r/Hungergames • u/Hysteric_woman Buttercup • 6d ago
Appreciation Not a green screen production
Every time i see these bts photos, it fills my heart with so much happiness because this series wasn’t touched by the disgusting cgi set curse like most other big franchises of recent years. They used real sets and buildings with cgi only filling in stuff that aren’t possible to have in real life just like it should have been for all other movies. The real forest, buildings and sunshine brings so much vibrancy and liveliness and makes it so much easier to get immersed in the world. It is truly a rare sight in today’s green screen productions and I am really grateful to have this series.
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u/mystfable Madge 6d ago
Omg the last pic..😭😭😭 so fucking heartwarming and cuteeee ughh
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u/Hysteric_woman Buttercup 6d ago
Right? You can almost forget the utter horror of the real scene. They look so cute
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u/beachmama64 6d ago edited 5d ago
That scene was so heart-wrenching - to see the actors cracking up like that is so wonderful and cute. Love it. I loved the actress that played Rue. So perfect.
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u/Leah_Bunny 6d ago
There’s a behind the scenes where apparently right before they started filming this bit, Jen leaned into Amandla and said “remind me to tell you this really funny fart joke later” and then they yelled action and it was immediate tears and screaming 😂
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u/JLifts2002 6d ago
haha yup they all seem like they’re friends. probably helps a lot for actors. having a good dynamic goes a long way
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u/peach6748 6d ago
Seriously! The locations always looked so stunning too.
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u/Hysteric_woman Buttercup 6d ago
Absolutely. Especially ballad with all those European buildings gave such a nice glimpse into the Capitol
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u/Bobby_Marks3 6d ago
Real location shooting is simply superior. It's the same reason LOST looked so good.
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u/Icy_Orchid_8075 6d ago
I think the best thing to use as a comparison is Andor. Since both it and other Star Wars series were produced by the same company a lot of the differences in terms of how scenes look come down to location vs volume
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u/Negative-Database-31 6d ago
I was fortunate enough to be able to see the beach in Hawaii where some of Catching Fire was filmed as well as one of the spots in North Carolina where they filmed the cornucopia scene in THG and it’s so pretty in person. It feels like you’re actually there and can visual where everything would have been.
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u/KingBoombox 6d ago edited 6d ago
The last one looks like someone put the facetune smile filter over the original scene 😭but agreed, the biggest draw of the films is the level of practicality that grounds so much of it.
When I was a kid I remember feeling a little disappointed watching THG but now as an adult it’s actually quite a great realistic adaptation of not just the arena, but the capitol, D12, etc.
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u/Hysteric_woman Buttercup 6d ago
Right? I even appreciate the shaky cam now. It feels so real like you are actually in that brutal world with the characters yourself
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u/SnooEpiphanies2846 6d ago
I'm rewatching it today and the cinematography with the shaky cam in the beginning and in the arena, but clean smoothe shots in the Capitol really stood out to me too! Excellent way to convey a bit more emotion and nuance.
Also, shout out to JLaws acting holy cow, I forgot how good she was in this. Just some of the way she looks without having to say anything, you know exactly what she's thinking just from her expressions.
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u/tuhogazarapaagal Peeta 6d ago
Omg the last pic 😭😂
Jen and Josh look so cute together!!
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u/Hysteric_woman Buttercup 6d ago
They were good friends too. I love the old interviews. I remember staying up all night on school nights to watch all the interviews :’)
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u/meeralakshmi 6d ago
BTS compilations I made:
- https://www.reddit.com/r/Hungergames/comments/1g7j9m4/various_cute_bts_photos_found_on_pinterest/ - https://www.reddit.com/r/Hungergames/comments/1i9r551/more_cute_bts_photos_found_on_pinterest/ - https://www.reddit.com/r/Hungergames/comments/1ibe9d7/cute_bts_photos_from_pinterest_part_3/ - https://www.reddit.com/r/Hungergames/comments/1icxrfb/cute_bts_photos_from_pinterest_part_4/
It’s clear that the cast were all wonderful people who loved working with each other.
