In class we have been discussing the different aspects that make up a film. I decided to use the film Twilight and discuss the literary design, visual design, and sound design.
Like most people that read the Twilight series I could not wait for the movie to come out. While the movie was a little disappointing, the literary design was closely related to the book. Both the movie and the book take place in present day time in Forks, Washington. The movie shows Forks as being a dark, rainy, small town. The movie and book are both told from Bella Swans point of view. Bella Swan is a high school girl who has just moved to Forks to live with her dad Charlie, a police officer. Bella uses the modern day speech, along with the majority of characters in the movie. Edward Cullen, a vampire, is also a high school student. Edward’s speech is more outdated than the other characters in the film, since he has been around since the 20th century. The other vampires in his family also use outdated speech. In our book America on Film the authors state “ Film is capable of many devices: metaphor, irony, satire, allegory, and so forth” (pg 4). In Twilight there are many different metaphors they use; one is when Edward makes a comment about how the lion fell in love with the lamb. The clip below is a clip from the movie where Edward uses that metaphor.
While reading the book I figured out the literary design pretty easily, but the movie really helped with the visual design. In the movie the characters are dressed in contemporary clothing styles. Even the vampires are dressed to fit the present day clothing styles. The Cullen’s have money, so there clothes are more designer looking clothes, and more in fashion. The kids also dress more like high school kids, and the adults dress in more professional clothes. Make up is another way they helped to differentiate the Cullen’s from the rest of the people. The actors that played the vampires all had to get their skin bleached, so they could be extremely pale, compared to the rest of the population. They also had to dye Jacob Black’s characters skin to make him darker to play a Native American. The way they styled the characters hair was also a way to get the actors into character. Emmet Cullen’s actor is naturally blonde, for the movie they dyed his hair dark brown, Rosalie Cullen is naturally a brunette and for the movie they dyed her hair blonde. Another thing the movie did well was make the vampires look perfect and beautiful at all times, while the other characters look like every day people. The vampires in the book are described by Bella as the most beautiful thing she has ever seen. In the movies the vampires are all good looking. The vehicles the Cullen family drives are newer vehicles which are extremely nice. Bella and the majority of the high school kids in Forks, drive older cars that have gotten their use. Below I have two pictures. One is of the Rosalie Cullen’s vehicle which is a Mercedes Benz. The other picture is of Bella’s 1986 Volkswagen Rabbit. You can see that Bella’s vehicle is not quite as nice as Rosalie’s car.
The sound design of the movie definitely adds to the movie. At different times in the movie they use different sounds and songs to portray the actor’s emotions or how the audience should be feeling. “Most films have a musical score that the audience can hear but which the characters cannot” (pg 5). In different parts of the movie they have scenes in which there is music on in the background that the audience hears and helps the audience understand how the characters are feeling at that given time. In the clip below the Cullen’s and Bella are outside playing baseball, the music is faster and gives the audience a feeling of fun. At the same time the audience is getting a feeling of anticipation, as if something is going to happen.
After having seen the Twilight movie, and looking at the literary design, visual design, and sound design it gives me a better understanding of what all have to go into making a movie. In the clip below is the Twilight trailer. While watching it notice the literary, visual and sound designs the film represents.
