Breaking Dawn part 1 and part 2 director Bill Condon wrote the following letter to all of us Twilighters:
Greetings to our global Twihard family,
On the flight now from Madrid to Berlin, I wanted to check in one last time, as you’re finally getting a look at what we’ve all been working on so intensely. It’s hard to believe that after our Berlin premiere tonight, my TWILIGHT journey will finally come to a close. It’s been almost three years since I first wrote to you. I’m very proud of what we’ve created together since then, and I hope that PART II fulfills your expectations for the grand finale to Stephenie’s sprawling saga. Fingers crossed that you’ve also managed to stay at least mostly spoiler-free, in order to enjoy the twists and parting gifts we have in store for you…
Thank you again for making me feel like a member of your fandom family online…for sleeping in The Line in San Diego in order to laugh with us in Hall H…for traveling great distances to join us in L.A. for last year’s Tent City and this year’s Fan Camp. Above all, thank you for trusting me with this universe you care so deeply about – we tried to match your intensity in our attention to every detail. That said, I don’t think I’ll ever live down the shame of being spied on by Twihard covens around the world on our very first night of shooting in Rio. Thanks to photos shot and instantly posted online of Bella and Edward on their honeymoon, we were called out in real time for missing a certain engagement ring… (Sorry — again!)
As with you all, what I’ll take with me from my time in Forks are so many great friendships – our massive cast of talented actors, and new creative partners such as Melissa Rosenberg, Guillermo Navarro and Phil Tippett. I hope to know them all for years and to work with them again soon, making movies yet to be dreamed up. At the L.A. premiere Monday night, Phil said we should make a “bloody, giant monster movie.” But is there room for a musical number?
See you at the theatre.
Forever,
Bill
First, we played This or That with Mackenzie:
Werewolves or Vampires: Vampires.
Edward or Jacob: Do I have to choose?
One Direction or The Wanted: Both! They’re the only thing that I’m listening to right now, other than Taylor Swift.
Ice Cream or Frozen Yogurt: Frozen yogurt.
Ben & Jerry’s or Haagen-Dazs: Ben & Jerry’s! Especially their frozen Greek yogurt blueberry graham vanilla swirl.
Nail Polish or Lipgloss: Nail polish.
Cats or Dogs: Cats, even though I have one cat and two dogs.
Girly or Sporty: Somewhere in the middle.
Ballet slippers or Sneakers: Sneakers.
Mac or PC: Mac.
iPad, NOOK, Kindle, or Books: Books!
Read More here
Carter Burwell talks in depth about the Breaking Dawn score and Renesmee’s Lullaby!
Carter’s Notes:
I started writing music for Breaking Dawn Part 2 more than two years before it was released. The director, Bill Condon, suggested that, just as Edward had played “Bella’s Lullaby” for Bella in the first Twilight film, he should now create a lullaby for his daughter Renesmee. This meant that I had to write it before they shot the film, which was happening at the same time as Breaking Dawn Part 1. And, as Rob Pattinson wanted to play it on screen, I had to write something that Rob could play and give him time to learn it.
Only a few weeks before Bill made this suggestion, I learned that I was about to have a baby girl myself. Inevitably I wrote the piece thinking as much about my daughter as about Edward and Bella’s. In its way this echoed the story of how “Bella’s Lullaby” had been written originally for my wife. For some reason there is a running parallel between my life and Edward’s.
“Renesmee’s Lullaby” was hinted at during Bella’s pregnancy in Breaking Dawn Part 1, but only really came into its own in Part 2. As Bill saw it, Edward would play it on the piano, as though he were making it up on the spot. Renesmee, who grows very quickly and has unknown but prodigious powers, would sit at the piano with her father, appearing to be five years old. She joins in and they develop the piece for four hands. As they do so, the scene shifts to Volterra, Italy.
The piano music continues, but is joined by the gothic music of the Volturi, the vampires who oppose Edward’s coven, as Irina tells them about Renesmee’s existence, setting in motion the great conflict of the film. At the end of the scene we cut back to the Cullens and the piano music continues, but now Renesmee appears a few years older and is playing the piece by herself, with great skill. This sort of audiovisual storytelling in one of Bill Condon’s specialties. A complex story encompassing multiple characters, locations and times is told compactly by overlapping scenes, using music as connective tissue.
As I mentioned in my notes for Part 1, this score was treated as true melodrama, with music playing every thought and feeling, every raised eyebrow and decapitated head. There is almost 90 minutes of score in Part 2, and again the sheer quantity was challenging. But there were several differences between this film and the ones that preceded it that went beyond the numbers.
First, there are almost no true humans left in the story. Bella’s dad enters the story briefly, but is the only human involved. Every one else exists on a supernatural plane. No one is faced with human limitations or doubts. This is most striking, perhaps, for Bella. She is completely at ease with her new powers as a vampire, in ways she never was as a human, so the awkwardness that in many ways defined her character, and which was often central to the sound of the first film, is all gone.
Second, many new characters enter the story. The Cullens go around the world recruiting allies for their conflict with the Volturi. Literally dozens of new vampires are introduced. I didn’t attempt to write specific themes for all of them, although I did for some. However, the new characters did allow for changes of tone which helped keep the music varied.
Lastly, the film ends with an unabashed over-the-top action sequence that takes up almost 30 minutes of screen time. This required a different type of score than any of the previous films. Characters fly through the air, rip each other’s heads off, open fissures in the Earth and leave the ground littered with bodies. The music grows much larger than it has before – symphony orchestra, choir, electric guitar, plus a battery of percussion.
I don’t have that much experience as an “action” composer, and it was challenging to keep the tension and pace ever-increasing for long periods of time. I could never have done it without the help of my colleagues – Chris Willis, Adam Smalley, Sonny Kompanek and John Thomas. In the end, I feel we managed to bring it all to a satisfying climax, but I guess I have to watch all the films back-to-back to know if that’s really true.
