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Latest news – October 10, 2001

Now Shooting: Episode 7
(as of 10-09-01)

  Episode Summaries

For those of you who are as spoiler-whorish as I am, I am posting complete summaries of what I know about the episodes. I'm making these into links so that those who do not want to be spoiled that much can just pass them by.

Episode 1 and 2

Episode 3

Episode 4

Episode 5

Episode 6 (Updated 10-3-01)

Latest Rumors:

Posted by Bob on the Kitten Board on 10-4-01

Today the Buffy crew was on Culver Boulevard in Culver City - just a few blocks away, in fact, from Wolfram & Hart, aka the Sony Pictures building. There was nothing Wolfram & Hart-ish about the shoot, though. This was strictly Sunnydale.

When I got there, the crew was busy setting up along a one-block length of the sidewalk. There were people milling around everywhere, including a girl carrying a UC Sunnydale notebook and three guys dressed like janitors doing a dance routine with big push-brooms. Hmmm... could it be that they're shooting the musical today?

I circled around a small park where the trailers were sitting, and that's where I found... Shanie! There were other fans lurking around as well. As we stood there, we saw Anthony Stewart Head walk out of his trailer. For those who are fashion-conscious, he was wearing a dark green shirt and... uhhh, I can't remember what color his pants were. Next came Nicholas Brendon, wearing a pale yellow-green shirt with these rust-colored maple-leaf thingies on it and green cargo pants. He also had a brown leather jacket that he wore during takes.
We circled around and crossed Culver Boulevard, where we had a full view of the action. ASH and Nick were there, as was Emma Caulfield, wearing a gray sleeveless dress. There was also this guy running around in a burgundy baseball shirt and a blue baseball cap (oh yes, and pants, too, but again I wasn't paying attention to them). It was none other than... Joss! And he was busily trying to get everything in place.

They were only working on one shot in all the time we were there, but it was an incredibly complicated shot. Giles, Xander and Anya walk down the street. At the start of the scene, Xander says, "It's a nightmare! It's a plague! It's like a nightmare about a plague!" Then he says something more and Anya tries to interrupt him, and he replies, "And my eyes are not beady!" or something like that. We couldn't hear any more of the dialogue, but as they walk down the street, they pass a woman singing to a traffic cop who's writing her a ticket, a couple dancing and then the three janitors with the push brooms. Several other people walk in and out of the shot as well.

As I said, an extremely complicated shot. Lots of different things that could go wrong. In one take, a loud truck rolls by. In another, the camera runs out of film. In another, Joss doesn't like something about the dancing janitors or the singing lady getting a ticket. Nick was having a lot of his trouble with his lines, too. One time he whipped off his leather jacket and whapped it against the ground in disgust. Another time there was much loud cursing.

Still, Nick was also friendly when he wasn't feeling frustrated. At one point he saw us (Shanie and me, plus this other woman and a young woman from Finland who I'd met at the Willow Street shoot) and he gave us a wave and a "hang loose" sign.

Oh, and there will be PICTURES! Ironically, this was one shoot where I could have gotten away with my regular camera and big lens, but I didn't bring it. I did have one of those little disposable cameras with me, though. I shot half the film today and saved half for next week's shoot at Kenneth Hahn Park, so if all goes well I'll have pics of both by the end of next week. Fuzzy pics, in all likelihood, but pics nonetheless. Best I can do until I get my own digital.

All in all, another fun shoot. The musical looks like it'll be a real hoot.

Posted by Janna on smgfan.com on 10-4-01

So as if it wasn't bad enough that I had to miss today's afternoon shoot because I had to work (I'll give you my friend's review soon, she was seated 5 feet from Joss and crew... Joss even introduced her to Marti!)
Tonight, right now, as we speak (type) Sarah and James are in a cemetary filming their musical number and we were sitting inside, but were made to leave *right* when they brought the talent in... saw James and Sarah get out of their van... saw a bunch of guys dressed in suits and a coffin was being carried. Then saw Joss drive up... then.... then .... They said we had to leave, that it was a closed set!!!!

Can I cry now or what???? Sarah and James are doing their musical number right now!!!!

Posted by Shaniezak on the Kitten board on 10-09-01

Well, Kitties.
I nearly got lost several times on the way to the shoot today . . . sometimes makes me wonder if it's not going to be a good one. First I got off the wrong freeway exit and ended up driving down Venice Blvd. (which made me think of last night's Angel) for a while before I got back on track. Then I nearly got hit trying to get into the right lane (the sign for the park exit is so hard to see!).

And then I wound up parking allllllllllllll the freakin' way up the top of the hill and hiking back down after I located the trailers. (This was not so bad. The hiking back up, on the other hand, was a killer.)

The crew was set up in a very pretty location next to a manmade stream that ran into a pond. Lots of trees, park benches, lights and diffuser screens, a handful of fans camping out.

