Twilight: Director's Notebook: The Story of How We Made the Movie Based on the Novel by Stephenie Meyer (Hardcover)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

Praise for the film Twilight:
"Epic! Sexy, stylish and altogether the coolest movie of the year"
- Shawn Edwards, Fox TV

". . . getting Catherine Hardwicke to direct Twilight was a shrewd move, because the youthquake specialists of Thirteen treats teen confusion without a trace of condensation. . . .She has reconjured Meyer's novel as a cloudburst mood piece filled with stormy skies, rippling hormones, and understated visual effects."
- Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly

"Hardwicke has connected so intensely to the Meyer novel that it's hard to imagine anyone else making a better version."
- Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times

Book Description

The Story of How We Made the Movie based on the novel by Stephenie Meyer!

In this intimate book, readers will follow visionary director Catherine Hardwicke through the creative process that went into transforming Stephenie Meyer’s breathtaking novel into box office gold. Designed to replicate the director’s own personal notebook that she kept on set, readers will discover the inside secrets on wardrobe, storyboard sketches, behind-the- scenes photographs, personal notes about Catherine’s favorite scenes, and much more.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Young Adult
  
• Hardcover: 176 pages
• Publisher: Little, Brown Young Readers; 1ST edition (March 17, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316070521
• ISBN-13: 978-0316070522
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (129 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,956 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

44 of 51 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Twilighters will love it!, March 17, 2009

By	Holly Thatcher (Apple Valley, MN USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I'm still giving this 5 stars, but there were a few things that I found a tiny bit disappointing...

1. The book is 163 pages, but there is not much text and the pages are small. It took me less than and hour to read it from cover to cover.

2. The book is written in Catherine's handwriting which can be hard to read sometimes.

3. I thought the book could have covered the topics more in depth. I thought the chapters about how they shot various scenes were interesting, but they made me wish I could ask her questions (and get the answers!). There were so many more things I wanted to know about how and why she made different decisions in shooting the movie.

Despite those 3 things, I still thought the book was really interesting and fun to read. I saw the movie twice in the theaters and this book made me excited for the DVD release (especially the bonus material). I realized after reading the Director's Notebook there were lots of little details from the movie I had missed. Here's one example: After the nomad vampires kill the security guard they wear his clothes, James wears his jacket and Victoria wears his "Kiss me, I'm Irish" t-shirt. I never noticed that before.

This book also made me realize how difficult it is to a translate a book into a film and how budget constraints can really limit a director's vision. I feel sad that it didn't work out for Catherine to do New Moon because you can tell how much she loves Twilight and put everything she had into this movie.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Like seriously, don't waste your time!", May 30, 2009

By	K. Carothers "TwilightersAnonymous Staff" (Reisterstown, MD) - See all my reviews

The Tuesday this book was released, I walked through the door of my local mall. I was on a mission. I had been anticipating going on this outing ever since I had read the news it was being released. I had marked this day down in my calendar, and crossed off the days until the day finally had arrived. It was something to keep me occupied until my Twilight DVD arrived!

As I turned the corner and walked down a small set of stairs, I looked at the "dazzling" display window of the bookstore. There it was: the "Twilight Director's Notebook". Fresh out of the box, hot off the press, waiting for someone to pick it up and read it was the very item that had motivated me to go to the mall that day. Once inside the store, I grabbed a copy out of one of the multiple rows of the books, making sure none of the corners of the hardback book were messed up (oh come on, you know you do it too!), and that no one had opened this book before me. I walked to the cash register, bought the book, (I was the first to purchase it that day) and then rushed home. (Seriously, I'm not sure Edward himself would have been able to out-run me!)

As soon as I got through the front door, I tore the bag off of my new purchase and sat down to enjoy the book. About 30 minutes later, I had examined every single page, and read every single detail on each page. And now, I'd like to share with you my thoughts on the "Twilight Director's Notebook".

If you had a chance to look over the Entertainment Weekly scans, it's like a miniature scrapbook. Each page is jam-packed with notes and photographs, scans, and various graphics. The book itself is divided into 13 different sections (14 if you include the credits...but really, does anyone pay attention to those?) These sections include an introduction by Catherine Hardwicke, inspiration for the movie, character development, planning the scene, the van crash, the meadow, the tree tops, the baseball game, music, visual effects, misery, and twilight mania.

So far so good, right? Wrong. OK, I had high hopes for this book, I really did. But after looking through it, I have to say: I was really disappointed. I mean, for $13 I wasn't expecting it to be the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the year, but I was expecting a lot more than what I got. Sure, there's a bunch of neat facts in the book that we haven't heard or read in interviews with the cast or Catherine before, but there's also a lot of material that I myself have already heard or read. It left me wanting more, a lot more.

First, let's talk about the physical size of the book. The book itself is about 8" tall and 5" wide. It's really great for us Twilighters who love to carry our Twilight books in our purses and backpacks (and pockets? seriously...this book is small!). But for those of us who would like to have decent eyesight after we've read this book, the sizing is not the most practical choice here. When I lifted my head out of the book, I was practically cross-eyed. Most of the text is very hard to read.

Next, did we really need an entire section on filming...in the treetops? Catherine, I love your enthusiasm and passion for bringing the Twilight fans what we want, but treetops? I appreciate how much time and energy went into creating those scenes for the movie, but let's be honest here: did Edward ever take Bella up into the trees in the book for a pivotal "someday all of this will be yours" scene? No...he did not. So why are we covering it? I would have much preferred to read about the biology scene, one of my personal favorite scenes from the movie. But there's nothing in this book about it. Not even a reason behind why a stuffed Hedwig-lookalike from "Harry Potter" appears in the background of the scene, nothing!

Another section I could have done without: Twilight Mania. Yes, I'm sure most of you have a thought bubble with just a large question mark above your head right now, but stay with me. This section is literally two pages long. Seriously...why bother? Yes, it's a thank you to the fans for sticking with the series and making the movie such a success. But why bother when I could have more facts about the movie instead? A simple "hey fans- thanks for sticking with the series and making the movie such a success" would suffice. There! I did it in one sentence! Those 2 pages weren't even necessary!

In addition to the things I could do without, there were things I wanted more of. I would love to have read more behind-the-scenes stories, little anecdotes, inside jokes, anything. Basically, I would have loved to have read more words. The book relies heavily on visuals such as photographs, watercolors (all of the characters have paintings for make-up references, costume references, etc.) sketches of Catherine's, and even some pages from the script itself. I found it pretty disappointing to find that the entire book was laid out in this format, because it seriously was lacking in those anecdotes and other things I was craving.

So in conclusion, if you were to ask me whether you should run out and buy this book yourself, I would say no. Go to the bookstore and skim through it, then put it back on the shelf. I think your money is better spent on "Twilight: The Complete Illustrated Movie Companion". In the words of Jessica Stanley, when it comes to buying this book "like seriously, don't waste your time."

I am on staff at www.TwilightersAnonymous.com, the best and most comprehensive Twilight community around; for those of us who are truly addicted to Twilight. If you don't want a cure, come join us!

23 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Another ripoff, March 18, 2009

By	internetjunkie495 (Western NY) - See all my reviews

Unfortunately I had to give this 1 star - it doesn't deserve that.

I saw this in the bookstores and am glad I didn't pre-order it. The book is no bigger than a postcard. $18.00 retail!?! It's not worth $10. For the price it should have been a poster book. This is just another way for Hardwicke to bleed more money out of Twilight fans. Definitely not worth the money.