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Post by Queen E on Jul 14, 2005 14:02:41 GMT -5
Today's Trivia Stumper:
What Angel cast member appears in the lecture hall in the opening dream sequence in the lecture hall in "Hush"?
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Post by Lola m on Jul 14, 2005 16:23:17 GMT -5
Today's Trivia Stumper: What Angel cast member appears in the lecture hall in the opening dream sequence in the lecture hall in "Hush"? I know!! I know!! But I'm gonna let others guess to see who else knows. ;D
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Post by Spaced Out Looney on Jul 14, 2005 17:37:30 GMT -5
Well, maybe. There are definite similarities in style, but the drawings are too indistinct to be sure. Pity nobody asked Fury about the pics in "Buffy temple" during Sacramento con! He did commentaries to Crush, and, according to reports, was mainly teasing fans. "at every scene with Spike looking sad or Buffy being bitchy to Spike, Fury would whisper, "He's EVIL!" At every shot of Spike vamping, etc., Fury would squeal, "See? EVIL!" At every "aww" of Spike sympathy from the audience, Fury would moan, "Evil." It was pretty obvious that he wasn't really trying to convince any of us to change our minds -- I think he long ago realized the futility of that -- he was just teasing back and forth with us, and everyone in the audience seemed to be having a good time with it. He also threw in lots of fake dialogue, sound effects, etc., that had us rolling with laughter. " (from SockMonkey report) I'm soooo OT here - sorry. Re Hush I think that Joss is intrigued by the notion of communication in general and verbal communication in particular. I started watching Firefly and I'm enchanted by his idea to insert Chinese phrases here and there - the way it's impossible to know for sure if it's just throwaway phrases or some information crucial to the plot development. I'm talking from the viewpoint of a foreigner who sometimes watches DVDs in English and always has a dilemma of watching with or without subtitles. My foreign ears can't catch 100% of the dialogues - usually I understand about 80% if I watch without subtitles. But the very situation when you're delving into foreign speech is fascinating - you subconsciously try to figure out the meaning of the scene relying on non-verbal aspects - characters' gesticulation, expressions on their faces etc. When you watch the film without fully understanding the dialogues, you tend to fill the blanks with additional meanings. I did an interesting experiment once - I watched Hush in black-and white (I have an mpg videofile which can be watched with a program that allows different manipulations with brightness, colors etc). For me the episode played *very* differently when I watched it in a eerily "silent movie" mode. It was more weird, more creepy and, in a way, more convincing. Anyway, the most powerful aspect, for me, is the contraposition of two sequences which, in a way, describe two opposite situations when people are silent around each other. The first is the scene Olivia arrival - she and Giles exchange some trivial words and proceed to actions. Obviously they're so comfortable around each other they can easily skip the conversation part. The second scene is between Buffy and Riley in the end. They don't talk, but the reason of their silence is completely opposite - they're too uncomfortable around each other. watching it in black and white... that's a really neat idea! I wish I could do that. So it occurred to me today that I could use the menu features change the color on my tv to black and white. So I tried watching it that way and it was fantastic. I highly recommend it. If JW had actually filmed it that way (there are parts that are shadowy) I would totally rank the episode higher on my list.
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Post by leftylady on Jul 14, 2005 17:43:54 GMT -5
I love this episode. Truly love it. Since I like scary movies this plays into that in that it is the scariest Buffy episode written. A masterpiece in my opinion. [snip] I know this episode was all about communication but in a weird way you could also say it illustrated the dangers of growing up. At least for the college student - he went away to college and his heart was torn out and he couldnt' speak or do anything about it. Doesn't that always happen? Your heart gets torn out and all you can do is watch. Yes, how gruesome. Getting your heart ripped out, literally. How very Whedonverse this theme. We later had echoes of this with Gunn who could speak and certainly could do something about it but chose nonetheless to atone for his role in Fred's death in just that way, even rejecting Hamilton's "get out of the basement free" card. It didn't ring a bell for me at the time I watched "Underneath", but your comments, Pixi, brought the idea home.
