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Interview With Richard Sherman: Production Designer on Isle Esme Location

December 2, 2011

Architectural Digest has covered the Isle Esme house before, almost a year ago (see Lexicon coverage here). Now they are back talking specifics with Richard Sherman.


ARCHITECTURAL DIGEST: How did you choose the Bernardes + Jacobsen house for Edward and Bella’s Brazilian honeymoon?

RICHARD SHERMAN: We looked at pictures and found a house we loved. But two days later we learned it was going to be blown up because it had been built illegally. The next morning I got on a plane to Brazil, hopped on a boat, and went through countless islands along the coastline south of Rio. It took us four weeks to finally find the Bernardes + Jacobsen house, which had a tropical modern interior and was located near Paraty on the coast that we liked.


AD: Did you change anything about the house?

RS: For the movie we actually created our own exterior—what’s visible when you approach the house by boat—in the visual effects department. What you see of the real house is the front door, the steps leading up to it, the veranda, and all those glass doors. I loved the interior. We made a big open kitchen and living room. Some of the scenes that take place inside the house were actually shot on soundstages in Louisiana, where we created a courtyard, a bathroom, and the bedroom where Edward and Bella spend their wedding night. It was a seamless set—you really couldn’t tell the difference between the house and our stages.

AD: How closely did you follow the descriptions in the book when filming in Brazil?

RS: In some cases we really veered away from the book. What works well on the page doesn’t always work well on film. The location was challenging. Stephenie Meyer, who wrote the novels, set the honeymoon on an island in the middle of nowhere. Brazil is famous for its many islands down the coastline from Rio to Paraty. When you look out from the location where we shot, you don’t just see a horizon of water, as she wrote, but all these beautiful tropical islands. In the end it all worked out very well.

Read more on Architectural Digest

Via TwiFans

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Isle Esme House in Brazil In Danger of Destruction

March 8, 2011

Blog TwiBrasil tipped us off to this one. It seems that the house where they shot Breaking Dawn’s honeymoon scenes is in an environmentally protected area, and may have to come down. Read the original Portuguese and the translation on Blog TwiBrasil.

Hopefully all the footage shot there is fine because reshoots on that location are not looking good as of now.

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Isle Esme Shooting Location Featured in Architectural Digest

December 12, 2010

TY to Jason for the heads up on this!

Architectural Digest has a fantastic photo spread and story on the house that served as the Isle Esme location. According to AD, “Halfway between São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, off the BR-101 highway, lies a corner of Brazil bounded by forested mountains that edge their way down to the sea. The Saco do Mamanguá, a tropical fjord, cuts between the mainland and the peninsula of Juatinga, where ridges approaching 1,600 feet frame a narrow bay; this pristine spot is where businessman Ícaro Fernandes, his wife, Cristina, and their five children, ranging in age from three to 24, come to trade life in the urban jungle of São Paulo for waterskiing and dolphin-watching. On weekends, the clan braves São Paulo’s notorious traffic to make the nearly three-hour drive to the colonial town of Paraty, where they hop onto a speedboat for the short ride to their beachfront home. ”

Here’s the master bedroom’s (seen above) description, “The walls and ceiling of the master bedroom are covered in woven-straw panels, the work of artisans in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais.”

Leading out of the master bedroom, “Like a rope bridge in the jungle, a walkway with eucalyptus railings spans from the master bedroom on one side of the living room across to the children’s rooms.”

Here’s the View from the living room. You can see where the flotilla of photographers were moored while filming was going on.”Friends moor their boats right off the beach when they visit. The plantation chairs and other outdoor furniture, all made of tropical hardwoods, are from Bali and Brazil.”

You can read more on the history of the house here, and see an awesome slide show here

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Breaking Dawn Set Broken Into By Brazilian TV Crew

November 15, 2010

The Brazilian TV show Panico somehow managed to get by the the barriers set up at the Isle Esme location and film a bit of what went on inside the house at Ilse Esme, via hidden camera. According to Sérgio Sá Leitão, the president of Rio Filme, the group did not halt production. There was also a brief incident with a helicopter that buzzed the set that caused a slight delay due to the noise.

The video has been pulled down, though there are some still shots popping up around the Internet. Since the footage was obtained by trespassing we are not running the footage if it is reposted. It was taken down due to copyright claim via Summit. Footage obtained standing behind a barrier is one thing, but actually crashing a closed set with a hidden camera is another. It is not known at his time how the individual got on and if he/she had any insider help

Twilight Poison has full coverage of the incident including a history of the Panico TV show and how crashing events(like the Oscars and Michael Jackson’s funeral) is what they do.

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More Photos From Brazil: Waterfall Area and Swimming in Front of Isle Esme Location

November 13, 2010

Again under the cut for those of you looking to avoid spoilers.

SPOILERS UNDER CUT DON’T CLICK IF YOU DON’T WANT TO KNOW

[Read more…]

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Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart on the Beach at Isle Esme Location

November 13, 2010

Well, you knew they didn’t truck all that extra sand in for nothing! We are going to put these below a spoiler cut. It’ s not a huge plot reveal, but since it’s Isle Esme, an actual filmed moment, and some people are trying to stay spoiler free, it’s under a spoiler cut. All images from Ego and IG via Foforks

SPOILER DO NOT CLICK IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO SEE

[Read more…]

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Breaking Dawn Filming: The Fan Experience in Brazil

November 11, 2010

As we guessed yesterday, no one was able to get footage at the Isle Esme location. With a 200 yard perimeter and tarps covering the windows(see photo above), the flotilla of fans and press at sea weren’t able to get anything. The weather initially wasn’t that great, and the dedicated were out there  in rain and choppy seas. See the report on Veja

Fans were also out there like this group from Foforks.

