"A HOLE IN THE WORLD." DVD Commentary.
Series | Season | Disc
Angel | 5 | 5
Commentary By: Joss Whedon and Alexis Denisof (Wesley)
Production Issues
Alexis Denisof asks about how often the title sequence was changed, prompting a response from Whedon that they tried to keep it current and show character progression. He specially refers to how in the next episode (“Shells”), Illyria will appear during the credits sequence and how the final shot is from the teaser to the first episode, “City Of.”
Whedon mentions the WB’s mandate to be “more stand alone” in reference to Gunn’s dialogue at the beginning of act one being the first reference during season 5 to his past relationship with Fred. The budget cuts going into Season Five are further referenced when discussing the Wolfram and Hart metalibrary, where the seven volumes can call up the full library owned by the law firm. Whedon credits Tim Minear with the idea. Budget comes into play again in act four, as for the scene of walking to the Deeper Well, there were only “about 3 yards of cave.”
The cast and crew were apparently quite distressed to go from the fun puppets of “Smile Time” (5.14) to the distress of Fred’s death.
Technical Issues
The portion of the teaser where Wesley and Fred are working together in a sewer was apparently shot last, and the wall would not stay lit.
The episode ran about ten minutes long and “a lot” was cut. Whedon refers to two scenes where cuts occurred: dialogue in the teaser between Fred and Wesley and Lorne originally appeared during the conversation between Wesley and Gunn at the beginning of act one (Gunn occasionally glances in Lorne’s direction). Whedon notes that Wesley shooting the accountant could have been cut, but “There was no way” and leaves it at that.
Stunt doubles were required for both Fred and Lorne in the scene where the former vomits up blood and then falls a bit down the flight of the stairs in the Wolfram and Heart main lobby.
There were “four or five” stages of make up created for Fred’s worsening condition.
Acting Issues
The transformation of Fred into Illyria was apparently inspired in part by Amy Acker’s performances at the infamous Whedon Shakespeare readings, where Acker quite impressed Whedon. He wanted her to play someone “regal and scary” and the transformation was the easiest way to do that and keep Acker on Angel.
Whedon notes that Jonathan M. Woodward has “lived and died on all three of my series” referring to Woodward’s appearances as Holden Webster in “Conversations With Dead People” (Buffy 7.7) and Tracey in “The Message” (Firefly 1.12).
Wesley shooting the account was done several times so Denisof could get it just right, untelegraphed and completely off-hand.
The scene in the White Room with Gunn and his doppelganger was filmed with J. August Richards playing by himself, switching between roles based on which shot Whedon wanted to do next. The final piece of dialogue from the doppelganger was one Richards received a lot of notes from Whedon on, and then he got it in one take, in Whedon’s words, “going to a place we had never seen before.”
Acker’s first take during the scene at the beginning of act three was too emotional for Whedon’s liking, considering how far the plot still was from Fred’s death.
To Whedon, Denisof has the hardest job, as he has to “be there” with Fred, but “can’t actually be there” as Wesley can’t seem to keep in physical contact with Fred to comfort her. Whedon kept telling Denisof to keep his emotions back, but in many cases went with earlier takes, changing his mind about it being acceptable for Wesley to sow more emotion.
It took Marsters a few takes to get the “Hole in the World” speech right, as Whedon wanted the key phrase imbued with a sort of child-like wonder.
Writing the Episode
The cavemen versus astronauts argument apparently started with Buffy writer Doug Petrie and raged for three days amongst the writing staff for Angel before Whedon became involved. The intensity of the argument was supposed to show of Angel and Spike could become worked up over the stupidest thing. The argument never resolved amongst the staff.
The episode contains two major allusions to past episodes. “Handsome man saves me” in act two was meant to hearken back to Fred’s very first line in “Through the Looking Glass” (2.21), “Handsome man- saved from the monsters.” The song Eve sings for Lorne is one “written by” Lindsey McDonald and sung at Caritas in “Dead End” (2.18).
Whedon explains what he aims for in every episode he writes: “One of the mission statements I have when I write one of these things is to fall in love with every character again; to figure out what it is that makes that character great.”
The handholding between Spike and Angel during the fight scene in act three seems to have been a deliberate nod to slash-minded fans.
