insightful Set visit diary

May 7, 2009, 3:04PM The Vancouver afternoon is wet and gloomy. The peaks of the North Shore Mountains are obscured in fog. This is weather that might lure out a vampire. Or so I hope. I’m in Vancouver to find them.

Amid the gas stations, superstores and baseball fields of the industrial south side of the city is Vancouver Sound Studios. Our van rolls into the parking lot, and suddenly, I am at the epicenter of a worldwide sensation and a billion teenage (and middleage and every other age) fantasies.

This is the set of New Moon.

3:36PM Our passes for the day say “USM,” for “Untitled Sports Movie.” Seems New Moon, which has been filming here and around Vancouver since March 23, is a major covert operation.

3:37PM The five other reporters and I are escorted onto Stage B. The soundstage is a massive warehouse filled by a nearly-as-massive set. On its outside, the structure looks like a plywood shell, but a glimpse through the door reveals an ornate marble palace very similar in appearance to a traditional Italian cathedral. I have entered the Volturri lair.

3:40PM A bank of monitors display what New Moon director Chris Weitz is filming on the other side of the wall. Onscreen now are Dakota Fanning and Cameron Bright, both Twilight Saga newbies, sporting deathly pallors and red contact lenses. The pretty woman with the long glossy hair sitting to my right is Stephenie Meyer. The only way I could get closer to central command of the Twilight universe would be to climb on her lap and ask her to tell me a story.

3:45PM Michael Sheen, as the Volturri leader Aro, taunts Edward on the other side of wall. The scene goes like this:

Aro: “Let’s see if she’s immune to all of us, shall we Jane.”

[Cut to Dakota. Her black-rimmed red-centered eyes coordinate with her evil little smirk. Sinister. Whoever she’s directing her gaze towards — presumably Bella — is in for a world of hurt. Jane’s power is the ability to inflict pain.]

3:55PM A group of male, seemingly Volturri-affiliated vampires hang out under a pop-up tent. All are dressed in black suits. Some read and others play with their phones. They all wear red contacts, which are, out of context, alarming.

3:57PM A second tent is for the New Moon royalty. No one is inside, but the back of one director’s chair reads “Alice Cullen.” On the other two, “Edward Cullen” and “Bella Swan” have been taped over. Someone took a Sharpie to the tape and scrawled “Robert” and “Kristen,” respectively, in big block letters. Robert’s chair is in the middle. Make of this what you will.

read whole set from Hollywood.com HERE