"ONCE MORE WITH FEELING." DVD Commentary.

Series | Season | Disc

BtVS | 6 | 2

Songs/Story Line

In the first song, "Going Through the Motions," Whedon mimics the Disney tradition of movies such as Beauty and the Beast in that the heroine talks about what she wants through her lyrics. During the song, Buffy says how she’s used to the same thing every night and that she has started "going through the motions" of her job. Her feelings come, in part, from having to come back to Earth after being in heaven. Buffy’s first song is in the Ashman-Menken style. He also admits that the last chords had a Stephen Schwartz influence.

"I’ve Got a Theory/Bunnies/We’re Together" is a conglomeration of the traditional musical and heavy metal. Whedon used this scene as a way of showing that the characters knew they were in a musical and did not like it; he wanted the audience to accept that they were watching a musical. Whedon wanted it clear that the characters were singing and dancing for a reason, not just because they were on television. Whedon wrote this song because he wanted the group to sing together. He points to this song as a signature for the rest of the music on the show, which meshes elements of the classical musical with popular music.

"Under Your Spell" was a ballad written for Amber Benson because "she has such an extraordinary voice;" it was the first song that Whedon wrote. He refers to it as "the breakaway pop hit." Whedon calls it a pop song because it is nonspecific a non-specific love song that does not talk about anything new.

Whedon says that "I’ll Never Tell" was a hard song to write, but he loved the dancing, the lighting, and the 1930s musical comedy feeling the song and setting provide. He likes how the song talks about their anxieties about being in a relationship such as having things you want to see but cannot. He also talks about how he should have made Anya’s line that says "Will I look good when I’ve gotten old" clearer. He said that he should have used his original line of "Will he look at me when I’m old," but he decided to go with the former line because he was better able to rhyme it with "pot of gold."

Whedon was somewhat unhappy with the scene where Spike sings "Rest in Peace" to Buffy. He pointed to Brigadoon and West Side Story as inspirations for the scene, but it didn’t turn out the way he wanted. Whedon admits that Spike’s song did not progress the plot. He says that songs in musicals should move the plot along by allowing the actors to express through song what they otherwise cannot. At this point in the commentary, Whedon says that the episode "Once More with Feeling" is "somewhat a sequel to ‘Hush’" in that people "start communicating when they stop talking." He believed that the song did not do a good job of conveying that theme. He also admits that the second part of that song, where Spike and Buffy are in the graveyard, did not work out as well as he would have liked. He called the part where Spike morphs and attacks the people at the funeral "a little dicey" and "haphazard." He says that he "could’ve covered it more…I knew what I was trying to do…It didn’t gel like it did in my head." He summed up the scene by characterizing it as "a little weak." He does like the "If my heart could beat, it would break my chest" line in the song. He admits that he self-indulgently added the bridge so that he could put in that line. He also says that was the first line he wrote for the song.

"What You Feel," the song that starts with Dawn laying on the pool table, began with an intro by Doug Stephens—Chris Beck’s assistant. The choreography for Dawn’s leg swoop on the table goes to Joss. He knew what he wanted that for the beginning of Act III. During this part of the commentary, Whedon credits Jesse Tobias for helping Chris Beck mix the orchestral and rock scores. Whedon wanted that scene to look like "something that was [from] Peter and the Wolf." This scene meshes into the demon’s entrance. Whedon wanted something bluesy for his villain’s intro. He also wanted him to tap dance. Whedon says that they inserted some stairs into the Bronze just so he would have some steps to tap down. He also wanted a classical fairy tale feel for this scene. And, despite his commitment to long takes, lack of time meant that he had to do some cutting for that scene. Whedon credits Lisa Lassek for the job she did editing the bad guy’s song and dance.

One irony of the Buffyverse gets played-out during "Standing:" Giles sings about wanting to protect Buffy while throwing knives at her. Whedon says that that particular scene reflects one of the show’s themes: Giles wants to protect and take care of Buffy while realizing more and more that he has to teach her how to protect herself. Buffy does not hear Giles’ song even though she is in the room with him and is part of the action that accompanies the song. Here, Whedon points out that another characteristic of musicals is that you could sing to someone who is present with you, and he or she could not hear what you just sang.

Whedon talked about having Anthony Stewart Head and Amber Benson sing together because their voices were so good. He worked "Under Your Spell/Standing-Reprise" in such a way that Giles and Tara were singing to Buffy and Willow respectively but that neither Buffy nor Willow could hear the singing. Whedon wanted their song to embody Giles and Tara’s frustration at the inability to communicate with Buffy and Willow.

"Walk Through the Fire" acted as a call-to-arms. Whedon does say that he feels the chorus in that song laid back a little when it should have moved forward. He also felt the full-body shot of Buffy juxtaposed with a shot of her face singing did not turn out as well as he would have liked. He felt that shot came out a little underexposed, which forced them to "pump it up," making the shot "grainy."