Drogyn was created to have a character Angel and Spike would believe about the inevitably of Fred’s death. Whedon briefly considered using Giles, but creating the new character was cheaper than flying Anthony Stewart Head in from England for the episode.
Whedon claims to have difficultly writing until he knows his title. He came up with the title “A Hole in the World” while still developing the story. Originally, it was to be “Flies” in allusion to the Earl of Gloucester’s speech in Shakespeare’s King Lear (1603-06), “As flies to wanton boys are we to th’ gods,/They kill us for their sport” ( IV.i.36-37).
Directing the Episode
On working with David Boreanaz and James Marsters, Whedon says, “My first lesson with these two was: always put them in a two-shot together because the energy they play off each other is so funny.” Apparently, the lesson came during the filming of the Spike/Angel argument about cavemen vs. astronauts in act one. While “breaking” the story, Whedon also cites realizing that Fred was the one thing in common all the characters on the show had.
The shot coming out of the railing ending the first act was apparently unintended at first, but kept because Whedon liked the subtext created by the effect. Similarly, the fog outside the entrance to the Deeper Well in act three was apparently a happy accident, rolling in a just the right time for the shoot. Whedon felt it looked better than any artificial fog that could have been used.
It felt “hacksome” and had been done, but Whedon felt the place way to film the post-Fred’s bedside scene was to “keep moving” in circles around the group members. The scene was shot from four different angles, but apparently only two were used in the final cut. The one real break in the circles is a direct line from Angel to Spike, done “to show that they’re buddies now.” Whedon used a crane shot to begin and end the scene, a technique he claims to not like much, but fits the show.
The scenes in Fred’s apartment with her and Wesley were shot over the course of a day, mostly out of order versus the final cut. He felt they “tracked” better when rearranged. Later, he says the scenes were too powerful as they were, as it was impossible to go to anything else. Near the end of the episode, there is a long tracking shot around Wesley and Fred, and the latter dies that ended the day and was apparently done just right in one take.
For the shot of the plane in act three, Whedon picked an almost static shot to convey the inability of the group to save Fred. For the second part of the fight outside the well, Whedon uses a “45 shutter thing” from Ridley Scott’s Gladiator (2000) and Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan (1998) to better convey the “very weird immediacy” of battle.
Influences
“The Deeper Well” is an Emmylou Harris song from the album Wrecking Ball (1995), “That’s about religion, basically. It’s about spirituality.” The title also apparently reminded Whedon of the Well of Souls, likely referring to the location in Steven Spielberg’s Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981).
Illyria is the setting of Williams Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night (1599-1600).
Feigenbaum the Bunny is named after Chaos theoretician Mitchell Feigenbaum.
Wesley reads to Fred from Frances Burnett’s A Little Princess (1905), which Whedon calls his favorite book.
Whedon mentions two Spielberg films one Ridley Scott film and exclaims Ingmar Bergman during the shot of Wesley and Fred at the beginning of act four, but does not elaborate on it.
Not to be Taken at Face Value
Whedon and Amy Acker begin the commentary by claiming to be each other.
Season six of Angel would have had a lengthy storyline devoted to astronauts versus cavemen.
Scenes of “Fred Gone Wild” in Accounting were cut from the series
Of Les Miserables: “I’m usually not that snarky. I don’t like to dis things.”
Other Memorable Quotes:
"Woman with a flame thrower… What can I say, call me old fashioned, but I think it’s wholesome."--This quote recalls Whedon’s general mission statement with Buffy of inverting gender roles.
"Oh, people are happy on my show? I better have her vomit up some blood then. When people are in pain, confused, strung out, they’re much more interesting."--Quotes similar to these echo across Whedon’s commentaries
On Angel and Spike:
I’ve never seen a more intense or beautiful romance. We finally found the right girl for Angel and I’m sort of kidding.
"They were hanging out for years and years and years and years. They were all kinds of deviant, they were vampires. Are we thinking they never…? Come on people, I’m just saying. I’m just saying. They’re open minded guys. They may be evil, but they’re not bigoted or close-minded."
On the commentary:
"Oh, so this is a commentary and then we should make comments. So I’m going to start because I started this when I decided it would be really funny to kill Amy."
"I think we bored America, part of America. And Guam."