Guest Post: ‘A New Map of Panem’ by Mark Windsor

October 17, 2012 by 10 Comments

Recently, we had a wonderful message from Mark Windsor regarding his theoretical Panem map. We are now delighted to present his complete map, along with a very careful breakdown of why he positions which districts in which spots. We hope you will enjoy Mark’s super analysis and graphics and that you you will join in our conversation to support, add to, or contradict his conclusions! Thank you so much, Mark. If President Snow needs a secretary of Geography, the odds are really in your favor!

A New Map of Panem by Mark Windsor

Not long ago, I encountered a map of Panem that someone had created based on reading of the Hunger Games trilogy. My first time through the series, I hadn’t thought too much about what Panem actually looked like. You can compare what appears below with what inspired the attempt. If you scroll down on the link above, you’ll see a list of “what we know”. There are a few things on that list that seemed a bit off track. I thought, “Well, this might be fun.” And thus a new project was born – Why not create a map of Panem? [Read more…]

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Follow up Interview with Hunger Games Makeup Magician Conor McCullough

May 22, 2012 by 1 Comment

Last year, we did an interview with the delightful Conor McCullough, the amazing make-up artist who won SyFy Channel’s first season of Face-Off and worked on The Hunger Games film. Though Conor did tell us a great deal about his work on the movie, he also had to keep a few secrets until its release. Recently, I had the pleasure of a follow-up interview in which Conor shared more about his work, including the fact that he is the true master of “frosting” who did Peeta’s camouflage. Join me after the jump to learn more about Conor’s wonderful work and the challenges of filming!
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Lionsgate Hunger Games Film A Satisfactory Movie Experience; Cinema Treatment Leaves Serious Readers Hungry for More

March 24, 2012 by 8 Comments

Two years ago, I read The Hunger Games for the first time and decided I would start using the novel as part of my Expository Writing courses at Mayland Community College. On March 23, I had the great pleasure of seeing the film adaptation of the novel on opening day in the company of my students and colleagues at a special showing at the great old Yancey Theater in Burnsville, NC, just up the road from where large portions of the movie were filmed. Though I took notes the whole time, much to the amusement of my students (who laughed at the dandelions in my braid, too), I won’t share all of my many thoughts on the movie, though there will be spoilers for non-readers (Not many of those here, anyway, I imagine!). Join me after the jump to see what aspects of the film I (and my fellow MCC readers) found most satisfactory, and what left us feeling unsatisfied. [Read more…]

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Ladies and Gentlemen, Let the Countdown of Blogs begin!

March 1, 2012 by 1 Comment

Since we are now only 23 days away from the official launch of The Hunger Games film, we are going to be featuring some of our favorite posts about the novels and the preparations for this movie. There is also plenty of news buzzing about, so maybe we’ll get to talk about some of that, too. (Yes, I do have a few things to say about the Glamour magazine photo shoot of Jennifer Lawrence. I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve said “Did you people even read this book?”) For starters, let’s just jump straight to the Cornucopia bloodbath. Here is a run-down of our first Hunger Games posts from 2010. Though we never did get some of the answers we were all hoping for back then, the analysis and insights here are still relevant. So, just in case you missed them the first time or would like to catch the re-runs, here is our first round up of posts on The Hunger Games. Watch for more as March 23 draws closer, and let us know if there are favorites you’d like to see!

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The Sounds of District 12 (and the Capitol, too)

February 19, 2012 by 11 Comments

It’s been an exciting week for Hunger Games movie news. New images are appearing, and merchandising, most of which makes my skin crawl, is really going wild. But for me, the big news revolves around music. From Grammy shout-outs to the release of the first official video and two more songs from the soundtrack (as well as the complete official soundtrack list), this week may not make the mockingjays fall silent, but it has provided some very interesting food (er, music?) for thought. Join me after the jump for some thoughts on these very intriguing musical developments and what the The Hunger Games has to do with the loss of one very beautiful voice. [Read more…]

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