When I arrived, the crew was going through blocking with two stand-ins, and preparing for the shot. There were only two actors on the scene today, which is part of the musical episode; they filmed three bits of the scene. Joss was running around talking to people, on his phone, doing his thing.

After wandering back and forth a bit to get a good view through the trees (we were all sitting up the hillside from the shoot), I caught a glimpse of blonde hair and a very pretty Snow White-type dress--light greenish-blue bodice with gold laces, a long flowing white skirt with filmy gold material over it. Oh . . . Amber was walking over a small footbridge, with the pond in the background of the shot. She was dancing and lip-syncing to a music track that was played over speakers set up with the crew equipment.

A short while later, Alyson, wearing a light pink floor-length dress, came down the hill from her trailer (she'd been hanging out in the parking lot for a while, on the phone) and rehearsals for the scene began. When she arrived on set, she got a hug from Amber and they talked for a while, rather animatedly, before it was time to get to work.

That's right, Kitties, this was the shoot for Tara's love song to Willow! As Bob put it, this is the Kitten Board's Holy Grail of Location Shoot Spoilage.

(And there was much rejoicing in Kitten-land.)

This isn't all in chronological order as they went back and forth and filmed in bits, but from what I can tell it'll look like this:

As the shot begins, Tara and Willow are walking onto the footbridge, talking, and Tara breaks out into song. She spins back and strikes a pose against the railing, then walks forward to take Willow's hand as they stroll across the bridge. They're walking hand in hand along the footpath and Tara breaks away again, twirling (yes, Ruth, Amber's dancing) back onto a patch of grass by the pond. There are two girls lounging about (separately) in the grass behind her, and as she starts to dance, they get up and dance with her. After they stop, Tara, still singing to Willow, comes forward and takes Willow in her arms, and the two of them spin each other around in circles, looking into each other's eyes and laughing.

They filmed close-ups, reaction shots, and wide-angle shots today, which accounted for the constant changing of shoes by Amber and Aly. The wide-angle shots showed Aly's high-heeled sandals and Amber's flats, which were also delicate, strappy little numbers. For the closeups, though, they were wearing sneakers.
Amber's voice track sounds great, and I think you all are going to really like the song. I couldn't make out a lot of the lyrics (though Janna from SMGfan.com and her friends were writing them down), but I caught a few bits (possibly paraphrased). . .

Something about "a world in shadow"
"No one ever noticed me at all""I used to live in a world enchanted / [something] in the air / But I always took for granted / That I was the only one there / Then
your power showed / [something] I know"
"When I'm by your side" (or was it "When you're by my side?")

"What else could I do" followed by a bit about "You took my soul along with you" or something like that.
There's a general theme of having been lonely and feeling out of place, then finding Willow and discovering she's not alone. I think there was something along the lines of "Love brought it out of me" and a rhyming line that I think ended in "free." That was about the last I heard of the song before they finished for the day.
Amber, who ran around with a can of Dr. Pepper, was very playful between takes. At one point they yelled "Cut" and she bounced up and down yelling, "Yes! I got it right!" At another point she was playfully kicking Joss in the rear, and later on she was rehearsing her dance number with Joss, who spun her around off the ground and nearly into the pond! While they were on the bridge filming closeups of Aly's reaction shots, Amber flopped onto the bridge railing on her stomach and struck a cute pose with her ankles crossed in the air, just being silly.

It's worth noting, Garfield, that it was a fairly breezy day and there was much need for hairbrushing. Someone from the hair department was brushing Amber's hair quite frequently (and thoroughly) between takes.
I got a few pictures, mostly wide-angle but a couple of closeups, and as soon as these rolls of film are developed I'll have them up.

Bob is at the night shoot right now, and he also got a few pictures . . . he'll have more to say later. I'm sure I'll remember more to add later on also, but at the moment I'm just so darn psyched!

Posted by Bob on the Kitten Board on 10-10-01

Yes, folks, it was indeed the Holy Grail of W/T location shoots - and I was late! I got delayed at the post office and at my church. So there I am, driving down at about 2:30 in the afternoon, and finally I get to Kenneth Hahn Park. I drove past the trailers and went up the same hill Shanie went up, but I turned around and came back down. By the time I managed to walk down to where the cameras were, Shanie was waiting for me and saying "They're shooting Tara's love song! They're shooting Tara's love song!"

Well, Shanie already did a pretty good job of describing that scene. Yes, we got to see Willow and Tara on the bridge, and Tara dancing. By the time I got there they were pretty much down to the Willow reaction shots. It was funny because Amber kept dancing even though she was off-camera, to give Aly something to react to. I think she may have been ad-libbing some of the dance moves by that time, though.

