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

by Catherine Hardwicke

Book Overview

A personal, behind-the-scenes look at the making of the blockbuster film Twilight from groundbreaking director Catherine Hardwicke This intimate full-color "notebook," designed to replicate the one director Catherine Hardwicke kept on and off the set, takes you through the creative process that went into making Stephenie Meyer's breathtaking novel come alive on screen - from casting to costumes, stunts to story boards. With never-before-seen notes,...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0316070521
• ISBN13: 9780316070522
• Release Date: March 2009
• Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
• Length: 176 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.4" x 8.4"
• Age Range: 12 to 17 years
• Grade Range: Grades 7 to 12

Customer Reviews

Perfect condition

Perfect condition!

Slay

This was truly a slay and I love the twilight books and movies. So this was really cool to see the directorial aspects of what Hardwicke intended for this franchise. If you are a true collector, i recommend adding this to your collection.

Amazing

Any l Twihard fan will love this!

"Like seriously, don't waste your time!"

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 v

Awesome Twilight Book

Hi, as I am the ultimate Twilight fan, this book was way sooo cool. I will probably buy every book that comes out for all the movies. Awesome!!!

very cool idea

I loved the entire twilight series and was concerned as to how it would transfer to the screen. The directors notebook gave lots of insight into how they made the movie. I now know that Catherine Hardwick had both the authors story and the fans expectations in mind and was very sensitive to both. The book is done in a scrap book style with lots of handwritten comments that make it an interesting read for any Twilight fan.

Full of technical details, very cool!

Let me preface my review with the following: this book is unlikely to appeal to the screaming tween Twilight fans. This is a book for those who are fans of the *film* and want to get an intimate look at what it was like to adapt a hugely famous novel into a cinematic masterpiece. The book itself is beautifully put together. The pages are thick and glossy and filled with conceptual artwork and hand-written production notes by the director Catherine Hardwicke. There are set design notes, wardrobe notes and step-by-step breakdowns of the most involved scenes. Altogether, its packed with just over 150 pages of insider details. I have been a fan of Hardwicke's films since "Thirteen" and was quite impressed with her interpretation of "Twilight" the novel, which greatly influenced my decision to purchase this little companion. For aspiring film-makers, producers, set designers and all-around film buffs who love Twilight, this little text is a gem. Combined with the hilarious commentary on the Twilight special edition DVDthere's no detail about the film-making process left undisclosed. For those of you who are Twilight-crazy-for-Rob-Pattinson save a couple of bucks and stick to Twilight: The Complete Illustrated Movie Companion which contains dozens of 8x11 glossy close-ups of Edward Cullen (and Bella).

Twilighters will love it!

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.