TA TALKS BACK: HOW IMPORTANT ARE THE DETAILS?
For today’s TATB, I take a look at how important the details from the books are to the production of the Twilight movies.
Pictures have surfaced from the set of Eclipse, specifically from the reconstructed police station. One of those pictures showed the name plate on Charlie’s desk which read Sheriff Swan. Wait. Sheriff Swan? When did Charlie become the sheriff of Forks? The reaction from at least one Twilighter I spoke with was an upset one. Others apparently don’t think it really matters, that it’s only the nameplate on a desk that likely won’t even really been seen, especially up close, in the movie.This had me wondering. What about the other little or not so little details that have been changed from the book to the movies. Have they hurt the story? How important in the grand scheme of things are they to the telling of the Saga on screen versus being important to the fans?
We all know that the story was changed in a number of ways from the first book to the first movie. Some of that was necessary. It’s not always possible to convey on screen the same things you read in a book. Scenes were added, scenes were taken away. Details were changed to better fit the telling of the story onscreen. Some of them were relatively minor, like the look of the Cullen’s house. That really doesn’t affect the story line, and it made for a better scene of Bella and Edward’s first run through the woods to the meadow. But minor things like the color of Edward’s car are important to fans. Was it really impossible to leave it silver for Eclipse? Did that have to change? Some of the changes were major – anyone else realize at first that Jasper is now in the same grade as Edward, Bella, and Alice? That never even occurred to me until recently, when it was pointed out after we saw pictures of Jackson Rathbone on set in costume as Jasper when they were filming graduation. What does that mean for the rest of the story? Why was this change made?
We’ve heard that Chris Weitz decided to add the scene of Bella being stitched up by Carlisle to the movie. Why was this not in the script he was given at the beginning of shooting? It is an important scene in the story of New Moon itself, as well as being an important scene in the whole of the Twilight Saga. It gives Bella more insight to why Carlisle is the way he is, what he sees for the Cullens as a family and why Edward feels the way he does about Bella’s becoming a vampire. Why would such a scene be left out?
We’ve also now seen pictures from the set of Eclipse showing a moment between Victoria and Reily. Some have wondered at the filming of this scene. Why was it needed? Here is where adding a scene and changing some of the details is necessary. In the book, we don’t see Victoria creating her army or tricking Reily into thinking she has any affection for him. We only read about a supposed rampant serial killer, Bella realizes it is all really the doing of Victoria, and Edward tries to convince Reily of Victoria’s true feelings before destroying him. This all needs to be obvious on screen. It needs to be set up for the viewer. Victoria’s vampire army can’t appear out of thin air with no explanation. The story onscreen has to play to not only the fans of the book but someone that has never heard of the story before. But what was cut from the story that fans think or know is important in favor of this scene?
In the end we can’t have everything in one movie that we’d all like to have. Every fan has his or her list of what they think is important to the story. And we aren’t the people making the movie. But we’d like to think those that are have taken some time to listen to us and to think about all of the details – big ones like important scenes and small ones like proper character job titles.
What do you think, TAers? Talk back to us…
