DIRECTIONS: Directors Statement

After finding which film I was going to use from Chris Weitz's work, The Twilight Saga: New Moon. I went straight into finding what scenes I wanted to do. This then lead to me choosing the scenes after Edward leaves Bella and when the time passes until she sees him again. I chose these scenes originally because there was not a lot of dialogue in them and the scene with the time passing was a good section of story-telling which I was happy to recreate. Once I had picked 6 minutes to redirect, I decided that the bit I was going to change into my own perspective was the scene where the time passes over the months after the breakup. I felt like this could have been directed a different way but I soon found out that this was harder than I initially thought.

The reasons behind my choice of cast were simply that I did not want to use any websites or people I did not know. I also didn't want to have to rely on people I didn't know, their communication skills may have been poor and they could have easily dropped out at the last minute. Therefore, my only choice was to cast people I knew, this way I could contact them straight away as some I see in my free time and I felt like they would be less likely to drop out considering I knew them. This theory was actually correct as I did still have some problems with a minor role in my film but my main character was happy to help out and do what she could to help find someone else instead of giving up and not bothering herself. In the last minute two people I had asked to do that minor role couldn't attend so I asked an old friend and luckily she was able to help. As I said in my Directions: Finding My Cast post I already had my main character planned out in my head as in who I would ask and I am very pleased that she was able to help and has stuck with me the whole way through. I even think she would do this again for me. I was also lucky in finding my actor for Charlie because if the person I used could not do it I would have been in trouble to find someone in the correct age range. The only problem I had with casting was with the actor for Jessica but thankfully someone was able to step in at the last minute.

Locations were not a difficult ask for my film as they were rather normal; outside a house, a bedroom and outside a cinema. I used a bedroom inside my own house and the outside of my house as two locations. This way I knew they were free were easy access to film in. The cinema on the other hand was slightly harder, I know someone who works at the cinema so I asked her if I could use the side of it to film and she let the people know who were working at the time so they knew about us. Additionally, have easy accessed locations meant that re-shooting was no problem at all.

Production design and costume were another choice made by myself as director. These were relatively easy but still were important parts to the story and had to be thought about. There was not much to add to the production design as I filmed in the same locations as they do in the original film. Apart from a couple of props such as the photo frames which weren't there before and the specific red car to match the red truck they have in the film. Costume, again was simple as they wore normal everyday clothes, apart from a couple of specific things such as wearing jeans and hoodies and not dresses and skirts the actors could have literally worn their normal clothes.

Sound design was something I was particularly interested in from the beginning when I chose these scenes because they include a voice over and a music in the background. Sound was not something I considered as an important part of a film until this unit. I also realised again how important sound was when I had put all my clips together but not completed the voice over or music yet and the film was so boring to watch back. I took a lot of time in my voice over correct because it is not just about someone talking from the script just so I can get a recording of the words, but she needed meaning in her voice, to do this I directed my actress to say the sentences as if she was still in character as Bella Swan. This worked very well as she has that sadness to her voice which takes the atmosphere of the story a long way.

The music behind the action was slightly harder as I needed to decide what song to use. I had a couple of ideas to use the original song that is played in the film or pick another song which has a similar meaning and would have suited the situation just as well. In the end I decided to use the same song they use in the original film. I made this decision by reminding myself that this is an adaption of the original so I felt like if I used the same well-recognised song then the audience will realise where this scene is from.

My camera approach was quite simple; I did not create any weird and wonderful shots because the scenes I chose had regular ones. Most of my camera angles were straight forward and were there to show the action. One shot that may have been out of the ordinary was the one where Bella is laying on the bedroom floor and I placed the camera over the top of her and we looked straight down onto her. This gave a feeling of her being small and less powerful than the audience as we were looking down on her. Another shot which may have been slightly different was the one where she was leaving to get into her car while talking to her father. I wanted this shot to be slightly longer than the others as we watch her walk around the car (while Charlie is still talking to her), we then see her head above the car, on the other side, when she says her last line and then as she sits onto the seat we follow her down and sit comfortably on the other side of the car through the window until she opens it. I was very happy with this shot when we tried it as it was so simple and we still got all the action within it. 

I did some research into the colour palette of the twilight films and if they change as they are all directed by different people and I came across a website which compared the colour of the first film in the saga, Twilight, to the one I am doing. The mood of these scenes were sadness which contrasts with my colour correction choice of a golden tint. Being sad you feel blue and when we watch sadness portrayed in films the atmosphere is cold and the colour you would think of to imply this is blue. However, after some research I found that the original version New Moon has a golden tint to it, whereas the first in the saga, Twilight, has a blue tint to it. Usually, you see gold or orange as warmth and happiness even though New Moon is mainly about the sadness Bella feels when Edward leaves her. I was able to give the film this 'warm' look in post-production. I didn't make it a strong orange tint because I think that would have been too much, therefore it is only subtle but effective. Below is a comparison of the original shot, from before the orange tint, and after. As you can see there is a difference but this is only faint and you can only really tell from having both shots in front of you. Just by looking at the corrected photo on the right you would not think this is too orange which is what I wanted. 














I enjoyed the editing part of this project as I love seeing all the hard work come together. I have been apprehensive about my idea from the start and I did not think the filming went as well as it could have so I was nervous to edit and find out what it was altogether. Luckily it turned out quite well as I had not missed anything out and was quite happy with my footage, it especially all came together when I added the voice over and background music. I was not happy with the poor lighting in some shots in the bedroom due to it nearly being the end of the day so my actress and myself were happy to reshoot a few of these scenes. Talking with Mike Rymer and Simon really helped my editing as they both gave really good feedback and without it my film would have lacked some good editing ideas. I had to do a little bit of colour correcting to brighten the night scenes and to give some of the footage I was not able to reshoot a better colour.

Below are some of the resources I used to help find the correct way to approach New Moon by Chris Weitz:

goodreads. (2017). Team Twilight Discussion. Available: http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/152049-twilight-blue-tint-new-moon-gold-tint-changing-color-palettes. Last accessed 17th Feb 2017.

Lawrence, W. (2009). Twilight: interview with director Chris Weitz.Available: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/6550841/Twilight-interview-with-director-Chris-Weitz.html. Last accessed 4th Jan 2017.

M. Holson, L . (2015). The Weitz Brothers Help Each Other Through Hollywood Hits and Misses. Available: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/07/fashion/mens-style/the-weitz-brothers-help-each-other-through-hollywood-hits-and-misses.html?_r=0. Last accessed 5th Jan 2017.

goodreads. (2017). Team Twilight Discussion. Available: http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/152049-twilight-blue-tint-new-moon-gold-tint-changing-color-palettes. Last accessed 16th Feb 2017.

General filmmaking and directing research:

Bernstein, P. (2016). Here’s How to Direct Catherine Hardwicke-Style.Available: https://filmmakermagazine.com/97615-heres-how-to-direct-catherine-hardwicke-style/. Last accessed 14th Feb 2017.