An Ultimate Hunger Games Fan's Trip to the 'Mockingjay Part 1' Premiere

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to win one of those amazing contests where you get flown to the Mockingjay Part 1 premiere in Los Angeles? Seems like it's a fairy tale that just happes to OTHER people, doesn't it? Well, our follower Kelsi was one of the 5 lucky winners of Samsung's #UltimateMockingjayFan contest, and she is going to tell you all about the experience here. 

 

Hello Tributes! My name is Kelsi, and on October 30th I received a very exciting tweet from @SamsungMobileUS regarding their Twitter “Ultimate #MockingjayFan” contest. I submitted a tweet to them showing that I am an ultimate fan because I love everything related to Hunger Games - evidenced here by my random cosplaying as Katniss, complete with a bow and arrow:

Kelsi's winning tweet image

So when Samsung tweeted me that they loved my submission and were sending me to the Mockingjay: Part 1 premiere, I was ecstatic! So began the processes of selecting someone to accompany me as my guest (my friend Stefan), packing, picking outfits that were red carpet ready, etc. I had to fill out paperwork and send it to Samsung right away, and then waited (not so patiently) for more information to trickle in from them.

Finally, the big weekend arrived! My friend Stefan and I headed out to begin our adventure. On Saturday November 15, we boarded our plane at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport to fly in to LAX. An hour and 15 minutes later, we landed in Los Angeles!

Hopped off the plane at LAX....

Samsung had arranged for a driver (!!) to pick us up from the airport and take us to our hotel, the JW Marriott at L.A. Live. Our driver, Sydney, waited for us at baggage claim and then loaded us into the vehicle, and was an absolute joy to be around. She is definitely my favorite driver now ;)

Kelsi and her driver, Sydney.

We checked into our hotel and went out to eat with some of the other Samsung VIP winners at the Yard House, a restaurant next door, and had a lovely time getting to know one another and discussing what was to come!

When Sunday rolled around, we had the day free to ourselves and had to decide what to do. We had never really been let loose in LA before, so we knew we had to come up with something great. First, we met up with the other Samsung winners, fans, and Molly, Dan, and Angie from PanemPropaganda at Starbucks. 

Here's the whole crew at Starbucks

While standing outside of Starbucks planning the rest of the day's adventure, we randomly met a Hunger Games fan who flew in from Michigan in hopes of getting a wristband to attend the premiere. We took Samantha under our wing and decided to go out on the town. Thanks to a helpful concierge at the Marriott, we discovered that we could take the subway to the Hollywood Walk of Fame. None of us had ever been on a subway nor to the Walk of Fame before, so of course we had to go!

We even saw the “Hollywood” sign in the distance and took pictures with it!

Finally, it was Monday – premiere day! We relaxed in the morning, enjoying the rooftop pool at the Marriott and preparing ourselves for the big day. We explored the area, saw the HUGE line of Mockingjay fans waiting for wristbands for the premiere, and scoped out the set-up of the red carpet (which was white, rather than red) and the after-party tent (which we could see from our hotel window). Check out the party tent below. You can also see the massive wristband line of fans behind the tent, in front of the stairs. 

The after-party tent

At 4:15 pm, Mockingjay Premiere time had finally arrived. We met up with our Samsung rep and were led to our spot on the white carpet. The carpet was gorgeous and the set up was very Capitol-esque, complete with Peacekeepers!
 

The "Samsung Galaxy District" (our VIP red carpet area) was near the beginning of the carpet and was considered a “selfie” zone by Samsung, so the stars that stopped by were expected to stop and take selfies with the fans! We even had a Samsung rep dressed like an Avox who was our “star wrangler,” making sure that stars stopped by to see us!

Kelsi, Stefan and their Samsung "star wrangler"

Then the stars began showing up!

We took some incredible selfies with them as well as getting their autographs!

 

All the stars looked fabulous and it was such an honor to be there. The stars were all so kind, taking selfies and spending time talking with us while they signed autographs for us. Many of the fans from the huge wristband line got to go on the red carpet too!

Then it was time for the movie – which I will not spoil for anyone but will admit that it was phenomenal. I was utterly blown away! I knew it would be good but I was genuinely impressed with just how good it was.

