Fellow fansite TwilightersAnonyous had the chance to speak with New Moon director Chris Weitz a while back during their set visit, and they have just now posted an audio interview and transcript of the festivities–

What did you do to make the tone darker? – Have you done anything specific to make it darker as a film?

Chris: Yeah, I think it’s just not to be afraid of the tonalities of the acting and in the tone of the piece. Not, because obviously with a big studio film and a lot of money at stake, you know one can be afraid that if you don’t have people smiling and laughing all the time that you’re gonna be in big trouble. But I think that part of the appeal of this is that it really digs into that melancholy that people experience when they are broken up with: when they lose somebody, when they yearn for somebody, and just not to be afraid of that.

And in terms of the palette of how the world is represented, just to get technical, but for example the blacks are very crunchy there will be very deep shadows, very deep blacks, and literally and metaphorically it makes the colors stand out more.

There will be a period during the movie when things are quite dark and somber, but then there will be kind of this explosion of color when you get to Italy. And there is this kind of ecstatic – and there’s this kind of happiness before and then it loses it all…. and it’s sort of try in every way even in terms of design in different sets and stuff to make sure that each bit, each detail, is a metaphor for where the character is in the book, and you follow Bella’s journey.

It’s also not taking the focus off of Bella’s POV. The book is narrated through Bella. We have to have this very fine balance between having too much and too little Edward. If you have too much Edward, it will be a terrible thing because you want the audience to experience that longing as well, and if you have too little Edward…I’ll be hunted down and killed. It’s just a fine balance that has to be hit basically.

Check out the rest at the excellent TwilightersAnonymous.