When you think of "The Magic Hour" what comes to mind? In this article "The Magic Hour" refers to Twilight, that hour before darkness fully vanquishes the brightlight of daylight and only the light of the New Moon illuminates a pair lovers in a passionate embrace.

Before we get too far ahead of ourselves we would like to introduce Catherine Hardwicke, the director of Twilight the movie based on the book Twilght by Stephene Meyer.

When you made your 1.5 minute uTube "movie" and emailed the link to your mom and your friends you may have been bitten by the desire to be a "movie-maker" and attempted a longer tale that you and your friends could all play a major part in. But without a script you discovered that you were without "anything to say" after only a few minutes.

Catherine Hardwicke has written the solution for aspiring online movie-makers, Twilight Directors Notebook looks and reads like any graphic novel except that is takes you through the process of conceiving and filming a "Hollywood Movie" in an easily understandable, non-technical format.

Twilight Directors Notebook is also illustrated by Catherine Hardwicke using the "story board" method that is very important for movie makers (you don't have to be an "artist," just practice sketching characters and the clothes they will be wearing.)

Taking your idea and writing a brief "script" will help you avoid running on empty when it comes to "dialog" that will make your scenes flow.

Location Scouting enables you to make the setting and background tell part of your story. The "quality" of the light changing at various times of the day can add to your "cinematography" (videography, in your case.)

In the movie Twilight the cinematography and "color palette" was coordinated by the Director of Photography, Elliot Davis. The greater part of the film was shot in the Multnomah Falls Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area, in the Pacific Rain-forest as the background set the tone for the movie.

A park in your area can be the location and the glaring, hot sun can set the tone of "the look" of your movie about a soccer match  as you make notes in your "shot lists" of the relationship of the sun in the sky and the goal for example.

The Twilight movie's "look" (that has to be continued from scene to scene) was appropriate to the story about a modern day love story between a vampire and a human starring Kristen Stewart as "Bella Swan" and Robert Pattinson as "Edward Cullen." 

The Wardrobe may be important to your movie as the English colonists wore very different clothing in the eighteenth century if your movie is about the Boston Tea Party that is being reenacted today in America's cities and towns. So you have figure out what "thrift shop" clothing can be modified to fit your scenes, or you have to find a professional theatrical costume shop to rent costumes.

Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke makes "layout drawings" that she uses to plan the scenes she is going to shoot in the days ahead because on a movie set with 30 actors and crew members standing around while she and the Director of Photgraphy make adjustments to the shots they have to complete on the various sets can waste a lot of money. Movies are very expensive to make! In your case your "expense" is going to be time and if your "actor" friends get bored they may walk-off and head for CoffeeBucks.

Are your characters going to need Make Up? Sometimes "thrift shops" have wigs that you can use and "garage sales" often have fashion make up that is not in style that can be inexpensive.

For more on the making of the movie Twilight, Click Link: Twilight The Directors Notebook

A Professional Arriflex High-Definition Camera

Music, "The Soundtrack," adds a lot to emphasise the "mood" of your movie. This is a digital "Clapper" that allows Director Catherine Hardwicke to sychronise the sound to the scenes she has shot previously (the various "Takes") in the "editing room" as the movie becomes part of The Twilight Saga.

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