For our fellow "Hunger Games" fans who are following each and every detail released about the upcoming big-screen adaptation, one of the key questions is how the filmmakers will address the fact that a large amount of the story is told via Katniss' inner monologue. Will we be hearing Jennifer Lawrence narrate throughout the film via voice-over or will we see the action from multiple characters' perspectives?
Today is our lucky day, because we have an answer straight from director Gary Ross himself, who told recently that after much careful consideration he is not using any voice-over.
"I'm not using voice-over for her. This thing is all from Katniss' perspective," he said of the story. "It is a first-person point of view. How do we put the viewer immediately and urgently in that experience they had when they read the book and they're in Katniss Everdeen's shoes? A lot of that is done cinematically. I spent a lot of time wondering and thinking about at the beginning of this process, 'What does it really mean to be in the character's point of view cinematically?' I looked at a lot of really interesting references for that, but it comes down to: You don't know more than the character knows."
Ross said we will be experiencing everything from Katniss' perspective; we just won't be hearing her talk us through it.
"You wonder about what she's wondering about, you worry about what she's worrying about," he explained. "You don't know things she doesn't know, and as such, you wander and experience things through her eyes, so that's the first job: How do we make people feel they're walking in Katniss' shoes and encountering the same obstacles and challenges she is?" he said. "A lot is done cinematically and a lot is having someone as good as Jen Lawrence."
The "Pleasantville" and "Seabiscuit" helmer was cagey when asked about the specific look and style of the film but did promise they did everything they could to make things as realistic and believable as possible.
"I don't want to start giving specific scenes away, I know you understand that. I will say movies can do a lot in imagery where you can assimilate at lot of the world there pretty quickly," he said when asked how much backstory he felt he needed to include or whether he'll just jump right into the story at the start of the film. "The trick there is to make the world as real and as specific as it was when you read the book, be very precise about the production design and what this world looks like, and I think we've created a pretty vivid world."
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