the writing studio
Celebrating the art of storytelling and the craft of writing

THE ART OF SEQUELS
THE TWILIGHT SAGA: ECLIPSE

The costumes
Costume designer Tish Monaghan enjoyed working with the new director.
"When I met with David Slade originally, we had a good discussion about the characters and the direction of the Cullens and Bella in particular. I introduced him to the existing pallet, but also tried to accommodate any requests that he had. I think it's a little bit difficult for a director to come in on the third one and try and put a stamp on things because we're revisiting a lot of the same characters."
"David's biggest input for me was the newborns army and Riley," reveals Monaghan. "He definitely wanted to separate the two worlds of the Cullens and the newborns, so in the final encounter, the Cullens are primarily in black and dark grays and charcoals; the newborns are all in earth tones with pops of color. We also had a discussion of the types of people that would become newborns - strong, healthy, youthful people that could be plucked from the streets of Seattle."
Monaghan and her crew made several new key pieces of wardrobe including Victoria's coat. "All of Victoria's clothes are done in earth tone colors to emphasize not only her feral and animalistic nature, but also again, to separate her from the Cullens.
We used some leather hides in her clothes. It was a happy thing for me to utilize something that I made, rather than something that was store bought. She is a very sexy, fashionable vampire and I wanted to keep that look. But we also have a lot of wire work with wrestling and rolling on the ground, so I always have to keep in mind the padding and harnesses for stunts."
"Also, it's so wonderful to be able to delve into different eras. I got to do vampires in the Civil War era, plus a Spanish explorer and a Spanish vampiress from the 1700s," reveals Monaghan. "We spent 6 to 7 weeks building about 50 costumes for Pacific Northwest Coast Indians from the 1750s. We used ground cover and fashioned it into various cloaks and shapes that were evident in all of the research that we did. We had to try and imitate cedar bark clothing. We had access to a lot of museum pieces that had been unearthed and I had discussions with anthropologists and archaeologists."
All details were thought out. "I had three people that were making jewelry," adds Monaghan. "We drove I don't know how far away and bought large abalone shells. They smashed the shells into little tiny, rectangular bits and drilled holes, so that we could reproduce some of the necklaces that we'd seen in our museum reference books."
"A lot of the filmmaking process was exploring the pasts of Jasper and of Rosalie's. For me it was really interesting," says Monaghan. "For Rosalie, we made two coats with buttons that pop off and a stunning 1930s bridal gown with a 14-foot long train and a 14-foot long veil. She whooshed down the hallway with a special effects fans making it float behind her."
"For me, it was really good to have the development of Rosalie's character because then I could bring something from that to the contemporary world to reflect her character," adds Monaghan. "Rosalie had always been a little bit of a mystery to me.
But seeing how she developed in the 1930s, all of a sudden gave me a better idea of how to portray her in contemporary times and link her world to the past. "

Final words
All the filmmakers felt a responsibility to the fans in making The Twilight Saga: Eclipse. "The Twilight universe is completely unique. I cannot think of anything like this really," says Slade. "The phenomenon is so huge and so disarmingly unlike what you'd expect, there really isn't a parallel. I came into this film not really understanding that. To a degree, it hadn't yet reached critical mass at that point. I don't think anybody could be prepared really for it as a filmmaker. When I was in talks to direct Eclipse and New Moon hadn't come out, we knew it was a huge big thing. But when New Moon came out, it just exploded in ways that I couldn't have possibly have imagined."
"My experience with the fans has been anywhere between absolutely terrifying and actually rewarding. Meeting fans has been really, really nice, except for the time when I was really scared.. and that was my fault cause I didn't know not to run," laughs Slade.
"During production Vancouver was besieged by teenagers from America and all part of the world. The places where the actors were staying, shockingly were at 100% capacity with fans," laughs Godfrey. "From a personal standpoint, I think the actors had to be careful walking outside. From a shooting standpoint, we would be driving to work, turn on the radio and hear that we'd be shooting in Coquitlam. So we would get to our location and people are all holding signs saying things like 'I'll be sullen if I don't get to see a Cullen.' Whatever they could come up with to get Taylor, Rob, Kristen, and the Cullen's to stop and sign autographs. I think what's really good about it is that it's a constant reminder that you have this duty to do your best, because they're all going to be waiting for the movie."
"There were times when we would do a last-minute location shift because of weather and sure enough, there'd be fans standing at the new location when we got there," adds Bannerman. "They're dedicated fans and they deserve to be first in line at the theater because they stuck it out. It's unlike any other film I've ever worked on - to get this non-stop attention from the fans, 24/7, from beginning to end. It's still going and will continue to until the franchise is finished."
"Because there's such an avid fan base for the Twilight book series, we have to take into account all the little details that are written in the novels when we're designing the sets," adds Austerberry. "Stephenie often writes about certain colors. For instance, there are red and purple twinkle-y lights decorating the graduation party at the Cullen house. We've kept all that in our design. I'm sure the fans would be very vocal if we didn't try to include those types of things."
"I hope the fans feel we've remained true to the book," comments Rosenberg.
"There are a lot of things that were reconfigured and condensed and re-jiggered, but I think in some ways it's the most authentic - the truest to the books in its emotional journey. I think fans will enjoy how the movie has gotten further into the mythology, even beyond the books. Plus,
Eclipse has the most action of all three of the films and I think guys will find the life and death stakes intriguing. The epic grand battles feature some really great stunts and special effects. It's just continues to get better and better."
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse wrapped principal photography in the wee hours of the morning on October 29, 2009.

BACK

HOME