Twilight: Director’s Notebook: The Story of How We Made the Movie Based on the Novel by Stephenie Meyer

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.

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

Twilight: Director’s Notebook Review

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.

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The Twilight Saga: The Official Guide

Fans of the #1 New York Times bestselling Twilight Saga will treasure this definitive official guide!

This must-have hardcover edition–the only official guide–is the definitive encyclopedic reference to the Twilight Saga and provides readers with everything they need to further explore the unforgettable world Stephenie Meyer created in Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn. With exclusive new material, character profiles, genealogical charts, maps, extensive cross-references, and much more, this comprehensive handbook is essential for every Twilight Saga fan.

The Twilight Saga: The Official Guide Review

Praise for Eclipse:
“Move over, Harry Potter.” – USA Today

“Has a hypnotic quality that puts the reader right inside the dense, rainy thickets of [Forks]” – People Magazine

“The legions of readers who are hooked on the romantic struggles of Bella and the vampire Edward will ecstatically devour this third installment” – Publishers Weekly

“[Stephenie Meyer is] the world’s most popular vampire novelist since Anne Rice” – Entertainment Weekly

“Meyer’s trilogy seethes with the archetypal tumult of star-crossed passions, in which the supernatural element serves as a heady spice.” – The New York Times

Praise for New Moon:
-”Teens will relish this new adventure and hunger for more.”–Booklist
-”[A] near-genius balance of breathtaking romance and action.”–VOYA
-”New Moon will … leave [fans] breathless for the third.”–School Library Journal

Praise for Twilight:
-A New York Times Editor’s Choice
-A Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year
-An Amazon Best Book of the Decade…So Far
-An American Library Association Top Ten Best Books for Young Adults

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Twilight Collector’s Edition (The Twilight Saga)

The book that started the phenomenon is now available in a deluxe collector’s edition! Featuring a ribbon bookmark, cloth cover, ragged edges, new chapter opener designs, and a beautiful protective slipcase, this edition is perfect for fans and collectors alike.

Bella Swan’s move to Forks, a small, perpetually rainy town in Washington, could have been the most boring move she ever made. But once she meets the mysterious and alluring Edward Cullen, Bella’s life takes a thrilling and terrifying turn. Up until now, Edward has managed to keep his vampire identity a secret in the small community he lives in, but now nobody is safe, especially Bella, the person Edward holds most dear.

Deeply romantic and extraordinarily suspenseful, Twilight captures the struggle between defying our instincts and satisfying our desires. This is a love story with bite.

Twilight Collector’s Edition (The Twilight Saga) Review

I first heard about Twilight in an interview with Stephanie Meyers. I was particularly interested in how she would write about her vampires. From the movies we have ideas about seductive dark men like Bela Lugosi and Frank Langella. Teenage vampires are something different.

I am an adult reader. I find there are many books directed toward young adults that can be enjoyed equally by adults. Twilight is one of them. I have read a many of the positive and negative reviews. Maybe not surprising for a book as popular as Twilight the criticism has tended to be nasty, some downright dumb and others are far too disparaging of the author.

For me, Twilight is very well written. I thought that some of the chapters could have been divided into two, just to give the reader a break. The book is written in the first person, which can be a problem for some readers and tends to restrict the narrative to a single point of view.

Generally, the wording is concise and descriptive without over doing it. The sentences are well constructed and move the reader along. I can’t say that I didn’t find some passages a bit tedious. Some of the sentences were a bit awkward and could have been rephrased. An example: ” I was trying so hard not to think about him, and what Angela had said…and more than anything trying to beat down my hopes for Saturday, fearing a disappointment more painful than the rest, when I looked up to see someone’s silver Volvo parked along the street and it all came crashing down on me.”

I liked the character development and interplay between Bella and Edward. I didn’t want their growing relationship to be hurried along. Bella’s character has been criticized by a number of reviewers as basically uninteresting. She is portrayed as a loner who sees herself an inadequate and clumsy, certainly not as the object of a romance. Her character actually fits the story far better than a more extroverted girl. If one is going to enter into the secretive world of vampires someone who also sees themselves as an outsider would be more understanding.