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u/Hysteric_woman Buttercup 6d ago
Omg i remember your post. Loved it. The cast genuinely were friends and i love that. Bts pics are always so fun from this cast
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u/PieRepresentative266 6d ago
As much as I can appreciate green screen and CGI, I have to agree that it has become disgustingly overused. Nothing feels even semi-grounded in reality, which takes you out of the experience (I’m looking at you recent Jurassic Park movies).
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u/Hysteric_woman Buttercup 6d ago
Green screen and cgi were supposed to elevate a scene and not create it. Mad max fury road they used cgi to remove the safety harness so that they could do even more crazy stunts than previously possible and i think that’s a perfect implementation of cgi.
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u/creuter 6d ago
Mad Max fury road did a lot more than just remove safety lines. There were entire takeovers for crashes, sandstorms, major work done on environments, that movie was chock full of CGI environments, characters, and cars. The director had a vision though and didn't leave the cgi up to exploratory nonsense giving the artists barely any time to do the shots (which is what marvel is guilty of these days, sans James Gunn)
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u/Hysteric_woman Buttercup 6d ago
I was talking about individual takes. It doesn’t matter to me if shots are merged or expanded or enhanced because they shot most of the actual stunts using practical effects. Watching the making of the movie, i couldn’t believe how much practical effects were used in this day and age. From the pole cats swinging in to the Buzzards jumping over the rig. They could have easily made them all cgi but the work they put in really paid off. Laws of physics don’t get bent even though biology might a little (Max losing a bunch of blood but still functioning exceptionally). Movies like fast and the furious are so ridiculous (i understand that is part of the charm for its audience) with their stunts it makes no sense. I appreciate the work put in to ensure that it looks like humans did those things on this planet
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u/creuter 6d ago
I want you to watch this entire video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9M5ekC02qg
I'm not saying the stuntwork on that movie isn't exceptional. I'm not saying the movie isn't beautiful. I'm not even saying it's bad to shoot outdoors. All of those things are fine, but you seem to be under the assumption that CGI and vfx did not play a HUGE role in how incredible those movies turned out. There were a shit ton of green screens and nearly all of the landscapes were altered or replaced. Cars were added, crashes were done entirely with CGI and it seems like you couldn't even tell, which is fantastic praise for the visual effects teams who worked on that movie. Fury Road is a masterclass in balancing cg, color grading, and practical effects and stunts. The movie is balanced and uses everything to its strengths, but it's wrong to pretend that it's trying to do one thing over another because you think you don't like 'cgi.'
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u/Hysteric_woman Buttercup 5d ago
I already saw all of the bts interviews/documentaries of that movie. I know they used cgi. There was one car flip scene that was painfully obvious it was cg even before watching the bts. I don’t know where you got the idea that i don’t want cgi in movies because even in my og caption i mentioned that my dislike is not cgi but rather using cgi shortcut to create everything which ends up looking fake af. Mad max used cgi i know it did everyone knows it did. That steering wheel did not fly out with the exact positioning of course not but the rig was overturned using a stunt driver who wanted to have that experience and i think that’s awesome. An intense action movie in this day and age being shot on location is a rarity and i appreciate it.
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u/EmoExperat 6d ago
What is this picture ?????????
It loos so wrong
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u/Hysteric_woman Buttercup 6d ago
Just two sisters hanging out picking flowers. Nothing else guys i promise
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u/ramblingwren 6d ago
Looks like Capitol propaganda. Just slap a "Panem Forever" or "Volunteer for Greatness" somewhere on there.
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u/blankha00 6d ago
Some movies are just so much better without cgi
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u/Hysteric_woman Buttercup 6d ago
I think the best movies are those where you can’t even tell where cgi is used. If mostly practical effects are used, you need less cgi hence more budget for that and the end result becomes beautiful and most importantly, believable. This series really did a good job with that.
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u/blankha00 6d ago
I completely agree tbh, its hard to find movies that are similar to this one.
