Eclipse Press Conference:David Slade, Wyck Godfrey, Melissa Rosenberg

davidWyckMelissa

Transcribed by Shock Til You Drop. Here are the thoughts of director, David Slade, producer, Wyck Godfrey, and writer, Melissa Rosenberg at the Eclipse Press Conference roundtable.

Q: What did you do to prepare for Eclipse and how did you bring your own style to the film?

Slade:
There’s a vocabulary, a cinematic vocabulary to each of the films they’ve done. And it doesn’t come from that much premeditation. It comes from two things. One, seeing the film in my head before we go out and make it, and being very clear about that and planning it. Two, [doing] what’s right for the scene and the character. I believe the most interesting thing to look at in the world is the human face, so that is why I tend to be a little closer to human faces than maybe other directors will be.

Wyck Godfrey:
When you were first talking to us about the movie, you had said that by letting the background fall out of focus and really focus on the characters in the dangerous scenes it creates a heightened sense of anxiety. You feel like you don’t really know what’s back there, and in the romantic scenes it creates an incredible sense of intimacy. You really feel like you sense these two people in that world and I really think that was effective.

Read more on Shock Till You Drop, and before anyone has a total fit he’s kidding about the nude scene. It’s that dry British humor just like with Jamie Campbell Bowers’ nude scene joke from last year!

Daily Motion: Melissa Rosenberg The Eclipse Triangle

See more on Daily Motion

Reelz Channel: Melissa Rosenberg’s Favorite Eclipse Scenes

You have to go through about half of the clip which is previously seen information on Bree Tanner before you get to Melissa’s commentary.

Melissa Rosenberg To Address Her Alma Mater at Graduation

melissa-rosenbergheadshotAccording to the press release from Bennington College:

“Bennington is pleased to announce that screenwriter, producer, and alumna Melissa Rosenberg ’86 will address this year’s graduating class at the College’s 75th commencement dinner on Friday, June 4, at 7:00 pm on Commons Lawn.

Best known for her screen adaptations of the bestselling novels Twilight, New Moon, and Eclipse, Rosenberg was also a writer and executive producer on the Showtime series Dexter, for which she won a Peabody Award and was nominated for two Emmy Awards and three Writers Guild Awards. An advocate for women in film, Rosenberg is a co-founder and executive board member of the League of Hollywood Women Writers and a former chair of the Writers Guild of America Diversity Committee.

Rosenberg studied drama and dance at Bennington College before obtaining an MFA in film and television producing from the University of Southern California’s Peter Stark Producing Program.

Her screenwriting credits include the dance film Step Up and the television shows Party of Five, Boston Public, The Outer Limits, The Agency, and The OC.  She served on the Writers Guild of America Board of Directors from 2002 through 2006.

Named in memory of one of Bennington’s most dedicated alumnae, the Candace DeVries Olesen ’50 Lectureship for Distinguished Alumni was established to bring prominent Bennington alumni back to campus to engage with students and the community at large. Melissa Rosenberg is this year’s Olesen Lecturer.”

For more information, you can see the Bennington site.

Melissa Rosenberg: Breaking Dawn, Ratings, and More

MelissamicFilm has an interview with Melissa Rosenberg where she discusses writing each of the Twilight movies, Dexter, and writing to meet a rating.

“LL: If an adaptation felt to you like an R rating, but the studio wanted you to bring it in at a PG-13, would that be doable?

MR: Oh yeah. It’s completely doable. You don’t sacrifice story by cutting language. Nor do you sacrifice story by showing less blood or gore, or whatever it is that’s bringing you to an R rating. It doesn’t hurt it. When Dexter was aired on CBS they had to re-cut some of it for network television and all they had to do was cut some language. There’s more blood and gore in an episode of C.S.I., though of course Dexter is more disturbing. Not because of what you see, but because of what’s implied. I don’t think you take away from suspense or character by altering a few things like that.

LL: Having read Breaking Dawn, where things get ratcheted up a notch, do you still go for that PG-13 rating?

MR: Oh yeah, absolutely. That’s your audience. In this series you don’t sacrifice anything. There are some movies that wouldn’t play at PG-13, like The Hangover, but this is just not one of them for me. Again, if you’re capturing character, emotion, and emotional journey, you’re OK.”

See the rest on Film.

One thing that is not covered in the article is an issue that for whatever reason repetitively comes up. Breaking Dawn will not go to screen with a rated R rating because contractually it can’t. It would have to be recut to get a PG-13. Part of the deal for Summit to have the rights to the film is no more than a PG-13. You can still have blood and guts (ER’s final season anyone), and steamy romance (Remember Me and the Notebook) without broaching the R-rating.

Via RPattzNews

Reelz Channel: Peter Facinelli Eclipse is My Favorite

Melissa Rosenberg: Fred Meyer DVD Release Interview

melissarosenbergsigningMelissa Rosenberg gave a brief interview to KOMO News during the release party at the Fred Meyer store in the Seattle area.

How do you condense an 800-page book into a two hour movie?

MR: “Very carefully. You start with, and you end with, what is the emotional journey for these characters. That is the most important thing to capture, that is the only thing to capture. Everything else is up for grabs, but you must take these characters on the same emotional journey that they took in the book, and hence take the audience on the same emotional journey that they took in the book and that’s the goal, you hope that you achieve that. some people would say I did, some people would say I don’t.”

Do you get any feedback from the fans when you, for example.. cut certain scenes?

MR: “I have a fan site, and the fans will weigh in and say wow! you’ve cut too many things out.. or say I’ve done a fantastic job. They are very kind on my site, there are other sites I know that I don’t read, because I can’t handle that kind of intensity. You can’t make all the fans happy, you try to make as many as possible happy.”

Read more here. TY to RPatzNews!

Seattle Times: Melissa Rosenberg on Adaptation, Stephenie Meyer, and Breaking Dawn

melissarosenbergredcMelissa Rosenberg talked with the Seattle Times. She going to be in town for the midnight DVD release and according to the paper, the location is Bothell’s Fred Meyer . Check out her interview, it’s one of the better ones.

Q: You’ve written a lot about teenagers — how do you tap into that angst-ridden state?

A: I never write for teenagers. … The minute you start trying to capture some sort of jargon or whatever is hip now, you’re already outdated, by the time it hits the screen. … It really is about finding character and emotional truth, rather than something current or edgy.

Q: How was each director in the series different?

A: For Catherine [Hardwicke], we had very little time to work on “Twilight,” I was feeding her pages … and immediately it was a very intense collaboration. With Chris [Weitzon “New Moon”], I’d already finished the second draft before he came on board, so I did a round or two and handed it off to him, and he made changes. … David [Slade] is a very visual director … so with “Eclipse” (due in 2011) I was able to write out specifically some of the sequences per his direction.”

See more at the Seattle Times.

Melissa Rosenberg: Earth’s Mightiest Interview

MelissaEMInterview

Melissa talks about what it has been like to work with all three directors of the Twilight Saga. Check out the audio interview here. Via TwiFans

Melissa Rosenberg: The Writing Process

Melissa Rosenberg talks with Making Of about the writing process, the importance of feedback from other writers, and trying to work on “Twilight” in the midst of the writer’s strike