Edward’s brooding character is well captured by Ms. Meyers. Like Bella he is conflicted over his potential relationship with her. In the end, perhaps against his better judgment, he allows her into his world. I was hoping that Ms. Meyers would give her vampires different attributes than the sleep-by-day-feed-at-night creatures of Bram Stoker and other writer. The vampires are more like gods with their luminous skin. Vampires may be the ultimate killers but they are rational. It is also refreshing to have vampires who don’t want to be a treat to humans and find the need to be sociable, despite the risks.

Although I can’t say that Twilight is the best book ever written it has a lot going for it. It is a good mix of romance and horror that you can get carried away by. Perhaps that is the best way to judge a book.

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The Twilight Saga Collection (Box Set)

This stunning set, complete with all four hardcover books as well as four collectible prints, makes the perfect gift for fans of the bestselling vampire love story.

Stephenie Meyer graduated from Brigham Young University with a degree in English Literature, and she lives with her husband and three young sons in Arizona. Stephenie is the author of Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn.

The Twilight Saga Collection Review

This is a value buy for those who are contemplating sinking their teeth [pun intended] into Stephenie Meyers’ Twilight series as it not only offers all four books, i.e. Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse and Breaking Dawn for a great price, they all come housed in a gorgeous keepsake box. I have all four of the books in hardcover, but I purchased them individually as they were released, and am seriously contemplating getting this boxed set which I can keep as a souvenir, and then use the other books as my reading copies.

Well, for those who are new to the series, the books are in the following order:
Twilight – Bella Swan moves to a small town near Seattle called Forks and meets Edward Cullen, an enigmatic student at her high school who turns out to be a vampire and lives with his clan in a magnificent mansion. As the romance between Bella and Edward blossom, they have to face obstacles such as the physical ‘constraints’ of being in a mortal-vampire relationship, facing objections from their respective families, and threats from other more vicious vampires.

New Moon – Edward and Bella are parted and Bella is so heartbroken that her life becomes empty and without direction. Enter Jacob Black, the tall, dark and handsome friend from the reservation, La Push who provides Bella with not only friendship but someone she can trust and rely on during a desperate time. Of course, nothing in Bella Swan’s life is ever quite so simple and complications crop up once again.

Eclipse – Edward and Bella are back together, much to the disappointment and disgust of Jacob Black, himself now an other-worldly being. Will he convince Bella that he is more worthy of her love or will Edward prevail?

Breaking Dawn – the final instalment in the series. Edward, Bella and Jacob feature prominently here, with the most pivotal question – will Bella sacrifice her mortality for an immortal life with Edward? If so, what are the repercussions?

All in all, the Twilight series makes for an interesting and fun reading experience and this beautiful boxed set for the price offered here on Amazon is definitely a keepsake for fans and new readers alike!

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Amazon Best of the Month, May 2008: Stephenie Meyer, creator of the phenomenal teen-vamp Twilight series, takes paranormal romance into alien territory in her first adult novel. Those wary of sci-fi or teen angst will be pleasantly surprised by this mature and imaginative thriller, propelled by equal parts action and emotion. A species of altruistic parasites has peacefully assumed control of the minds and bodies of most humans, but feisty Melanie Stryder won’t surrender her mind to the alien soul called Wanderer. Overwhelmed by Melanie’s memories of fellow resistor Jared, Wanderer yields to her body’s longing and sets off into the desert to find him. Likely the first love triangle involving just two bodies, it’s unabashedly romantic, and the characters (human and alien) genuinely endearing. Readers intrigued by this familiar-yet-alien world will gleefully note that the story’s end leaves the door open for a sequel–or another series. –Mari Malcolm