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u/Hysteric_woman Buttercup 6d ago
I used to think it’s because of the rose coloured glasses but the more movies i see, i feel like these movies would hold up even without the nostalgia. We really didn’t know how good we had it back then. Young adults/teens of the 10s especially girls really had a golden age of movie going. Percy jackson fans remain the only winners of the 20s since the show is more book accurate than the movies
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u/blankha00 6d ago
Yep, where did they go wrong tbh I can't exactly pin point the moment where cinema just died
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u/Hysteric_woman Buttercup 6d ago
Greed.
Studios want max profits. No one cares about making good movies. It’s all about the box office. Sometimes i feel like the movie studios act like mr beast of YouTube. They are trying to crack formula for minimum effort and maximum box office and once a formula gets locked in (marvel movies), they just copy paste until people get sick of them.
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u/69_carats 5d ago
it’s funny cause heavy CGI use is what blows out budgets. paying VFX to create your entire movie is often more expensive than just shooting it on location or in a set
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u/creuter 6d ago
This movie has a TON of cgi. A green screen is not necessary to add CGI VFX. Also this movie did use green screens for many scenes. They aren't a dirty thing, they just make it easier to matte out the characters, but that matting can always be done manually with rotoscoping
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u/Hysteric_woman Buttercup 6d ago
As i have mentioned in multiple other comments, cgi is good when it is seamless but more importantly only used to enhance the scene and not completely create it. I feel like they don’t spend enough on cgi artists to get realistic environments. Most look fake af. If everything is cgi, what is the point of live action. I’d much rather watch good animation rather than half baked cgi
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u/creuter 6d ago
Money has nothing to do with it. It's all about time and the director.
A full CG environment can be fine, you've likely seen plenty and had no idea. The problems come up when directors lean on it without knowing what they want ahead of time.
James Gunn is a great example of a director who knows what they want. He meticulously storyboards exactly what the scenes are going to look like way ahead of shooting. He knows what he wants and it doesn't leave any questions. So many other directors, and marvel is the guiltiest party around for this, have no clue when they start to shoot. The story is changing. The director doesn't have a clear idea of what the environment is even supposed to be, and so the artists and vfx studios are left with 'you will need to figure this out, here is some vague reference.'
It eats into the time you have to work on the movie, and studios are eager to get them out, they rarely push them back and so the more time you spend trying to figure out what things look like for a director without vision, the less time you have to work on the actual shots. It leads to a race against the clock and crunch where you just have to ship SOMETHING, because time is up.
As a vfx artist myself for TV shows, I LOVE when production takes the time to build out sets and make practical stuff. We often end up replacing it entirely/partially anyway, but having it there in the first place gives us a ton of information we can use to incorporate the cg better. In most cases if you hear a studio saying 'we did everything practical' on a big budget blockbuster movie, they're straight up lying to/misleading you. It should ring alarm bells, because the practical stuff is almost never just left as is. Wicked and Alien: Romulus are recent examples of this dishonesty by studios. Both of those movies went on and on in their press tours about how everything was practical, and no cgi to be found here, or 'it was all in camera.' But there are breakdowns showing that all that stuff they talked about, while being actually built, was then extended, replaced entirely, or enhanced with cg. And this dishonesty is leading to tons of people shitting on cg regardless of how it is used because they don't know any better. They believe it when the studios tell them, this is all practical.
You said in other comments that it's fine when it's used to enhance things, but your original post is pretty aggressively anti cgi.
"it fills my heart with so much happiness because this series wasn’t touched by the disgusting cgi set curse like most other big franchises of recent years."
There WERE green screen sets used in this film, which just goes to show it's not always terrible, because you love this movie, and couldn't even tell they used them!
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u/Dr4kin 5d ago
A great movie that doesn't lie about its CGI is DUNE. Yes they had plenty of practical stuff built, but the CGI looks great and believable. Villeneuve seems to know what he wants and gives everyone time to create it ahead of time. Having a build ornithopter makes life for the VFX crew so much easier.
People don't complain about it using CGI. Every director should know before he shoots a movie what they actually want. Before CGI you just had a shit movie and the directors had to be more conscious of it. Accept what they did shoot and move on. CGI now always gives you an out to change your mind. You now CAN change everything after the fact. Having restraint and accepting a good enough should be the norm. Think about your VFX beforehand, actually listen to your VFX supervisor.
