The Pregnant Pause and other Whedon Trademarks
POSTED BY: manwithpez
UPDATED: Saturday, March 17, 2007 23:54
VIEWED: 14666
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I don't know that much about Whedon. Big fan of our BDH's, but I've never seen an episode of either BUFFY OR ANGEL (it's one of my summer projects to rent all the seasons of each of them so that I can finally join in on BUFFY/ANGEL threads). But of the Whedon I have seen, another trademark is that while there may be a sarcastic line thrown in the middle of a tense or serious scene, it doesn't disrupt the flow of the dialogue. It's still tense, but you can give a slight chuckle without losing that pins and needles feeling. Perfect example of it is in OBJECTS IN SPACE.
River: She understands. She doesn't comprehend.
Mal: Well I'm glad we've made that distinction. No touching guns.
River: No touching.
What I find interesting is that a lot of the best screenwriters have both a similar and distict style of dialouge with the characters. Joss Whedon, Kevin Smith, Alan Ball, Quentin Tarantino, Alexander Payne/Jim Taylor, the Coens, etc. They are famous for their rat-a-tat, blink and you'll miss it humor in their dialogue. But if you listen to their screenplays and figure out the prevailent style, what they're saying, what emphasis they give and all that, you can figure out that each of them has their own iambic pentameters.
For example, Whedon uses monolouges very seldomly. And usually before, during or after the monologues , there's a sort of denouement of it. (After Simon's monologue in the pilot, Mal shoots back with a sarcastic "Yeah, it's a tale of woe." And in JAYNESTOWN, Jayne admits that he's not much with words, which is why he doesn't use them.) But Kevin Smith loves long, prosaic monolouges that show off the character's attitude and opinions, as well as a peppering of swear words that become more like commas than vulgarities.
Kevin Smith and Quentin Tarantino are big into comic culture. Both have written monologues dealing with Superman. But Quentin's monolouge is about the logistics of being (when Bill is talking about how Clark Kent is Superman's satiric commentary on humans) while Kevin's is about the logistics of doing (the Kryptonite condom scene in MALLRATS).
Alex Payne/Jim Taylor and Alan Ball are probably the more grown up of the writers I've mentioned here, since they focus on regular domestic life with nothing too fantastic in their works. The Payne/Taylor combo seems to focus on characters that are either really smart or simple minded, but both lack basic social etiquette, and at least one of the characters is in a constant state of misanthropy. This next bit is from SIDEWAYS.
Miles: Okay, so what's the plan?
Jack: Uh... the plan is... you go.
Miles: ME?
Jack: 'Cause of my ankle. Still hurts. Just go explain the situation, Miles.
Miles Raymond: [laughs uproariously] Explain the situation? Yes. 'Excuse me, sir, my friend was the one balling your wife couple of hours ago. Really sorry. He seems to have left his wallet behind. I was wondering if I come in, just poke around, I don't know'
Jack: Yeah, yeah, just like that. That's good.
And while Payne does make culture references, like Tarantino and Smith, he's a bit more high minded with them. (an entire movie focuses on wine, with references to Hemingway, Sexton, Plath, Woolf, Bukowsky and John Kennedy Toole) And while both Payne/Taylor and Ball's screenplays deal with misanthropic characters who attain a sense of clarity and understanding at the end, in Ball's superb AMERICAN BEAUTY, it's fully realized, while in SIDEWAYS, it's not as obvious and a bit more ambiguous.
"I had always heard your entire life flashes in front of your eyes the second before you die. First of all, that one second isn't a second at all, it stretches on forever, like an ocean of time... For me, it was lying on my back at Boy Scout camp, watching falling stars... And yellow leaves, from the maple trees, that lined my street... Or my grandmother's hands, and the way her skin seemed like paper... And the first time I saw my cousin Tony's brand new Firebird... And Janie... And Janie... And... Carolyn. I guess I could be pret
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reginaroadie: you should definely check out Buffy, because there are many references to Joss Whedon's love of comics
(have you read his 'Astonishing X-men' series?).
JW is on purposely avoiding any cultural references in Firefly (500 years in the future you know) but Buffy is rife with them!
