Main Crew

Director Francis Lawrence

Producers- Nina Jacobson

- Jon Kilik

Screenplay- Peter Craig

- Danny Strong

Composer James Newton Howard

Production company Color Force

Distribution company Lionsgate Films

Key Facts

Release date- Berlin // November 4th 2015

- US // November 20th 2015

Budget $160 million

Box Office $653.4 million

Main Cast

Actor/Actress Character

Jennifer Lawrence Katniss Everdeen

Josh Hutcherson Peeta Mellark

Liam Hemsworth Gale Hawthorne

Woody Harrelson Haymitch Abernathy

Elizabeth Banks Effie Trinket

nformation

The issues raised by media ownership in

contemporary media practiceThe Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 was produced by just one company, Color Force. Color force is

an American film studio founded in 2007 by producer Nina Jacobson that have produced 9 feature

films that all have been based on novels, 2 feature films with original stories, and 11 television

episodes from the series The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story.

Color Force were involved with the production of all 3 of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid films and they are

currently producing the 4th. These films collectively received $225,230,068 at box office, proving that

they were very successful as it had a large audience; this meant that people expected Mockingjay Part

2 to be just as good as the Diary of a Wimpy Kid film series as the same production company was

involved. Also, Color Force were involved in the production of the 3 previous hunger Games films in

the series; these films were also incredibly popular and received a total of $2,309,443,714. Due to the

consistency in production companies involved with this series and the popularity and success of the

previous films, the audience expected this film in to be equally good.

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 was distributed by just one company also, Lionsgate Films.

Lionsgate Films is an American film production/distribution studio founded in 1962 by businessman

Frank Giustra that have produced or distributed 10 feature films. These films include the previous 3

successful Hunger Games films, Divergent (2014), The Divergent Series: Insurgent (2015) and Now

You See Me (2013). Due to the massive success of these films, people expected Mockingjay Part 2 to be

equally good as the same distribution company is involved.

After evaluating the figures and success of the films produced by the same production and

distribution companies, it can be concluded that media ownership has a large effect on the success of a

film.

The importance of cross media

convergence and synergy in production,

distribution and marketingColor Force, Lionsgate and Studio Babelsburg were the production companies, Studio

Babelsburg being a co-production company. These companies are rather large individually

from different parts of the world (America, Canada and Germany). Because these companies

were large, it allowed them to gain a large budget.

The film was distributed by Lionsgate (in the UK and the US) and other companies were used

for other countries. Due to Lionsgate being main company involved with the film, a lot of

interest was created as they are known for films such as the previous films in the Hunger

Games series. Lionsgate own a few companies, such as Summit Entertainment, but not

enough to make it a conglomerate. As Lionsgate is a large company, and with a budget of $160

million, they were able to do quite a lot with the film. As the series is based on the book series

of the same name by Suzanne Colins, it was decided that both parts should be filmed

simultaneously, although part 2 had a larger budget than part 1, which was bound to happen

as a lot more effects are needed to support the imagery created in the book.

Because of the recent release of The Divergent Series: Insurgent, Lionsgate was able to show

the teaser trailer for Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 at the screenings. However, Color

Force has only been involved with a small amount of films, most popularly the previous

Hunger Games films and the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series.

Including The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2, Studio Babelsburg have been in association

or a co-production company with many films.

These different companies allowed the film to gain popularity in different countries and grow

an audience in as many countries as they can.

The technologies that have been

introduced in the recent years at the

levels of production & distributionMany modern types of technology were utilised at many stages of the film production process

of Mockingjay Part 2; these types of technology that have been introduced over the past few

years were used to ensure that the film was up to date and meets what the audience expects to

see from a multimillion dollar budgeted blockbuster.

During the production stage the film, several different types of modern technology were

utilised. One of these technologies were the 4K cameras that were used to record the film; this

method of capturing footage has been introduced only recently and allow for a much higher

quality of video capturing. Rather than using a digital storage format, Francis Lawrence

decided to use film to record and store the film.

The company that distributed Mockingjay Part 2 was Lionsgate Films; due to this distribution

company being exceedingly popular and experienced, the film was made available to the public

using many different formats. Each of these modern formats are available to purchase because

of recent technology allowing distributing companies to store larger film files on discs (BluRay

discs), meaning that they can be sold at higher definitions and resolutions. Also, the higher

definition allows people to have a more immersive home cinema experience using modern

surround sound speaker technology; this decreased the amount of people that went to the

cinema to watch the film as they have a similar setup at home.

The significance of proliferation in

hardware & content for institutions &

audiencesThe Hunger games: Mockingjay Part 2 was available in many formats in cinemas, these

include:

• IMAX

• IMAX 3D

• 2D

• 3D

Mockingjay Part 2 was filmed on 35mm film but could only be viewed in this intended format

in very few cinemas in a small amount of different countries across the world, mainly the

United Kingdom and the United States.

In terms of domestic availability, many formats were used to alow the audience to purchase,

stream or download the film to watch at home. These formats include:

• 2D DVD

• 3D DVD

• 2D BluRay

• 3D BluRay

• Netflix

• Sky Demand

These formats and platforms allowed the audience to access the film rather easily. However,

they also encouraged piracy and illegal downloads or streams..

The importance of technological

convergence for institutions & audiencesMany different technologies were used during the production process of Mockingjay Part 2;

these were either older or more recent technologies. This convergence of technologies was most

significantly used during the marketing stage of the film production process.

The issues raised in the targeting of

national and local audiences

(specifically, British) by international

or global institutionsAs the companies involved were from different countries, this allowed them to easily access all

different types of audiences from all across the world. Also, due to the books series being

American, it was clear that America would be a large part of the film’s audience.

However, some countries disagreed with the types of marketing campaigns used to attract

attention to the film, these countries include:

• Israel – A poster with Katniss aiming her bow and arrow was removed as it was thought

that it would offend the ultra-conservative Jewish audience. For this poster, a fiery

Mockingjay replaced Katniss. However, Lionsgate had no comment on this difference in

marketing.

• Jerusalem – Posters that mostly present females were often torn down.

• The city of Bnei Brak – Does not allow females to be on posters.

The ways in which the candidates’ own

experiences of media consumption

illustrate wider patterns & trends of

audience behaviourAs Mockingjay Part 2 is the final film in the series, and having kept up with the previous

films, not long after the DVD release, I had watched it. As much as watching in cinema would

have been a better first watching, no one really wanted to see it. So I didn’t mind waiting for

the DVD release (and it would be re-watchable). As far as their marketing campaigns go, for

the series, I had seen the most of this one. I remembered seeing the poster of Katniss on the

public bus every day and seeing the TV Spots quite a lot during or between TV programs.

Thanks