They got up at 5:30 in the morning, traveled several hours to get to Paraty, and rented a boat in bad weather. Check out their story here.

Then there are the fans who actually live in the restricted area where the cast is staying(They rented property there). They actually had the identification necessary to…well… get home.

Nonetheless, the cast in that area is accompanied by tight security and body guards. However, they caught Robert Pattinson’s eye and he must have thought they looked pretty harmless and he cam over and gave them autographs. They saw Kristen too, but she stuck with her body guards. See the whole story on Team Twilight Brazil

Another fan from Foforks made it to the waterfall area where she tried to present Rob and Kristen with a homemade flag.

“The day before their arrival in Paraty, Julia Marques and I were looking for a gift for them, just so they could remember Brazil and take a souvenir with them. We had good ideas, but I remembered a flag my sister had made to go to a concert. And we decided to do a similar one for them. I started doing it at 6:30 p.m. and got to finish it at 10 p.m. It was pretty. I went to bed with my head spinning…We took the bus and then met her uncle, who would take us to Taquari. We went to a an area where there are a lot of waterfalls, but there were no cars, it was all really desert, and it was 9:30 a.m…We ran up to where they allowed us and we sat quietly…Helpers started to arrive. Julia and I became friends with most of them, who gave us chairs, shade and water. We showed them our flag and they were hopeful for us. When it was about 3 p.m., Kristen came down to change her outfit. We saw her going up in white bikini and shorts. She was gorgeous! My vision of her is of a porcelain doll, white, short, her hair in contrast. We started screaming: KRISTEN, KRISTEN!” Read more n English on Foforks

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Filming Inside the Isle Esme House Today

November 10, 2010

BlogTwiBrasil has some really excellent translation of a story that originates here. Click for full spoilers.

“Às 10h30, os atores iniciaram a filmagem dentro da casa e por volta de 13h30 eles foram vistos na praia particular, localizada em frente à mansão, que vem servindo de locação para a quarta saga do filme.

At 10h30 am, the actors began shooting inside the house and around  1h30 pm they were seen on the private beach, located in front of the mansion.


A movimentação de funcionários da produção do longa teve início na hospedagem pouco depois de 8 da manhã. Antes desse horário, o tempo estava muito ruim na região, com ventos fortes e céu nublado. Após esse horário, as nuvens se dissiparam e o sol surgiu.

The movement of production employees began shortly after 8 am. Before, the weather was bad in the region with strong winds and cloudy skies. After this time, the clouds dissipated and the sun came up.”
The long and short of it comes down to, as we earlier reported, with the public held at bay 200 yards off-shore and filming inside, unless they come out on the beach, no one will see a thing. Given the weather, we hope the flotilla off shore is not sea sick.
For background info on who owns this FABULOUS property, check out Twilightish.

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Two Filming Locations Today:Post Edited As New Info Comes In

November 9, 2010

Here is the latest:

  • Filming in the waterfall area began early today
  • The area is not accessible barriers and security have the area sealed off
  • The most you can see are crew trucks(see photos)
  • Stephenie Meyer is not at this location but it is believed that Rob and Kristen and their doubles are
  • Filming should shift later today to the Isle Esme location
  • It is believed that Stephenie Meyer will be at the Isle Esme location
  • There is a veritable flotilla of boats piled with photographers and fans anchored off the island at the 200 yard perimeter established and patrolled by the Brazilian navy. Anyone attempting to break the perimeter will have to deal with the Brazilian navy

We will update this post with anything new.

Photos and source 1, source 2, source 3

SPOILERS(click below if you want to read) [Read more…]

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Isle Esme Resort Profiled

November 8, 2010

FoForks profiled what the Isle Esme resort looked like last week. Here are the details:

“We have dozens of excellent pictures from all angles, places and flavors of the wonderful house that would be used as set on Esme Island, during the shooting of ‘Breaking Dawn’ in Rio, in addition to some other information about the possible location:

Located at a paradisiacal region, the house designed by Thiago Bernardes has a complete infrastructure, with confort and privacy, in 220 meters of private beach. Besides, it has exclusive access by boat or helicopter. The accommodation has 2 suites with King Size beds, 2 suites with twin beds and independent rooms. There are 720 meters of decks and balcony with panoramic view and a complete kitchen. The house can be rented for holydays, with it’s daily rate ranging from 8 to 15 thousand reais ( 5.000 to 9.000 us dollars) , depending of the period of the year. You can check the house’s website at www.casaemparaty.com.br”

On Foforks see:

Aeriel photos of the beach
Outside Photos
Inside Photos

As has been previously reported, the location is reachable only by boat. The cast is taking a helicopter from Rio to a location nearby the island and then a boat from there. The location is completely secure. The public will not be allowed on site to observe from a distance. All crew members have signed strict confidentiality agreements with serious monetary and possible criminal penalties if footage is released.

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