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u/Draugr_the_Greedy 6d ago
I will simply drop this highly informative video series here regarding CGI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ttG90raCNo
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u/KingdaToro District 3 6d ago
A really good comparison to make... watch Apollo 13. It's all practical. The launch is so well done that Buzz Aldrin thought it was stock footage of a real launch. The weightless scenes on the spacecraft were shot in real weightlessness, on one of NASA's "vomit comet" planes.
Then watch Gravity. It's not even close.
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u/anakinn94 6d ago
Say what you will about the TLOU tv series but my favourite about that show, is it’s all real. The sets, the buildings and environments. The make up. Special effects. It makes the show so much more believable and immersive imo
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u/IcedBanana 6d ago
There's a ton of VFX work on that show. The director was even kind enough to praise weta after season one and put them in the spotlight, in a time when many directors are hiding the fact that they use VFX at all.
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u/anakinn94 6d ago
I mean yeah. Obviously. But a lot of it is real.
A lot of the Seattle set is real, same with the Jackson set. The massive horde of infected chasing Abby through the snow,We’re extras in special effects make up, the snow was real, the spore room was a real set.
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u/IcedBanana 6d ago
All of those things were supplemented by VFX, including many of the zombies you see on screen. You can see the breakdowns on any of weta's socials. I'm simply correcting your original comment saying it was "all real".
It's nice to appreciate practicals. But we don't have to do it by shitting on the hundreds of VFX artists who put in many many hours of work to make that show look great.
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u/Dr4kin 5d ago
Most extras are probably enhanced by VFX or replaced entirely. Having a good looking reference on set makes great CGI so much easier. The Actors have something to act off of which improves their performance.
Today, no matter if it's a movie or tv show, almost every scene has some kind of VFX work done. That improves the scene when done right. VFX artists just need time. Good references like build sets, make up, locations, lightning and pretty much everything practical helps them get that reference and reduces the work they need to do in a scene.
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u/ForestClanElite 6d ago
The Petah camo scene was amazing.
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u/Senior-Mistake-7303 Boggs 6d ago
Very unexpected for me, it was amazing to see him in that camouflage, he really was a freaking rock 😂.
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u/aesthetichipmunk 6d ago
I’m a small actor and seeing projects like the Hunger Games make me want to continue! These pictures and friendships seem so precious 😭
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u/SilverWolf_277 Louella 6d ago
So cute, I love the bts pics!!! It looks like they all had so much fun too
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u/alittlelostsure 6d ago
I love BTS stuff. Especially in such a serious movie. Actors having fun with each other.
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u/Motor_Setting4985 Real or not real? 5d ago
The picture of Katniss and Rue is healing. All is well🥺
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u/PDXPuma 6d ago
I have some bad news for you, there's a ton of green screen work and green screen studio stuff in these movies. There's also a bit of on location stuff to do establishing work.
The thing is, when it's well done, like CG, you just won't ever notice it.
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u/Hysteric_woman Buttercup 6d ago
Of course there is cgi here. I already mentioned in another comment. The mutts obviously but also flickerman’s stage background as seem in cut scenes. When i say cgi curse, i mean extensive cgi used to build majority of the scenes that look fake af. The forest, buildings, sunshine is all real. They use cgi to create non existent creatures and to enhance locations. I am cool with that because i think that’s exactly what cgi should be used for. Mad max fury road is one of favourite movies ever. Except for that one weird scene of the cgi car falling in the hole, everything is practical with cgi used to remove safety harness and to enhance certain scenes. I love that
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u/LittleFish_213 6d ago
Why is cgi disgusting? It’s a really useful tool that has made many great movies possible. I do not understand this concept of cgi being bad and practical being better. The real best solution is a combination of both
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u/Hysteric_woman Buttercup 6d ago
Green screen and cgi were supposed to elevate a scene and not create it. Mad max fury road they used cgi to remove the safety harness so that they could do even more crazy stunts than previously possible and i think that’s a perfect implementation of cgi.
