radio industries. They operate under the Communications Act 2003 and their main legal duties are to ensure that TV provides high quality and diverse programming from a range of different organisations. People should be protected from watching harmful and offensive material and people in programmes should have their privacy respected and be treated fairly. Ofcom deal with complaints from the public, whether it be that they are unhappy with the way they have been treated by programme makers or offended by the content of a particular programme. For example there was a recent case of a man in a Panorama episode who was promised anonymity but was recognised by his friends.

The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) is a regulatory body that is responsible with the viewing and classification of films before they are released to the public. They used to be called the board of film censors and their role was more about cutting and banning inappropriate content from films. As times changed their role became more about guidance. Every film must be given a classification and passed by the BBFC by law. An example of a very disturbing film that had to be cut before its release is A Serbian Film due to its ‘scenes of sexual and sexualised violence and scenes juxtaposing images of sex and sexual violence with images of children’. The BBFC demanded over four minutes of cuts and as a result there has been no public commercial screening of the uncut version of the film in the UK.

TV and film companies have to abide by many laws and consider the views of the public in many of their day to day decisions. They have to act lawfully when it comes to treatment of their employees and arranging their contracts, as well as in the organisation of the business and ownership of subsidiaries. Media organisations such as TV channels and film companies will also be aware of their ethical obligations and will be more or less committed to promoting certain ethical practices depending on the importance they place on being progressive and responsible. At the end of the day, media companies wish to entertain their audiences but they must also act within the law and consider the implications of what they produce on the wider society.