About the song itself - let me just say that from my perspective a sound studio does lovely things to Amber's voice. All the Kitties should be quite pleased. I'm already making sure I have enough room on the Sounds Page for a nice stereo .mp3 of it. Unfortunately, though, Janna wasn't able to get all the words. Once she has them posted, I'll copy them over.

I got a half-dozen or so pictures at the shoot, plus one of Aly standing in the doorway of her trailer afterwards. They're all wide-angle shots - I'm going to have to go to work on them with my computer to make them presentable, but I think they'll be worth the wait.

But wait! That's not all! There was another shoot to be seen, with much more Aly and Amber goodness. I'll post this much and then get to writing up the rest.

We drove out of Kenneth Hahn Park and into the surrounding neighborhood. The trailers were already setting up along Rodeo Road when we arrived. I parked my car and went to see what was going on. The crew was just arriving to set up the shot.

Standing at the intersection of Rodeo and Clyde, I noticed there was one of those yellow "V" signs farther up the road. We had plenty of time, so a couple of us went to check it out. On our way there, we noticed a man and a woman walking toward us. The woman looked familiar. "That's not Amber, is it?" I asked myself. "That's just someone who looks like Amber, right?" Wrong! It was Amber! She was dressed in her jeans and a yellow Florida State University t-shirt, and she was walking right toward us along with this guy! We finally meet up, and I just kind of stand there like an idiot for a second, and then I said "Hi!" with a big friendly smile. She smiled and said "Hi!" back, and thus ended that particular encounter... but it was still pretty cool.

The afternoon drags on. The sun continues to creep down. Amber is still the only cast member I've seen, although someone tells me they've seen Aly around as well. Then I see Joss - he's pacing up and down the sidewalks and talking on his cellphone. Amber is around a bit more, too, then she goes back to her trailer. The
next thing I know, here she comes back, skipping down the street at a pretty good clip. And... she's wearing the coat - the yellow plaid trench coat she wore during her UK tour. She walks up and starts whapping that guy she'd been with before with the belt of her coat. Then she goes off with Joss and that guy. "I'm going with them!" she yells to a Production Assistant. "You guys be nice to her!" the PA yells back. "They offered me candy!" Amber tells the PA.

Still more time goes on, and now Nick Brendon is there. We had seen the costume person carrying his yellow-green shirt with the maple leaves on it already, so we were expecting him. Then ASH shows up. This is getting to be quite a crowd! Again Amber comes skipping along. She sees us watching and waves to us before moving on.

Finally, it's getting dark, and I decide it's time to move from the distant corner where the Security guy stuck us and find a better vantage point. Oh boy, did I ever.

The forces of Buffy-dom have gathered. Amber, Nick and ASH are joined by... Emma and Aly! On the corner of Clyde and Fallsgrove, there's an old station wagon sitting partially on the curb. Why is it there? I have no idea. I was told that they were going to use CGI to make it look like it was burning, but I'm not sure about that. It would be in keeping with the scene... but I'm getting ahead of myself.

Anyway, Joss is going through the shot with his team. Everyone's clowning around. Amber and Emma are doing that thing where you stand back-to-back and lock arms and then you take turns lifting each other off the ground... except it doesn't quite work right when it's Emma's turn to pick up Amber, and they go tumbling down in a giggling heap. This, by the way, is after Joss has picked Emma up in a fireman's carry and spun her around several times.

Now it's time to rehearse. Everyone's still in their street clothes, but they need to get the camera positions, music synchronization, etc., in place. This looks like some kind of big finale - if not to the episode itself, then certainly to some phase of it. The gang is walking in formation - Giles and Willow up front, with Anya behind Giles, Tara behind Willow, and Xander between Anya and Tara. They go past the station wagon, cross the street and walk into the camera, all while singing this song about "Walking through the fire, let it burn, let it burn..."

They do a couple of run-throughs, then everyone takes off to their respective trailers to change while the tech crew sets up the rest of the shoot. During this time, we discover that two fire trucks have been hired to drive through the shot after the Scoobies cross the street. While the cast is off changing, they do a couple of run throughs with the trucks.

When the cast comes back, ASH, Nick and Emma are wearing the same costumes they had on during the day shoot on Thursday. Amber and Aly, however, are not dressed the same as they had been at the park. Amber is now wearing a yellow top and a peach/rust colored skirt with a big flower on it. Aly is wearing a lavender/purple top and skirt, with a long dark purple coat. Aly's hair also looks redder than it had during the afternoon, although that may have just been the light.

It's time to do the shoot, which means it's time for the ladies to change into their hideous high-heeled shoes.
This presents an immediate problem. Emma's spot in the Scooby-formation puts her in the grass at the start of the shot, and in those shoes she simply can't keep pace. She lags behind until she reaches the sidewalk, then power-walks to catch up. Once they cross the street, she throws up her hands in frustration and stops - just two feet from where the fire trucks go whizzing by! I later found out that the safety guy on the crew about had a heart attack over that one. Joss comes up with a solution - ditch the heels and they'll simply avoid showing feet. Aly and Amber immediately go back to their comfy flat shoes, but for some reason Emma doesn't. She does the entire night's worth of shooting barefoot instead.