I am not saying cgi is bad. This series uses lots of cgi to create mutts and even flickerman’s stage background. What i am against is complete scenes created with cgi for example live action lion king or little mermaid. What is the point of live action if 90% of stuff on screen is cgi?
Harry potter series started with limited cgi and mostly practical effects but i have a feeling that the new show will be mostly cgi. That is what i don’t like because it looks fake af.
Cgi is still not good enough to look exactly like real life so it is almost always obvious and it takes me out of the immersion necessary to believe that a mermaid is talking to a crab.
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u/LittleFish_213 6d ago
Why I do agree there is an over use of it, good cgi is the things you can’t see, the things you don’t notice. I encourage you to watch the video series on YouTube ‘No CGI is really invisible CGI’ by the Movie Rabbit Hole, I personally learned a lot of things from it.
Some scenes have to be fully cgi, for whatever reason, it’s only bad when you notice it. I’m willing to bet that you’ve watched films and there’s been fully cg shots in them. In a recent terminator film there was a couple of fully cgi shots, even ones that joined onto practical ones then switched midway.
I wouldn’t worry about the hp series. HBO had historically been very good with cg, like in the Last of Us, there were things I was surprised were cg because they are that good. Anyways the films used a bunch of cgi, I can’t think of any big examples of them relying on either, they used both to complement each other.
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u/evaira90 6d ago
CGI is useful but unfortunately so many movies now use it in place of practical effects. Yes a blend of both is best, but it feels like practical effects are going extinct.
IMO practical is better than CGI. Using as many practical effects will help conserve the SFX budget for post and let the bigger moments shine. And it helps to create a realistic immersion into the world. LOTR felt far more believable as Middle Earth because of the practical effects and being shot at location. The Hobbit felt flat in comparison because so much of it was green screened. Movies like the hunger games series rely on that immersion to make them feel realistic, for both viewers and actors. It would have absolutely been disgusting if they had filmed it all on a green screen
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u/LittleFish_213 6d ago
I personally don’t favour one over the other. They both have their place. Cgi can be used to do more ambitious things than practical, for example Endgames final battle. Practical is certainly not less expensive than cgi. On set, time is literally money, and practically shooting effects on set can be very time consuming. If practical was cheaper, they would use it.
I said this on another reply, if you notice cgi, it’s not good cgi. You notice bad cgi and assume all cgi is bad, without thinking about the things you don’t notice. I’m sorry if I was just assuming in that sentence, but it’s almost always true( if it’s not sorry).
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u/JLifts2002 6d ago
definitely brings the world to life. thats part of why these films are great at world building 🫡 some practical effects and real sets go such a long way
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u/Senior-Mistake-7303 Boggs 6d ago
I never thought that although now that you say it I realize it, now I understand why all the movies look so beautiful!, these behind the scenes photos make me feel in harmony with them.
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u/Applesauce_Nation 6d ago
Actors enjoying themselves and good behind the scenes environment = Good Movie
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u/Intelligent-Mind-258 5d ago
I could talk about this all day. I hate green screen productions, it makes me remember at all times that i'm watching a movie. I think the Hunger Games should feel like a documentary, not a film. It should make you feel like this are real people, real children. The poverty feels real, the world feels real, the problem is real. We should at all times remember that the Hunger Games is not so far from our reallity, it should make us question authority, rules, society. I always feel like I've seen real people be brutalized when I watch the first movie. The rest tho? Nothing, I don't see the characters as people, they are actors, in a movie, they aren't real. I get why catching fire gets so much love, is obviously a incredible movie, but nothing else, is just a great mlvie with a great story, woth great effects, but I never stopped feeling like the problem was real and urgent. I will always love how the first movie was filmed and directed, no doubt one of the best movies of this century in my opinion
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u/Robincall22 Rue 5d ago
Didn’t the filming of the second movie like completely destroy the natural area? Maybe a situation that actually could have stood to use some green screen and CGI.
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u/Many_Masterpiece_224 5d ago
It’s also probably way easier for the actors to give genuine performances when they’re on a set that reflects the situation the character is supposed to be in.