Great love stories thrive on sacrifice. Throughout The Twilight Saga (Twilight, New Moon, and Eclipse), Stephenie Meyer has emulated great love stories–Romeo and Juliet, Wuthering Heights–with the fated, yet perpetually doomed love of Bella (the human girl) and Edward (the vampire who feeds on animals instead of humans). In Breaking Dawn, the fourth and final installment in the series, Bella’s story plays out in some unexpected ways. The ongoing conflicts that made this series so compelling–a human girl in love with a vampire, a werewolf in love with a human girl, the generations-long feud between werewolves and vampires–resolve pretty quickly, apparently so that Meyer could focus on Bella’s latest opportunity for self-sacrifice: giving her life for someone she loves even more than Edward. How close she comes to actually making that sacrifice is questionable, which is a big shift from the earlier books. Even though you knew Bella would make it through somehow, the threats to her life, and to her relationship with Edward, had previously always felt real. It’s as if Meyer was afraid of hurting her characters too much, which is unfortunate, because the pain Bella suffered at losing Edward in New Moon, and the pain Jacob suffered at losing Bella again and again, are the fire and the heart that drive the whole series. Diehard fans will stick with Bella, Edward, and Jacob for as many twists and turns as possible, but after most of the characters get what they want with little sacrifice, some readers may have a harder time caring what happens next. (Ages 12 and up) –Heidi Broadhead

The legions of readers who are hooked on the romantic struggles of Bella and the vampire Edward will ecstatically devour this third installment of the story begun in Twilight, but it’s unlikely to win over any newcomers. Jake, the werewolf met in New Moon, pursues Bella with renewed vigilance. However, when repercussions from an episode in Twilight place Bella in the mortal danger that series fans have come to expect, Jake and Edward forge an uneasy alliance. The plot patterns have begun to show here, but Meyer’s other strengths remain intact. The supernatural elements accentuate the ordinary human dramas of growing up. Jake and Edward’s competition for Bella feels particularly authentic, especially in their apparent desire to best each other as much as to win Bella. Once again the author presents teenage love as an almost inhuman force: “[He] would have been my soul mate still,” says Bella, “if his claim had not been overshadowed by something stronger, something so strong that it could not exist in a rational world.” According to Meyer, the fourth book should tie up at least the Edward story, if not the whole shebang. Ages 12-up. (Aug.) Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information

Grade 9 Up–Recovered from the vampire attack that hospitalized her in the conclusion of Twilight (Little, Brown, 2005), Bella celebrates her birthday with her boyfriend Edward and his family, a unique clan of vampires that has sworn off human blood. But the celebration abruptly ends when the teen accidentally cuts her arm on broken glass. The sight and smell of her blood trickling away forces the Cullen family to retreat lest they be tempted to make a meal of her. After all is mended, Edward, realizing the danger that he and his family create for Bella, sees no option for her safety but to leave. Mourning his departure, she slips into a downward spiral of depression that penetrates and lingers over her every step. Vampire fans will appreciate the subsequently dour mood that permeates the novel, and it’s not until Bella befriends Jacob, a sophomore from her school with a penchant for motorcycles, that both the pace and her disposition begin to take off. Their adventures are wild, dare-devilish, and teeter on the brink of romance, but memories of Edward pervade Bella’s emotions, and soon their fun quickly morphs into danger, especially when she uncovers the true identities of Jacob and his pack of friends. Less streamlined than Twilight yet just as exciting, New Moon will more than feed the bloodthirsty hankerings of fans of the first volume and leave them breathless for the third.–Hillias J. Martin, New York Public Library
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The book that started the phenomenon is now available in a deluxe collector’s edition! Featuring a ribbon bookmark, cloth cover, ragged edges, new chapter opener designs, and a beautiful protective slipcase, this edition is perfect for fans and collectors alike.

Bella Swan’s move to Forks, a small, perpetually rainy town in Washington, could have been the most boring move she ever made. But once she meets the mysterious and alluring Edward Cullen, Bella’s life takes a thrilling and terrifying turn. Up until now, Edward has managed to keep his vampire identity a secret in the small community he lives in, but now nobody is safe, especially Bella, the person Edward holds most dear.

Deeply romantic and extraordinarily suspenseful, Twilight captures the struggle between defying our instincts and satisfying our desires. This is a love story with bite.