Compare how teenagers are represented in action adventure films:

The Hunger Games and The Amazing Spiderman

The two films that we looked at, The Amazing Spiderman and The Hunger
Games, appeal to teenagers as the main characters are teenagers. Both
films are action adventure films, so have similar structures and
conventions, which usually attract a male audience but due to Katniss
strong character in The Hunger Games have a very large female audience.
The conventions of an action adventure film are; a protagonist (typically
young), an antagonist (commonly older than the protagonist) which is
against them and tries to have power over them. Usually there is a fight
between these two in which the protagonist will win. The protagonist
protects the innocent and is likely to have their family and friends
threated due to their role in society.
The Hunger Games hero is Katniss Everdeen she is a teenager in a
futuristic dystopian world who has had to care for her family after her
father died. She lives in the poorest district, 12, and her villain (President
Snow) in the richest district, the Capitol, has control over everybody.
Katniss is rebellious to how the Capitol treat those lower than them, she
has been very independent throughout her life in district 12 by bending
the rules from the Capitol. An example is how she hunts in a nearby forest
so that she doesnt have to put her name into the cup if she is in need of
food. Rebellion is a key structure to many action adventure films. Katniss
was a volunteer to the Hunger Games as her sister Primrose was picked,
she shows her caring side throughout the film. She repeats this as there is
a girl a similar age to her sister in the games called Rue who she stays
with. Peeta her fellow tribute from district 12 and Katniss manage to make
it to the final 2 and refuse to kill one another, this annoyed Snow and he
tried to force them to but Katniss yet again showed rebellion as she would
of rather committed suicide with Peeta. They went onto both win.
Both films had powerful point within them; I will show my analysis of the
reaping scene in The Hunger Games. This is a very tense part in which a
variety of cinematic shots and techniques are used to show this.
Throughout this scene continuity editing was used to keep the action alive
and the audience interested in the story line. In the starts of the scene
there is cross cutting editing with short cuts as if it were from the view of
the woman on stage, she is made to look like an antagonist from the start
as we know she lives in the capitol which is polar opposite of how this

district live, and she was blinking making the audience see the whole
poverty stricken district from her point of view. The establishing shot sets
the scene as it is supposed to it show that there is a woman in charge on a
platform and that the district has been gathered together and separated
by gender, there is large about of authority figures which look like
futuristic police. There is also a large wall so that they cant escape this
would signify or indicate something bad has happened before so they use
a lot of defence to have power over the districts. Mise-en-scene shows a
dull grey looking box full of dull plain looking people until the woman
appears as its a contrast. Straight away there is a huge difference in
appearance between the woman on stage and the district as she has
bright bold colours on whereas everyone else has a faded, worn out, loose
fitting, blue coloured clothes. On close up shots it is purposely hand held
and shaky to add a dramatic effect to the situation. Hand-held is then
used for the rest of the scene with continued jump shots for different
views of the scene e.g. going into the crowd and moving as if was a
person trying to see the stage and Katniss. All sound is synchronous
despite the shock of Prim being chosen but it is an expected reaction by
everyone but Katniss, its the storyline which isnt but the speech isnt
sudden. Whilst the woman is talking on stage it is diegetic whilst the
camera is on her but as it pans out to see the crowds reactions it
becomes non-diegetic.
The Amazing Spiderman is more realist as it is set in New York present day
making the audience instantly feel like the film is more relatable. The
protagonist is stereotypically young and is bullied at school, Peter Parker is
a typical student whereas after he is bitten by a spider he turns into
Spiderman the hero of New York. Peter originally uses his new found
power to overcome the bullies and then once his antagonist, Dr. Curt
Connors, finds out about Peters powers he is jealous as he worked with his
father on the experiment. As Connors has lost one of his forearms he
admires the lizard so when he finds out that it was a success he works on
his lizard abilities. Unfortunately he goes mad with power and wants to
haver complete power over the world so tries to infect New York with the
lizard abilities. Spiderman has multiple fights with him and defeats him.
Also there is a love interest, Gwen Stacy, this would stereotypically appeal
to the female audience.
To the target audiences of these two films they would feel as if they could
relate in some way. The films we have looked at will seem realistic to the
teenage target audience as they could either associate with the
characters strong will like Katniss or how Peter was treated at school.
Despite the fact of The Hunger Games being the least realistic it seems
possible as it is like a dictatorship where those that are of lower class are

exploited for the benefit of entertainment for the higher class. It connects
with the real life as there are people who have completely extravagant
lives compared with those who are struggling, although this is taken to an
extreme. And The Amazing Spiderman
The fight in the Amazing Spider-Man is very cinematic, it uses a lot of CGI
seeing as the antagonist is a large lizard which doesnt exist in real life.
This entire scene is fast paced in editing seeing as this fight is much more
exaggerated, than real life, it can be seen as non-continuity.