Anyway one thing he didn't really get around to in Firefly,
but did beautifully in BtVS was the misdirected comedy
(okay that is probably the wrong term for it).
In 'Dopplegang Land' the Scoobie gang all think Willow is dead and has turned into a Vampire,
but the audience knows that isn't true:
so everything Giles, Buffy & Xander say is very funny to us,
but they themselves are miserable and mourning...
it creates a subtle comedy that few could carry off,
and Joss Whedon does it brilliantly!
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Most television series don't try to do alinear storylines...But Firefly did one with great success..."Out of Gas".
I mention this to mention probably what I thought was the best use of A-B-C storylines ever on television. "The Zeppo" on Buffy...What would normally be a B storyline on any other show is given all the attention. The A story of another possible apocalypse with the reopening of the Hellmouth is relegated to mostly offscreen, while Xander is put centerstage. I thought it was inspired storytelling. Its also a story contrivance that I think would have suited Firefly very well, given the size of the principle cast.
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:
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).
Buffy Season 4, Halloween Episode (the haunted fraternity house): The demon finally emerges. It looks really scary. How are they going to deal with this thing? Then the zoom out, and it's 6 inches tall. "Fear Me!" in a high-pitched voice. Brilliant.
I mock you with my monkey pants.
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Cybersnark, isn't the episode you were mentioning (where Spike goes blah blah blah and falls into an open grave) the one with Dracula? Underrated ep - not ruined by a subpar Dracula as some have suggested.
I'm not sure exactly where it fits in the realm of the different ways Joss uses humor, but reading this thread got me thinking about Mal shooting Patience's horse. She yells, "Don't you take another step," and Mal gets that "screw this crap" look on his face and shoots the horse. First time I saw it, I laughed for about two minutes straight, then realized I was laughing like crazy while PETA people were grinding their teeth uncontrollably. Good times.
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... and THAT'S why I love Firefly.
- STEVEthePIRATE, 4.13.05 (signature changed to abide by the FFF.net rules set forth by the amazing Zoid
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To paraphrase Schwarzeneggar in "Twins":
"You forgot the second rule in a crisis situation. If you're going to use a horse for cover, you must be prepared to have your horse shot."
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 grrarrg:Quote:
Originally posted by StarPilotGrainger:
I like the 'undercutting the evil villain' idea...
Buffy Season 4, Halloween Episode (the haunted fraternity house): The demon finally emerges. It looks really scary. How are they going to deal with this thing? Then the zoom out, and it's 6 inches tall. "Fear Me!" in a high-pitched voice. Brilliant.
oh yes, I remember the first time I saw that episode,
the fear demon appears and I thought:
"there is only 5 minutes left in the show?
How can they possibly defeat this thing?"
and then we see it is 6" tall! LOL
and ManWithPez:
yes, I loved the shooting of the horse,
and I thought Joss (or someone) said in the commentary that there were surprisingly few objecting to shooting the horse.
Of course it was clearly for the humor....
and right afterwards Mal puts a bullet in the law man's head.
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Quote:
I mention this to mention probably what I thought was the best use of A-B-C storylines ever on television. "The Zeppo" on Buffy...What would normally be a B storyline on any other show is given all the attention. The A story of another possible apocalypse with the reopening of the Hellmouth is relegated to mostly offscreen, while Xander is put centerstage. I thought it was inspired storytelling.
That is one of my all-time faves. It shocked me how many people missed the point. "Why were they focusing on Xander? There was an apocalypse!" Wonderful twist on conventional storytelling, and a nice goof on themselves. One of my favorite scenes is when Xander walks into the obligatory "Buffy/Angle Angst Scene" with the over-blown score and acting. The way Buffy and Angel awkwardly stare at Xander when he interrupts: Genius!
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I have to agree, Joss does wonderful undercutting of his villans. One of my favorite instances is on the Buffy episode "A New Man" when Ethan Rayne starts monologing (sp?), and Giles comes back in and interrupts him. Makes me laugh every time!
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Giles: Oh, bloody hell, the inscription.
Buffy: What's the matter?
Giles: I should have translated the Gaelic inscription under the illustration of Gachnar.
Buffy: What's it say?
Giles: 'Actual size.'
Bwaaahaahaaa! The best humorous ending to a BUFFY, ever!
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