The Pregnant Pause and other Whedon Trademarks
POSTED BY: manwithpez
UPDATED: Saturday, March 17, 2007 23:54
VIEWED: 14666
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Everyone on this site is probably more than familiar with Joss Whedon's style of writing. It has its own quirks and is even referred to in Hollywood as a standard to strive for in some instances. But, what is it that makes it so great? What are the individual trademarks of a Joss Whedon presentation?
A few of my favorites...the pregnant pause...if you look down at my signature, these very few lines took what seemed like a lifetime to deliver...and I loved it. I don't know if its written into the script, but it seems like it occurs in all his shows. Another is the bombdrop on any kind of real happy. If you're a character in a Whedon show, and it looks like things are going you're way (and I mean really, really going your way...like, perfect happiness) then you better watch out. Angel, Buffy, Wesley (especially Wesley, after waiting 3 years for Fred, he finally got her, and what happened...SEE!)Willow, Mal, Simon (Who finally gets his sister back, but has to pay his personal freedom, and what he got back was not what had left his home.) Giles (Finally gets Jenny Calendar and BAM!!! Angelus!)
And, finally, I love the humor injected into what should be a dramatic scene. A perfect example is that lovely scene between River and Simon where she's trying to explain that she really is putting forth the effort to feel like a girl again, and ends this diatribe by telling Simon she threw up on his bed. HA! Or in the Buffy episode "Checkpoint" where Buffy gives a longwinded speech about what being a Slayer really is and demands that the Watcher's Council tell her what Glory is. The answer is given, and her reply is not given until the credits start to roll. It kinda shouldn't have been funny, but it sure was.
Anbody know anymore?
Kaylee: "What's so damn important about being proper? It don't mean nothing out here in the black."
Simon: "It means more out here. It's all I have..."
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Wow! Talk about opening the floodgates... this is a great question and one that demands much time to think about...
Then again:
One of my favourites is from the second season of Buffy - where Principal Shnieder and Giles are walking along the outside of the school and Schnieder is lamenting the 'sorry state of teenagers today' and how 'they're all just hormoned up timebombs waiting to go off!', and then there's a lovely cut away of Giles seeing Miss Calendar and becoming utterly speechless around her, while Schnieder contimues his rant about inability of Teens to think of anything other than sex....
Unfortunately I can't remember all the dialogue but this is where Joss' strenghts are, in taking a bland randomless rant and making it so beautifully poignant that we can all relate to the situation taking place and sympathise whole heartedly with the characters.
Man there are so many I'll have to come back to this.
Nice question though - Ohh just remembered Spikes Speech about love (2nd Season) and how violent it is once it's in you. Always loved that will look it up tonight.
One more Joss-ism is, the evil or bad characters being the tool for telling the 'Truth' when you really don't want to hear it.... Followed by the obligatory gaze down to the ground.
Cheers
The
Somnambulist
www.cirqus.com
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I think another is having a character that's presented with a problem early in the episode come up with the answer quickly, and then dismiss it. Giles did this in "Once More With Feeling" and, to a certain extent, Mal did it in "Out of Gas"
It doesn't always work so good, but when it does, its truly funny!
Kaylee: "What's so damn important about being proper? It don't mean nothing out here in the black."
Simon: "It means more out here. It's all I have..."
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I like the 'undercutting the evil villain' idea... used to great effect at least twice in Firefly, first where Dobbs was shot right with barely a word-afterwards right in the middle of being threatening, and in The Train Job with the whole "This is all the money Niska gave us in advance." scene. Also used in Buffy numerous times (in Anne, where the big villain was standing too close to an edge and was killed by the guest star with just a little push, in the middle of his big speech, and when Spike was captured by the Initiative in the middle of his 'the big bad is back' speech).
Also, there's the 'hot-but-shy-seeming redhead comes onto the main male character in a situation it'd be wrong for him to accept', which is used at least once in Buffy, Angel, and Firefly! ;) (Okay, Joss only wrote one of the episodes involved, directed but didn't write another, and did neither for the other but it was before he had other shows so was probably tangentially involved).
Star Pilot Grainger
"Remember, the enemy's gate is down."
LJ: http://www.livejournal.com/users/newnumber6 (real)
http://www.livejournal.com/users/alternaljournal (fictional, travelling through another world)
Unreachable Star: http://www.unreachablestar.net - Comics & SF News/Reviews/Opinions
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All the writers who have given interviews have said that while the idea for an episode is theirs, and mostly, that idea gets through, its Joss in the details. He had his hand in virtually every episode produced under his name.
