Hunger Games: Mockingjay "The Hanging Tree", The

Thanks so much for taking the time to write a review aztek463. Send me a PM if you don't see the links for the 5GB version of this edit or my Matrix edit. I don't believe there are any quality issues in those copies. If you have a Vimeo downconverted copy you're bound to get some quality problems.

I'm glad you thought the beginning was powerful, that was the most complex editing work I had to do for this project. Removing Katniss singing "The Hanging Tree" and rescoring the track so that I could still use the song in the dam scene was very tricky and that it why I called the edit "The Hanging Tree"

I miss the scene with Finnick detailing his treatment by the Capitol as well, but including it just wasn't necessary and almost forces the edit to include the rescue of the victors which is one of the worst scenes in the films and completely ruins the pacing.

Thanks so much for writing a review, I'm glad you enjoyed the edit and it means a lot that you took the time to do so.

Regarding your concerns about the edit. You're right that I did move the first Peeta 'propo' scene to a bit later in the film, but I disagree that it harms the film's narrative. In the scene with Finnick and Katniss, Finnick clearly states that the Capitol has taken Peeta, Johanna, and Annie captive. We see Katniss' dreams are haunted by the memory of Peeta so it is no surprise that she makes his rescue a condition of becoming the Mockingjay.

As for the reason that Katniss decides to become the Mockingjay, she makes the decision immediately after visiting District 12 and seeing the incinerated corpses of everyone she used to know. To me this was more powerful than the combination of District 12 and Peeta's questionable distress at the time of his first 'propo'.

Lastly I agree that the amount of time that Peeta was 'hijacked' seems short. I actually felt the same way when I watched the original film and was interested in finding out exactly how long the Capitol had abducted him. Surprisingly it turned out that it was only 2 months. This is why the edit begins with 2 months earlier...District 13, to give the viewer the sense of the correct amount of time passage that you mentioned.

Thanks again for watching and showing others!

Thanks for taking the time to write a review, I'm glad you enjoyed it so much! In regards to the attack on the damn sequence, the entire section where Katniss travels back to District 12 and then to the outskirts of the town where she begins to sing "The Hanging Tree" song was a real slog that was cut from my edit entirely. There wasn't really a way to insert the dam sequence without some sort of musical buildup. (I invented one from the existing score to begin the film) It's true that I could have inserted the singing scene after the visit to District 8 but it would have both been a very ugly edit and a radical shift to the tone of the film. The other option would have been to cut the dam attack from the film completely but I personally think it works as a more exciting start to the film.