sweet like cinnamon | tom blyth au

18. notes on scenes

━━━ Real life ━━━

The director, Tom and Wiki were once again asked by Vanity Fair to film a promotional video for the movie. This time it was a breakdown of some scenes, the inspiration behind them and a dive into characters and their motivations.

Talking about acting was something that Wiktoria actually enjoyed and she was glad that Francis chose her alongside Tom for this interview. They already knew which scenes they were going to talk about, which meant they could prepare what they wanted to say and Wiki wouldn't have to worry she might say something wrong. Now, she was used to these events and had gained more confidence over time.

When they finally stood in front of the camera, waiting for the start of the video, she didn't even feel nervous. Although that might be because before this Tom was joking around with everyone on the set and made her laugh so much that she even cried from it. But, overall, she was feeling great and ready to talk about her favourite thing in the world. Films.

The cameraman screamed "Action!" and with that the interview started. First were their introductions.

"Hello! I'm Francis Lawrence! I'm the director of The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes."

"I'm Tom Blyth and I play Coriolanus Snow."

"I'm Wiktoria Zima and I play Rowan Morris."

"And this is 'Notes on a Scene'!"

"Today I am joined by the actors that represent two worlds of Hunger Games, Tom, a Capitol kid and Wiktoria, whose character is from the district." Francis said, pointing at them and explaining why they were present for the video.

Next one to speak was Tom. "First scene is from the screening room of the 10th Hunger Games. Where the mentors watch how their tributes perform in the arena."

On the screen in front of them they played the video from the film showing exactly the moment they are talking about.

"This is happening way back before the original trilogy so everything needed to be much more rudimentary. We wanted to show that this was just the beginning so the arena is different, tributes aren't prepared for the battle."

"Also, this is probably very crucial moment in the history," Tom emphasised.

"The Hunger Games weren't popular. They were supposed to die out and we have Snow who voluntarily makes the plan to change it, not considering what it would actually mean. Then, he is forced to face it, because he suddenly cares for Lucy Gray." He added.

"In terms of the set design, we looked at brutalism, the reconstruction era of Berlin as the idea for the city of The Capitol of Panem in general. We looked at the '40s and '50s for technology and some of the aesthetics like hair, makeup, styling. You can clearly see how it influenced the film." Francis circled parts of the set on the screen , highlighting what he said.

"I think it's also worth mentioning that almost everything we can see is practical. Like the screens, the entire room actually and I think the viewer can feel it because it does not only creates the atmosphere on film but also for the actors on set." Wiki joined the conversation, although she wasn't in this particular scene she still knew that this attention to detail helps actors to stay in the role.

"Exactly!" Francis exclaimed, happy she pointed it out. "We were so lucky we could film in actual, real-life places and it did pay off, because it transfers through the screen."

After that, they moved on to the next video. This one was Wiki's second major scene with Tom. Before they started speaking about it, they played it on the screen.