And, can I say that I love that certain bad guys get away to come back later...I'm sure Jubal Early would have been back, but The First in Buffy, as well as Sweet in "Once More With Feeling", Niska and Saffron, Skip on Angel.
Also, I like the idea of the evil within. Its in every group presented on a Joss Whedon show. Jayne and River in Firefly, Willow in Buffy, Wesley, Angel, Cordelia, Gunn...hell, everyone on Angel did something cataclysmically wrong at some point. While Jayne and River aren't strictly evil, neither was Gunn (or Wes) and his actions led to Fred's death. (Which, by the way, I think they came down on him way too hard for.)
The idea of evil as ambiguity challenges your idea of what evil really is, and is a hallmark of every Joss Whedon show!
Kaylee: "What's so damn important about being proper? It don't mean nothing out here in the black."
Simon: "It means more out here. It's all I have..."
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Quote:
Originally posted by StarPilotGrainger:
(Okay, Joss only wrote one of the episodes involved, directed but didn't write another, and did neither for the other but it was before he had other shows so was probably tangentially involved).
When you listen to the commentaries,
or hear the writers talk at conventions,
and they all say that when they get complicated on a particular joke in one of their episodes,
it is invariably one that Joss inserted into their script.
So I think Joss was always pretty 'hands on' even when he was involved in all three shows at once.
He just isn't enough of an egotist to insist on writting credit every time he contributes to a script.
Anyway, I also love the under-cutting thing.
Like in 'War Stories' when Nitska is going to make Zoe choose between her Captain and her husband...and she interupts him saying:
"This one [points at Wash], oh, you were going to make me choose, right?"
and I adore the mini-cliff-hangers as we go to commercial break.
And the joking scene transitions; like in 'Pangs'
Buffy is saying that home is where they have to take you in,
and we cut to poor chipped Spike huddled in a blanket,
like the Little Match Girl (so so funny).
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Quote:
Originally posted by embers:Quote:
Originally posted by StarPilotGrainger:
(Okay, Joss only wrote one of the episodes involved, directed but didn't write another, and did neither for the other but it was before he had other shows so was probably tangentially involved).
When you listen to the commentaries,
or hear the writers talk at conventions,
and they all say that when they get complicated on a particular joke in one of their episodes,
it is invariably one that Joss inserted into their script.
So I think Joss was always pretty 'hands on' even when he was involved in all three shows at once.
He just isn't enough of an egotist to insist on writting credit every time he contributes to a script.
Yeah, I just think in that particular case it could have been a coincidence and written into all three more or less separately by the different writers, since they all flowed pretty naturally from (or in some cases were integral to) the plot, rather than a Whedon trademark. I just noticed that each show had one of those when watching a rerun of Untouched the other day.
Star Pilot Grainger
"Remember, the enemy's gate is down."
LJ: http://www.livejournal.com/users/newnumber6 (real)
http://www.livejournal.com/users/alternaljournal (fictional, travelling through another world)
Unreachable Star: http://www.unreachablestar.net - Comics & SF News/Reviews/Opinions
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Quote:
Originally posted by manwithpez:
All the writers who have given interviews have said that while the idea for an episode is theirs, and mostly, that idea gets through, its Joss in the details. He had his hand in virtually every episode produced under his name.
I see you were writing pretty much the same point as me (above)...I'm just too slow w/my posting.
sorry about that.
Quote:
Gunn and his actions led to Fred's death. (Which, by the way, I think they came down on him way too hard for.)
well Wesley's stabbing him was kind of the insane Wesley...
but actually I thought it was right to blame Gunn,
he knew there was something very wrong with what he was signing,
and that someone innocent would pay for his brain upgrade...
OTOH I always thought everyone was way too easy on Xander:
he called the demon in 'Once More With Feeling'
and people died,
but Xander knew that calling demons was no small thing,
he'd been working with the slayer for six years and had no business being so stupid and irresponsible.
When you know there will be consequences then you are kind of responsible for bringing them on.
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My favourite is in an old (pre-chipped Spike) Buffy ep (can't recall the title). Spike watches Buffy walk away after a tussle in the graveyard, and makes this dark, ominous, badass speech about how he will make her throat his chalice and drink deep. . .
Ominous pause. Spike turns to walk away--
And falls into an open grave. 
-----
We applied the cortical electrodes but were unable to get a neural reaction from either patient.
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Ohh Just remembered the slow mo' fight between Xander and Harmony in season 4.
That had me almost crying with laughter !!! That was genius. Especially as they both decide to give up and just walk home afterwards :)
The
Somnambulist
www.cirqus.com
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