So, that was my Mockingjay: Part 1 premiere experience. I hope you have all enjoyed reading about it and seeing the pictures I had to share. I would like to thank Molly for running this site so beautifully and for meeting up with me at the premiere (You're welcome! *HUGS*). It was such a wonderful time. I look forward to trying to attend next year, and I hope to see all of you there!

Thanks to Kelsi Lynelle for sharing her incredible Mockingjay Part 1 premiere experience with us. We had so much fun getting to know her that she's going to be a contributor to our site! You can follow her on twitter at 

@KelsilouWho and instagram at @kelsilouwho.

Natalie Dormer in Flare and Nylon Magazines

Natalie Dormer is the December cover star of Flare Magazine and also has a great feature in Dec/Jan Nylon Magazine.

Natalie from Nylon Magazine

She talks a bit about The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 in each interview.

Here's Natalie on her relief in wearing combat boots in the film, THE haircut, and whether or not she'd win The Hunger Games.

From Flare Magazine:

Dormer recalls taping her Mocking­jay audition on her fiancé’s Canon 7D camera. “I impersonated him a bit, since he’s a director!” Did he give her any advice? “He’s good at telling me, ‘That was sh-t, do it again!’ He’s very honest.”

Mockingjay’s director, Francis Lawrence, once tested Dormer for an NBC pilot, and remembered her ever after, he tells me later, over the phone from Los Angeles. “Natalie’s got a very strong presence and an amazing look. Having her take on the role of Cressida instantly created the character of Cressida.” The word strong comes up often in conversations about Dormer: Sam Claflin, who plays The Hunger Games’ Finnick and who worked with Dormer on The Riot Club, the British frat-boy thriller and 2014 Toronto International Film Festival favourite, just prior to her joining Mockingjay, recalls meeting her for the first time: “She was completely open and incredibly strong,” he says. “She walked into a room full of boys who knew each other inside out, but she immediately settled in and held her own.”

From Nylon:

Cressida, however, marks an entirely new direction. As Dormer points out proudly, “She’s a woman who’s not defined by any romance; she’s defined by her job. That’s her raison d’être.” Shaving off half of her hair to play the role of the ambitious filmmaker who first follows Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) out of professional interest, then transforms into a believer, was an especially nervy stunt. “There were one too many polar vortexes in New York for this kind of haircut, but I enjoyed doing it. That’s a fun part of this job. You get taken out of your comfort zone physically, geographically, whatever.” She also had her head inked regularly and waded through “neck-deep waters with semi-automatic rifles,” though audiences won’t see these soggy battles until Mockingjay - Part 2.

“What Jen [Lawrence] went through recently was just horrific,” says Dormer. “And I don’t think there’s any level of fame that can justify that kind of invasion into privacy, not to mention laws being broken. I mean, people just need to get a grip if they think that’s even halfway acceptable.”

Natalie for Nylon. Click for full size

Liam Hemsworth for Men's Fitness

Liam Hemsworth by Peter Yang. Click to enlarge Liam Hemsworth is Men's Fitness Magazine's December cover boy. Inside the issue Liam talks about growing up surfing on a small island outside Melbourne, Australia, and his new life as one of the stars of The Hunger Games Franchise. The photos by Peter Yang are pretty stunning too. 

Click images for full size

"In the first two movies I'm her at-home love interset," Liam says of his character Gale's relationship to Katniss in The Hunger Games films. "The stay-at-home 'dad' looking after things when she's gone." In the last two films, Hemsworth is excited to finally inhabit the role of action hero, "I have a lot of tactical stuff and fighting sequences."

You can read the whole article by downloading the Men's Fitness app for iPhone and iPad or by grabbing the issue  - it's on newsstands now! 

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire - A Bad Lip Reading

Hooray! The folks at Bad Lip Reading got us a present for Thanksgiving - A Bad Lip Reading of Catching Fire and a bonus video of The Obsidiots (Katniss and Peeta's new band) playing their first gig. This is the perfect antidote to all the Everlark pain we went through watching Mockingjay Part 1 (even though we loved every minute of it). Enjoy:

New-ish Mockingjay Part 1 Image of Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen

The Capitol Couture Tumblr account posted a cool, new-ish poster type  image of Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen! We say new-ISH because this is a doctored up version of the Empire Magazine cover.

And it was also used as the invitation for the Mockingjay Part 1 premiere in Los Angeles! 

