Asta 2

Normal Again Dailies

Well, the day has finally arrived. Barring some new ones becoming available, this will be my final dailies post. :( I feel like I've lost my 'thing'. I don't know, I may have to try my hand at a fanfic. Of course, I'm picky in that department and I'll actually need to come up with a plot first. ;)

Coming to the end of my dailies viewing (WAHHHH!!!), I've found a few commonalities amongst them all. First, lots of Sarah smiling before and after takes. The girl does seem to like to keep things light on the set no matter how dark the material (There is one noticable exception to this, but more on that later).

Second, the girl has a great memory. I've mentioned numerous times her cuing the other actors as to what their lines are. In NA, there are several rather long, uninterupted takes of her where she doesn't flub a single word or line. It's odd, but after one take of her confessing to Dawn, Willow, and Xander what has been happening to her she asks "Is any of this usable?" I don't know what she's seeing that I'm not because the take is flawless (except for Nick flubbing a line, but he's off camera). During other takes of that same scene we see her joking around. After "...just part of the delusion in my head" she turns to the camera with a big grin, winks, and states "I got it, I'm done". In another she finshes up with "just noises in my head" and makes hand gestures around her head.

When the camera is on the others as she delivers her lines and Nick has to say "And when you say poke?" Michelle and Aly cannot keep a straight face. I think it takes about four attempts until they can all get it back together.

In the cemetary scene, there are a couple of interesting cuts. After Spike's "Yeah, well...some people can't see a good thing when they've got it." he continues on with "End up dumping the one thing they got going for them." When Xander and Willow approach Spike and Buffy and Buffy makes that lame ass excuse that she was seeing what "dangerous contraband" Spike had she continues on with "probably more demon
eggs...from a smallish demon". In one take it's definitely said in a joking manner, but I'm still glad it was cut. I would have liked the demon egg thing addressed, just not in *that* kind of way.

Oh, then there is the Spander fans dream come true moment. ;) In one take, when Xander and Spike are to go toe to toe, Nick and James end up leaning in at the same time and they seem to realize what it looks like - that they are about to kiss. Soooooo, they decide to play it up, lean in real close (their lips almost touch) and pretend to kiss. They even making kissing noises. While this is going on you hear Aly say "You're gonna kiss" and see her giggling. :-)

Some random bits in these takes.....

James flubs a line, 'cut' is called and James continues with "or something like that".

As they are waiting for the crew to finish setting up a shot Sarah notices what must have been a rather large moon that night. She excitedly says "Cause look at that moon. Look at it! Can we get it in the shot?" Apparently someone tells her no because then next thing you hear is "Shit". :)

On Disc 3 (sadly we have no disc 2 - an incomplete set is better than no set is my motto), there is a lot of stuff of Buffy in the institution. The actor portraying the doctor has a real struggle with his lines. They have to stop and start many times and you see him keep going into his jacket pocket where he has his lines hidden.

Buffy's scenes in the institution are the one time I see her really drained and making no jokes between takes. Following filming the scene where Buffy is saying good-bye, still in tears (real tears), she asks Kristine if *she* is OK. Must have been tough for both of them.

There was a very pleasent surprise within these NA dailies. Now, all of them contain bits of footage from other episodes. So, when I saw a clip of Anya and Halfrek having a disscusion at the Magic Box about Anya getting revenge on Xander, I thought 'Oh, great, a couple minutes of 'Entropy'. Nope, it turns out it's *all* the footage of Halfrek, Anya, and Spike in the Magic Box including the kissing - but not the two of them going at it on the table. :(

Now I don't know if she's staying in character or not, but in the dailies I've noticed it's hard to tell where Anya stops and Emma starts. Her mannerisms and the way she talks is very similar to Anya, in my opinion.

James and Emma seem very at ease with each other and do much chatting between takes. We hear before 'action' "You're fucking right about that." What she's right about, I don't know. ;p After Anya's "sexy dance" line the director asks James to do "I have no dance" over with more dissapointment over having no dance. James doesn't seem to like this reading. He shakes his head and says to Emma "I don't know what they want from me".

Emma's eating a sandwich between takes. :)

As filming progresses on Anya thanking Spike for listening to her and she reveals her real fear that Xander never loved her as she loved him, Emma grows progressively more vulnerable and emotional and teh tears start to come. I believe her last take is the one they used in the final cut.

Both kept the kissing very lighthearted. They were laughing after each take. In one 'cut' had to be called because Emma's shirt got caught in her hair. In another, Emma gets off his lap and says in a high pitched voice "Hello, hello, I'm in a bra everybody!" and swings her top over her head. And after another we hear Emma say (while on his lap) "Hello darling" to James in a British accent and him responding in a low, growly voice "Yeah". ::fans self::

There some stuff of Buffy confronting Dawn and chasing her. Sadly, no take of her catching Dawn and killing her, so, moving on....

And now we come to the final disc. :( Lots of shots of Buffy (and her double) fighting the demon. Pretty boring stuff. The reshoot of the alley beating in DT. Buffy telling Sarah about her time in the institution. Dawn and Buffy talking in Willow/Joyce's bedroom. Not much there. Though, there were some subtle differences in the exchanges between the two in Dawn's bedroom as she's packing up to go to Janice's (again). In take one I noticed she's more fearful of Buffy's demanor, in take two she's more snippy, and in take three she seems concerned about her sister's well being.

To be honest. NA is not one of my favorite ep's so, for the life of me , I can't recall if in the ep there is a conversation between Buffy and Willow in the dining room after Buffy has dumped the anecdote and come downstairs. Anyway, there is one cute bit amidst the dialogue. Aly in the midst of what she should be saying adds "Do you hear that talking?" to which Sarah responds "It's the other stage. They're acting. Second unit." and then they just keep going.

It doesn't seem that they did too many takes of Buffy and Spike's conversation in her bedroom. And while I originally thought it was James' first take they used, I now believe (thank you Deborah ;) that it's his second. Which is really impressive because it started out as a blown take. James misses his cue to come in. Aly turns around looking for him and seeing a big empty space where he should be, starts laughing. James finally walks in (in character), sees her, starts laughing himself, turns and walks out of the room to start over. All together there were only three takes of this scene.

Oh, and check out _jems_'s LJ. She posted a slew of icons of 'The Kiss'. Just one of the reasons I adore her. :-)
  • Current Mood: creative creative
I don't know how I missed this, I must be slipping :)

Thanks so much, NA is a favorite episode of mine, mostly because I love the goodbye scene between institution Buffy and Joyce. It was so poignant, because Buffy never got a chance to say goodbye to her mother, and never thought her mother knew how much she loved her. I can understand how difficult those scenes must have been for both Sarah and Kristine.

Interesting that Michael Warren (the doctor) had a difficult time with his lines. I haven't seen him in much the last few years, so maybe he was having a problem due to lack of work.

As for Seeing Red, I don't think I could sit through those, after hearing what they were like.