The shot took a couple more takes... during one of them something happened to make the camera guy stop in the middle of the intersection, and everyone had to run to get out of the way of the fire trucks. Fortunately, there were no mishaps and they finally did get everything the way Joss wanted it.

Next it was time for the photo-op. The big fire engine pulled up, the firefighters got out, the cast members climbed all over the fire engine and posed with the firefighters. Aly even put on one of the helmets. It was a cute shot. Then the trucks drove off and it was time to set up for the next shot.

With the "walking through the fire" shot done, it's time for the crew to do a major turn-around job with the equipment. That means the cast basically has nothing to do. There are a bunch of neighborhood teenagers watching, and they ask me if the cast members give autographs. I tell them that some do, so they go over to where the cast members are and start talking.

Amber was reading something - I couldn't tell if it was the script or the latest Harry Potter - but she did take a moment to say hi and sign an autograph or two. One of the neighborhood teenagers has brought his pet iguana with him, and it immediately catches Amber's attention. She spends a few moments petting it. Meanwhile, Emma is more than happy to sign autographs, pose for pictures, etc.

The wait goes on, and now Amber's mom has shown up. Amber and her mom start talking to one of the Production Assistants, which pretty much occupies their time. Meanwhile, though, Aly and ASH have noticed the iguana, and they're standing there looking at it and petting it. Aly then brings Nick over to see the iguana, and Emma comes over as well, so there we are standing shoulder to shoulder with four Scoobies all at once. At that point I made the comment that at the next location shoot, all the fans were going to show up with iguanas on their shoulders.

The wait goes on. The equipment trucks move around. Guys are busy putting lights and speakers into these tall hedges along the side of the street. Amber runs back and forth. Cast and crew alike are all eating something in these little white bowls... I was wondering if maybe it was Oatmeal Night at the Craft Services truck. Even Joss gets into the act - the bright lights are shining on this false brick wall they've set up for some reason, so Joss goes over to it and starts doing shadow-theater. I think we may have seen some variant of the Dance of Joy in the middle of the performance.

Finally, it's time to shoot again. The Scoobies are walking down the street singing together. From the little snatches of lyric that I heard, it's a song about Buffy. The thing is, though, that Joss wants closeups of each Scooby, so they have to shoot individual shots of each cast member walking down the same bit of sidewalk. It looked like each cast member wrapped for the night when they finished that particular scene, although there could have been more later. That was when I wrapped for the night, though, so I don't know what else happened. Janna was still there, so she might have more news later.

Posted by Bob on the Kitten Board on 10-10-01

Yet another shoot has been added. It doesn't look accessible, though.

quote:
10/12/01
18:00 06:30
TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX TELEVISION
BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER
1831 W WASHINGTON BL

This is the Rosedale Cemetery which has been used quite extensively over the years, most recently for the opening scene in "Bargaining."

Chances are very good that the Buffy crew will close off the entire cemetary and stick close to the Washington Boulevard side, where there's a high brick wall that blocks spectators. If they go to the north side it might be possible to see something because there's only a chainlink fence there, but even so the chances probably aren't good.

I think I'll sit this one out, but if anyone else wants to take a shot, they're more than welcome.

Posted by Sparrow on the Kitten Board on 10-10-01

Ok kittens just got this info from a very reliable source, don't know if we have discussed this before or if this is even in the right thread but here goes...

Episode: Untitled-Musical episode
Air date: 11/6/01
Writer/Dir: Joss Whedon
Guest stars: Amber Benson(as Tara)
Anthony Stewart Head(as Giles)
Synopsis: Panicky about his impending marriage to Anya, Xander accidentally concocts a "truth spell" that cause everyone in Sunnydale to reveal all of their innermost thoughts and feelings in song. When Buffy and Spike learn of their true feelings for each other, they share their first real kiss. Willow reveals in song that she cast a spell to make Tara forget their fight, and Tara decides to break up with Willow as a result. Finally, Giles decides to return to England for good.
Original score and lyrics: Joss Whedon

Posted by Sweetie on FanForum on 10-10-01

(These are spoilers about the musical.)

Willow and Tara are singing at a park.

There's a car on fire... Giles, Xander, Anya, Willow and Tara walk by.

"We will walk through the fire, and let it burn" (part of the actual song)

This is part of a song Spike is singing about Buffy. Buffy and Spike both sing in this song. These two lines (of Spike's song) weren't said right next to each other though... Tara has a line in between them:
"I'll kill her then I'll save her"
"No, I'll save her then I'll kill her"

Join me in the Crypt of Decryption: