A Newbie’s Thoughts on Breaking Dawn—Hilarious Must Read

What would happen if you were sent to cover Breaking Dawn part 2 and knew nothing at all about the books and films?

I first learned about Twilight four years ago, when a former employer at a talent agency handed me a note that read “Twilight Stephenie Meyer” and instructed me to pick it up at a local bookstore. After walking into the store, I handed this piece of paper to the first employee I could find. I said: “Do you guys have a book called Twilight?” and “It’s by or about someone named Stephenie Meyer.” The employee just laughed and pointed over my shoulder to a six-foot-tall display for the book series. Possibly out of resentment, I remained willfully ignorant of the series ever since. I have gleaned this and only this info in the years since: There is someone named Jacob and someone named Edward. One is a vampire and one is a werewolf, not sure which is which. One is played by Taylor Lautner and one is played by Robert Pattinson (whose last name I recently learned was not Paterson). I also haven’t seen either in any other movies, other than T-Laut’s appearance in Valentine’s Day (appearing with his then-girlfriend Taylor Swift — I know that). Also, Kristen Stewart is in the movies. I don’t know her character’s name or if she is a human or vampire or werewolf. That is all I knew when I was assigned to go see a screening of Breaking Dawn – Part 2 and told to write down my confused thoughts and questions as I watched. Here are my notes, chronologically. (Spoilers follow. But if you, like me, are clueless about Twilight, they won’t ruin your day.)

Read his actual reactions on Vulture, they are HILARIOUS! TY to Joel for sending this in.

Vulture: Portrait of an Influential Fan

Earlier this week New York Magazine’s culture Vulture section did a profile of the 25 fandoms with the most devoted fanbases. They ranked Twilight number three right behind Game of Thrones and Star Wars.

Today they are putting up interviews with people running websites in those fandoms, and they profiled the Lexicon and Laura. Here are two brief quotes, but the whole article is cool.

ÜBER-FAN RESPONSIBILITIES: At least twenty hours a week go into maintaining and updating the site — more when a movie is in production or about to hit theaters (as is the case right now). With the Twilight saga completed in print and soon to be finished in theaters, the site is dedicated to covering all new works in Stephenie Meyer’s oeuvre, along with any Twilight references that crop up in the news. Cristiano explains her criteria thus: “If it’s Taylor Lautner Goes for Coffee Day 552, I’m not wildly interested in that picture. If one of the actors is doing another film, that’s fantastic; but if they name-drop Twilight, then that article is newsworthy for me.” Cristiano works in marketing, and the ad revenue from Twilight Lexicon pays site-related costs. “We certainly haven’t quit our day jobs,” she notes.

HITTING THE BIG TIME: Having long been in touch with Stephenie Meyer, who participates in Q&As for the site, Cristiano was stunned to learn that she had a fan in the director of Breaking Dawn. “In the months leading up to the Breaking Dawn premiere, a bunch of the Twilight sites were invited to do a Q&A with Bill Condon in his edit bay for a half-hour. We’re going around the room introducing ourselves, and when I get to myself, Bill Condon goes, “Oh! We love the Lexicon! We used it on set!'” When the November premiere rolled around, Cristiano was camping out near the red carpet with other fans when “someone taps me on my shoulder, and I turned around, and it’s Bill Condon. And he said, ‘Hi Laura, how are you doing? This is just amazing. Is this really surreal for you?’ And I said, ‘To be honest, what’s surreal to me is that Bill Condon just tapped me on my shoulder and asked if being at a Twilight event is surreal.'”

(Personal note from Laura: Talking to a reporter is always a crapshoot. You can spend an hour and, if you’re unlucky, they’ll misquote you and take a 30 second sound bite. On a good day, they quote you correctly but make judgmental commentary on fangs, tweens and twimoms. This writer was teh exception. She did a great job and didn’t make the people she was profiling in over 25 fandoms look like morons. It’s easily my most favorite interview that I have ever participated in since starting the site in March 2006)

 

We also wanted to give a shout out to our friend Kimmy who runs His Golden Eyes, she was profiled for her Hungar Games website called Mockingjay

Also another shout out to Kallie from Twilight Series Theories who took the at the New Moon premiere

Twilight Ranks 3 In Vulture’s Top 25 Fanbases

Here’s how the New York’s Vulture described Twilight Fans.

 

DEVOTIONAL PROFILE: Every so often, Hollywood gets a reminder that young men aren’t the only ones who go to the movies in droves. It happened in 1997, when Titanic became a cross-demographic blockbuster that nonetheless earned most of its cash thanks to repeat business from young women. Still, the lesson didn’t truly sink in until 2008, when the first Twilight film earned a staggering $192 million from an audience that was almost exclusively female. The first film was well timed, arriving at the feverish peak of popularity for Meyer’s book series, and it made superstars of its three leads; the next three sequels would do even better, earning around $300 million each. Studios that had formerly been on the hunt for the next Harry Potter franchise now modified their search: Maybe, if they tracked the avid reading habits of young women, they could find the next book-to-film phenomenon in its infancy.

 

What was it about the Twilight series that fans sparked to? Partly, it’s the way the series flirts with sex (the bloody transition from human to vamp is a metaphor for the loss of virginity) while still remaining chaste enough that younger fans can be drawn in … at least until Edward and Bella have their honeymoon night. But Meyer was smart to stoke her fans’ passions with the central love triangle between Bella and her beaus Edward and Jacob; when battle lines were drawn online between those who were Team Edward and those on Team Jacob, it only increased the bond between the reader (or viewer) and Meyer’s story. Twilight fans are so ardent, in fact, that geek mecca Comic-Con had to start slotting its Twilight panels earlier in the convention to suit the Twi-hards, who regularly queue up days in advance for the film franchise’s panels, swamping the less devoted fans of Marvel movies and other comic-book blockbusters. Those boy-heavy fan bases bristled at the intrusion, but they’d better get used to it: The record-breaking success of Twilight on the best seller list, at the box office, and on home video is only the beginning of a femme-dominated genre force, not an anomaly.