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Post by leftylady on Jul 14, 2005 18:06:41 GMT -5
So, thoughts about Hush... [snip] *Willow pretty much dismisses the wicca group. Granted, they probably didn't know about what they're talking about, Tara doesn't think much of them, and from the commentary, JW seems to indicate that his intention was that they were pretty much useless. However, I find it to be another sign of Willow's descent that she so completely dismisses the spirituality, life force and Gaia in favor of just learning whatever spells are neat and useful. The portrayal of the wicca group in The Killer In Me makes me wonder if Willow really didn't give them a fair chance. I more of less got the opposite impression: that the campus Wiccans with the talk of bake sales etc were more or less "playing" at wicca-hood. That Willow, after all the involvement in serious world saveage of the past 3 year including re-ensouling Angelus via Jenny's covered spell, was dismayed at the naive (and somewhat empty) attitudes of the group, that this was serious (and powerful) business. Which is ironic since we later saw Willow go dark from not fully appreciating the responsibility that went with the power. She never seemed to learn the proper use of magic from Giles, who until the events of Bargaining, seemed willing to let her do whatever magic was necessary at the point of apocalypse. Giles, ever the pragmatist. Perhaps she would have benefitted from tutelage from a more experienced group (like Giles' coven). But I doubt that the campus wannabes as they were at the time would have had any affect on Willow's progress. In "The Killer in Me", the group was then joined by Amy, who we have seen to be powerful, even in Season 1, but definitely not any more responsible than Willow. In fact Amy led Willow further down the wrong path to magic abuse.
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Post by Lola m on Jul 14, 2005 19:57:49 GMT -5
Since it's such a visual episode, here's some sexy and pretty and fun and sweet pics from Hush. You guys got any more? ;D
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Post by Moscow Watcher on Jul 16, 2005 14:04:24 GMT -5
I listened the Hush commentary. Some interesting tidbits (besides those which are mentioned in all "Trivia" lists):
--Whedon talks about SMG's contribution - during the slideshow Buffy indignantly points out to Giles that she looks fat on his drawing. A gem.
-- Whedon calling Gentlemen "my boys" with pride is priceless - as well as his chuckling when Anya shows Xander with her hands that she wants sex.
-- Whedon says that he considers the scariest the moment when Olivia stands by the window, sees Gentleman on the other side of the street and suddenly another Gentleman appears right behind the glass. The mis-en-scene is very similar to Jaws (when Richard Dreyfuss' characters stumbles upon a drown man in the underwater sequence). "We need a bigger boat" in Graduation is open Jaws reference; this may be a hidden one.
-- Whedon mentions "Victorian feel which for me is very creepy and fairy-tale-like" - and in a year he will settle William in Victorian society.
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Post by SpringSummers on Jul 16, 2005 17:55:55 GMT -5
I listened the Hush commentary. Some interesting tidbits (besides those which are mentioned in all "Trivia" lists): --Whedon talks about SMG's contribution - during the slideshow Buffy indignantly points out to Giles that she looks fat on his drawing. A gem. -- Whedon calling Gentlemen "my boys" with pride is priceless - as well as his chuckling when Anya shows Xander with her hands that she wants sex. -- Whedon says that he considers the scariest the moment when Olivia stands by the window, sees Gentleman on the other side of the street and suddenly another Gentleman appears right behind the glass. The mis-en-scene is very similar to Jaws (when Richard Dreyfuss' characters stumbles upon a drown man in the underwater sequence). "We need a bigger boat" in Graduation is open Jaws reference; this may be a hidden one. -- Whedon mentions "Victorian feel which for me is very creepy and fairy-tale-like" - and in a year he will settle William in Victorian society. Yes, I love the commentary, too. I don't think Joss begins to tell us all the little stuff he's woven into that ep . . . but then, he never does.
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Post by Moscow Watcher on Jul 16, 2005 18:17:23 GMT -5
I don't think Joss begins to tell us all the little stuff he's woven into that ep . . . but then, he never does. He sounds very ironic, especially when he talks about himself. Well, the very idea of audio commentary on the "silence is gold" concept is pretty twisted. Whedon's inflections are also telling - it's obvious that he enjoys rewatching the episode and reliving the experience of shooting it.
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Post by Lola m on Jul 17, 2005 18:03:37 GMT -5
I don't think Joss begins to tell us all the little stuff he's woven into that ep . . . but then, he never does. He sounds very ironic, especially when he talks about himself. Well, the very idea of audio commentary on the "silence is gold" concept is pretty twisted. Whedon's inflections are also telling - it's obvious that he enjoys rewatching the episode and reliving the experience of shooting it. I hadn't thought about that irony before - audio commentary on a "silent" episode. I also like how he talked about wanting to challenge himself as a director / creator. That he felt he was getting too . . . predictable. Too "ordinary TV style" in his camera work and so on. And that the lack of dialog would force him to be more creative with the visuals.
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