The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 (2014)

Throughout the film, the main character has a pet cat, who is seen performing such mild action as sitting/standing/lying, being held or petted, and walking/running on or off leash. For all of these scenes, trainers used hand signals and verbal commands to cue the mild action, which the trained dog was accustomed to performing. The barking/growling was also a trained behavior.

In the scene where the dog is sifting through rubble in a war torn area, trainers placed pieces of food around the area. On action, the dog would sniff around the area for the food, making it look as if he’s rummaging among dead bodies. Trainers and the AHA Rep checked the area for anything harmful, and the smoke effects were kept far away from the animal.

In the scene where the actress picks up a cat from the kitchen sink and places it in a knapsack, the cat rehearsed this scene several times before filming. Also production placed a plastic liner at the bottom of the bag to make sure the bag jutted out enough to fit the cat. In the same scene when the cat enters the house through a broken window, the window was made of sugar glass, which was too soft to harm the cat.

In the scene where the actress visits the wounded and dying in a makeshift hospital and we see flies hovering over the wounded, the trainer placed newly hatched flies on actors’ bodies. Just before action he also opened a container housing flies. They were all retrieved after filming.

In the scene where we see the elk drinking from the pond, production enclosed a natural area with panels and gates to keep the elk in the same spot. Trainers also placed food near the lake to keep the elk in place.

In the scene where the stronghold is under attack and everyone evacuates to the safety of the bomb shelter, we see the actress running down a metal staircase holding her cat. While she is running downstairs past a crowd of people, alarm bells seem to be going off, and water from a sprinkler system is raining down on them. When she is running with the cat, the water from the sprinkler system was heated to 100 degrees, and they did limited takes, with the cat dried off between shots. Trainers instructed the actress on how to hold the cat during the scene.

In the bomb shelter scene we see the walls rattling and hear bombs overhead, these noises were added in post-production, therefore the cat was never privy to this cacophonous atmosphere. When we see the actress shining the light against the wall and the cat trying to catch the light beam, trainers shined the flashlight against the wall, and they filmed the cat playing. The area was checked for safety measures beforehand.

The birds scene near a rocky riverbed were CGI.