Click to enlarge

Adapting Mockingjay From Page to Screen: Francis Lawrence, Nina Jacobson and Peter Craig Talk to BuzzFeed

Francis Lawrence and Suzanne Collins at the Mockingjay Part 1 premiere in Los Angleles

Adam Vary at Buzzfeed News has a series of fantastic articles up in which he interviews director Francis Lawrence, producer Nina Jacobson and screenwriter Peter Craig about adapting Mockingjay from the novel to the screen with help from author Suzanne Collins. These are definitely MUST-READ for the Hunger Games fan - filled with really interesting information about the choices they made and the process they went through with Suzanne Collins to adapt the book. *MAJOR SPOILERS* for Mockingjay the book and both films in this article and the Buzzfeed pieces. Proceed with caution. 

Producers Jon Kilik, Nina Jacobson, author Suzanne Collins and screenwriter Peter CraigWe are going to post a few of our favorite bits here, but suggest you read both (Part 1 and Part 2) in their entirety over at Buzzfeed. 

Suzanne Collins was instrumental to all of the changes made:

In order to separate that story into two distinct films while remaining faithful to the book, the filmmakers turned to Collins, who created separate outlines delineating the major character arcs and story beats for each half of her novel, helping the filmmakers find the central organizing principles of each of the two films. (Collins received a rare “adaptation by” screen credit on the film for her efforts.)

“We felt that the first movie would focus on the propaganda war, and getting Peeta back,” said [Nina] Jacobson. “The second movie [was] about all-out war, and taking Snow out. … Those big ideas were very much informed by Suzanne’s approach to how we would split the book into two movies.”

Katniss was made more active in the film:

Katniss spends long stretches of Mockingjay facing inward, ruminating over her plight far more than she participates in the main action of the plot.

“The rebellion that’s going on — Katniss is hearing about it and thinking about it, as opposed to us being able to go out into the districts to see it,” said Lawrence. “So turning a very internal half of a book into something more visual and cinematic, I think, was probably the biggest challenge, and something that Peter and Suzanne and Nina and I really worked on.”

Or, as Jacobson put it, “How do you have an active hero who’s not just shaking off the effects of war?”

One solution was simply to give Katniss more to do. “We did find places for her to be courageous,” said Craig, “and also stay true to Suzanne’s wish that she be very [affected by] PTSD, and she’s not somebody that anything is coming easily for anymore.”

Read more about depicting the rebellion in Panem, bringing Effie back into the fold, softening President Coin and District 13…for now, creating Peeta’s rescue mission, and choosing the ending HERE.

Read more about how a big change In “Mockingjay – Part 1” will affect “Part 2” HERE.  

Exclusive Katniss Poster With Target's 'Mockingjay Part 1' Blu-Ray Pack Pre-Order

There's a beautiful, exclusive Katniss poster bundled with the pre-order of Target's Mockingjay Part 1 Blu-ray/DVD/Digital combo pack, now available at Target.com. 

 

The copy says this is a FABRIC poster, so we assume it's similar in size and quality to the Catching Fire fabric poster they gave away with that combo pack last year. 

Details:

Get an exclusive fabric poster with pre-order of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 Exclusive 3-Disc Deluxe Edition 

3-Disc Deluxe Edition on Blu-ray + DVD+ Digital HD includes an exclusive BONUS DISC with 45 MINUTES of features not available anywhere else.

Pre-order at Target.com

"The Hanging Tree" Featuring Jennifer Lawrence's Vocals is Topping International Charts

The Mockingjay Part 1 Soundtrack? Sorry, meh. We're in love with James Newton Howard's gorgeous score for Mockingjay Part 1. And even though Jennifer Lawrence says her voice sounds like "a tone-deaf Amy Winehouse," clearly most of the world does NOT agree. Her rendition of The Hanging Tree, with melody by The Lumineers is already topping the international charts.

At press time (on iTunes)  it was #4 in the US, #15 in the UK and #1 in a bunch of countries: Brazil, Poland, Philippines, Indonesia, Czech Republic, Vietnam. It's currently #10 on Amazon's chart - ahead of Yellow Flicker Beat - and #6 on GooglePlay. 

Let's get this baby to #1 worldwide! Wouldn't Jennifer's reaction to having a #1 hit be priceless??

gif by http://toasteed.tumblr.com/

You can purchase "The Hanging Tree" on

itunes

Amazon

GooglePlay 

Here's the latest Mockingjay Part 1 TV Spot featuring "The Hanging Tree"