Let's Analyze The Latest Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes Set Video

We got a sweet little gift the other day in the form of some video from The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes film set in Germany (thanks to @miha_berlin). So let’s over-analyze the video together, shall we?! 

This was filmed at the Altes Museum in Berlin. We can see from the golden plaque that they’re using this location for Heavensbee Hall at The Academy.

The biggest thing that stood out to me was the Academy students/mentor uniforms. In the book on Reaping day the mentors are wearing their own clothing, not their uniforms - Tigris remakes an old shirt of Coriolanus’ father for him to wear, and he gets a little jealous of Sejanus’ fine suit. So, either this sequence is not reaping day OR they’re shooting exteriors of people entering the hall on reaping day and we can’t see any mentors in this shot. Maybe they’re filming this scene where Coriolanus enters The Academy on reaping day:

“The grand staircase up to the Academy could hold the entire student body, so it easily accommodated the stream of officials, professors, and students headed for the reaping day festivities.”

The Academy uniforms for the film consist of a crimson jacket and pants, with a kilt-like skirt over top. The skirt looks like a combo of a kilt, a Roman battle skirt, a spartan solider’s uniform and a Greek fustanella. They’re also really leaning into the color red. Red was often used by ancient Greeks and Romans to signify wealth and prestige, and also to honor Mars the god of war. I’m sure costume designer Trish Summerville has interesting stories behind her choices and I can’t wait to find out the details.

You can see some ladies at the top of the stairs in vintage clothing, and a tiny peek of ladies in vintage at the bottom of the screen near the plants. Could they be parents? Or maybe teachers/professors?

It appears that Francis Lawrence makes a little cameo but I can’t be 100% sure it’s him. What do you think? Maybe they’re about to film Tom as Coriolanus running up the stairs of Heavensbee Hall for the reaping. IS TOM DOWN THERE WITH YOU, FRANCIS?? 

There’s an AM logo on the entry doors, along with a visitors sign. At first I though it must be a logo for The Academy! But it could also be a logo for the Altes Museum though I couldn’t find that particular logo anywhere on their website or social media. And you wouldn’t think they’d leave it visible in the scene if it wasn’t intentional. We’ll have to wait and see! 

This concludes our obsessive deep dive into The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes set video. What did I miss?? Leave your thoughts in the comments. 

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes will debut in theaters November 17, 2023. 

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