Wyck Godfrey discusses the production of “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse”

MakingOf: So fans obviously would love to be onset, but they’re not. So, could you tell us, could you paint a picture for us, or maybe let’s just pick one of your favorite scenes to shoot and tell us what…

(Wyck Godfrey): In Eclipse?

(MO): Yeah, in Eclipse, take us behind the scenes.

(WG): I think that the most exciting sequence for us was the battle sequence. We had a huge open field; we built this kind of central organic structure; this tree and this rock that sort of allows you to sort of understand where you are in the sequence. But the amount of cranes and cables and stunt wiring to kind of create the battle between the Cullens, and the New Borns, and the Wolves was a blast to do and it was really complicated and we went in months before hand and kind of leveled the land and created all our kind of pick point of where the stunts and gags were going to be pre-visioning the bits of action because of course there are no wolves in the scene so you have to have the animation so you can say “ok, if the wolf is going to come over here we got to have a guy jerk out right at that moment.” And sort of planning that stuff is a blast and to me those scenes are fun because all of the nitpicky painstaking technical stuff you go through gets thrown out of the window and you actually see the movie and it just looks like an action sequence. So, I’ve always of loved shooting action; that was blast.

(MO):  The Cullen back-stories’ were a nice touch; was there one that you liked the most and can you tell us about it?

(WG): Well, I think they’re both great because they reflect onto what Bella’s going through. She has to come face to face with what life as a newborn Vampire will be like. With Jackson, it’s about the animalistic dangerous nature of them. Seeing Jackson as a fighter is like shooting a Western, which was a blast. But she has to say, “I’m going to be out of control. I’m going to have bloodlust. I’m not going to be able to control myself,” which is really saying “you’re not going to be who you are now. I know you think you want to be a Vampire now but you need to realize you’re going to be a different person.” And with Rosalie, I think that’s probably my favorite only because Rosalie’s more of a question mark in the movie. I think you feel “why is she such a bitch?” Haha, and I think you see that once you know what happened to her, it humanizes her in a really rich way. You see what she’s gone through, and I feel like the fans will enjoy that aspect of her character.

MO: So this was a 50-day shoot, and it’s a big production. Talk to us a little about the challenges you face as a producer.

(WG): I think the biggest challenges are normally you’d have a really long production schedule and also a long second unit schedule. We shot a lot concurrently with the second unit and the main unit and you’ve got a new director who you know is getting to know all the actors for the first time, and so you really want to be around for all of that. And you’ve got a new second unit director who’s also new, who’s often working with other actors. We kind of put our actors into the action; we don’t just shoot stuntmen. There’s a lot of “I can’t be two places at once,” and there is a lot of running back and forth, and getting a call going “ so and so has a question about why he’s doing this piece action because he thinks his character wouldn’t do this.” Meanwhile, David’s in it with Kristin and Rob are in a very intimate scene, and you want to be both places, so I think because of our time schedule and really trying to deliver the films when we wanted to have them in theaters, that was the only part I think that was a little pulling your hair out going “where am I today? Am I in main unit or second unit?

<end>