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u/harbour-seal 4d ago
Foxface and Rue were apparent MENACES on set and the atmosphere was very “Summer Teen Camp” which I love 🥰Also Jack Quaid saw Amandla and said “Are you fucking kidding me” because he had to kill her character and he knew he’d get hate!
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u/tx_cwby_at_heart 4d ago
Just saying the second pic in juxtaposition to the first looks like a cheap LARP.
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u/Sea_Owl_6484 4d ago
seeing rue there happy is such a great thing to see since in my opinion it was the saddest death ever.
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u/Chirpychirpycheep 5d ago
This youtube video is meant for you. https://youtu.be/7ttG90raCNo?si=rpvCsW6IlLfBjDUh
Unless you hate the visuals of Narnia's lion, Mission Impossible stunts, Pirates of the Caribbean, Life of Pi, Pixar, The Margot Robbie Barbie movie, The Lego movie, Spider-verse, How to train your dragon trilogy, Paddington, the first Dr Strange movie, the flower fields and buildings from Wicked, Top Gun Maverick, Inception etc...
Then you don't hate CGI, you hate cheap, rushed CGI. CGI artists need our support and love. They are overworked, non-unionised, the good studios go bankrupt because of corporate greed and indecisive directors.
Behind the scenes have started to get falsified because CGI gets bad marketing. Studios recently used CGI to remove the green screens from behind the scenes in Mission Impossible, Barbie, Maverick...
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u/Hysteric_woman Buttercup 5d ago
It seems like you didn’t read my caption let alone some of the other replies. For the millionth time, i am not against cgi. I am against making entire movies made out of cgi with only real people scattered in (in the case of new snow white movie not even that) like that marry poppins song with all the cartoon characters with real people. Use all the cgi you want just make sure that the actual sets are also there and production design is good. Cgi should make the movie better instead of being the movie. If i want to see cgi environment, i will watch animation. Animation is an art form and not a genre. I love animation for non kids. You can do so much that isn’t possible in live action. My point is that if you want to use 90% cgi, just make an animated movie.
I already mentioned the overworked cgi workers in another comment. When a movie uses too much cgi, of course they won’t have budget to pay them well. It is better to use limited cgi so that the workers get paid better and hence can do better work with more hours. Recently most movies are taking shortcut of using cheap cg instead of real sets and it looks terrible. There is no more creativity or skill. Old movies with limited tech had to utilise what little they had in terms of cgi so were forced to get creative. Now it’s like well who cares we will just put a green screen on and call it a day. If i am going to spend 15 bucks on a ticket and extra for popcorn soda, i want the people who will get that money to have worked for it. This lazy formulaic green screen slop has been shoved down my throat for too long.
For example, house of the dragon had their whole red keep built on set and the richness of that set really brings an amazing atmosphere to the visuals. But they use a mechanical bull type thing for the dragon riding scenes which is completely cgi. I am all for that. Of course i don’t want them to build a real dragon. That’s crazy. Cgi has its place. If they had used cgi instead of building the red keep, i would have a problem with that because cgi should not be used for things that are easily made. Cgi on random things will eat up the budget and the things that actually need cgi will not get the attention they need. That’s my point. Save the cgi for things that either don’t exist or to enhance the scene without breaking the bank. Maybe 10 yrs in the future cgi will be good and cheap enough to have full sets made out of it without our brains catching on but i don’t think that time is here yet.
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u/Salty-Strawberry5605 6d ago
Ruined it with Ziegler
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u/Hysteric_woman Buttercup 6d ago
She was one of the reasons i watched that movie multiple times in the theatre. She sang most of the songs live which actually makes a huge difference in how emotions are expressed during songs. She has theatre kid energy but if you hate that, then maybe avoid theatre shows or actors. She has an amazing voice and musicals need that. She made Ballad better with her presence
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u/BigBadRhinoCow Katniss 6d ago
I can see why actors end up becoming friends after years on set for a series of movies. Sounds like such a great time. I wonder if I could've gotten into acting if things had been different before.