The point of "Something to Sing About" was to have someone singing who feels that he or she has nothing to sing about. Through the song, Buffy finds that she does have something to sing about: "the point is to have a reason, to have something to sing about." The song was accompanied by some choreography that featured Buffy, Tara, and Anya. Whedon admits that they struggled with choreography and orchestration the most during that song.

Whedon wrote the episode’s final song, "Where Do We Go From Here?" on a guitar in London while on vacation. He calls this song (Spike’s song) the most important song in the piece because it "speaks to where they’re at emotionally." The episode begins with this song’s overture and ends with the song itself.

Whedon begins the commentary saying that since he was doing a musical, he wanted to shoot the episode using the wide screen. Even though he wrote the lyrics and composed the music for all the songs, he credits Chris Beck for doing the overtures. He also wanted the episode to reflect bright and varied colors as in the musical tradition, and he credits Ray Stella for making that happen. Whedon also wanted long shots so that he could "play everything visual." He used the long shots during the opening scene so that the audience could see everyone’s relationship with each other.

Whedon says that thinking of the visual for the episode was not that hard because the more he played the songs, the more he knew what the visual would look like. So he came to the set with a pretty good idea of how he wanted each song to look. He also said that he wanted the songs tailored for the actors. For instance, he added the heavy metal part for Anya’s character because the actress who plays her, Emma Caufield, is always singing heavy metal on the set. He also wanted Tara to have a ballad because the actress playing her, Amber Benson, has a good singing voice. The actress who played Dawn, Michelle Trachtenberg, wanted to dance, not sing. She didn’t get out of her singing duties, but Joss did make sure to give her a dance number.

As mentioned earlier, he used long shots (or "oners") often in order to keep a musical feel to the episode. He points out that you want to avoid lot of cutting in musicals. There was a part during "I’ll Never Tell" where Anya and Xander danced while singing. He had the camera do a shot where it sweeps across the scene and gives the audience a wide view of the room that the dancers are dancing in. Again, he wanted that "old-fashioned feeling." Also, the wide-ranging shot gives the audience "space to breathe." Whedon mentioned that their number brought to mind Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. He knew that he could afford to put in a song and dance such as that because their relationship was more for comedy than it was a dark, tortured romance.

For the ending, Whedon wanted the Scooby Gang to defeat the villain without killing him because as Whedon says: "Ultimately, he represents something you can’t kill off. He’s the musical incarnate. He’s all around us." And that is where they put him. They had the villain disappear into the air while the starry dust that remained of him settled around them. Whedon points out that "it’s a symbol thing."

Even though Whedon wanted to mix some "pop and musical sensibilities," he tried to keep the episode within the old musical comedy style tradition. He further credits Bach and Harnich, Frank Loesser, and Sondheim as musical influences. For the most part, he shied away from dancing because he knew it would be harder for non-professional dancers to dance as opposed to non-professional singers to sing. Instead of choreography, he focused more on character movement during the songs. He did add some dancing for the main characters. He relied on Adam Shankman and Ann Fletcher to choreograph the dancing. Whedon did use professional background dancers during certain scenes.

Whedon clocked the music at 36 minutes during the course of the 48 minute show. He said that episodes usually run 40 minutes, and he thanked UPN for letting him run a little long.

Whedon discusses how one of the advantages of writing for television is that you know what you can do with each person. As mentioned earlier, he knew that he wanted to give Tara a ballad. He knew that if she were going to sing one, she had to do it before the action in the show got hectic. He also knew that he wanted Dawn to dance at some point: "Things like that help you structure." By knowing whom he had to write for, he was able to write the songs and plan the action relatively easy.

Ultimately, Whedon wanted the episode to move the season’s story arc along. He wanted to not just set-up that particular show but the episodes before and afterwards as well. He did not want the show to be a "special event." But he did want it to be "television in all its glory," meaning this episode showed people what you could do with television if you cared enough.

Writer Marti Noxon and co-executive producer David Fury had cameos in the episode. Fury is the bearded man singing about getting the mustard out of his shirt at the dry cleaners while Noxon sings a solo where she pleads with a policeman not to give her a parking ticket. Other acting treats include the three vampires that Buffy kills at the beginning of the show, the demon’s three henchmen, and the three background dancers who dance with their push brooms: they are the same three guys. The audience can also see choreographers Adam Shankman and Ann Fletcher. The two dance in the background of a shot where Xander, Anya, and Giles are talking outside.

Whedon talks about how he wrote "I’m Your Girl" for this episode but never used the song. He tells a story of how his wife Kai sang the girl parts on the demo tape for the actors. That song was a little out of her range, and instead of changing the music on the song, he just wrote a new one. He admits that deep down, he knew that "it wasn’t good enough anyway." Also, since Buffy tells the demon in dialogue what she would have been singing, the song turned out to be unnecessary.

Whedon reiterates that he had no idea of how to create a musical. This is why he called on so many different themes. The big "The End" with "the 20^th Century Fox thing under it" had to be there as the episode ended because that represents the era he loves so much. He ends the DVD commentary saying that he is as happy with this as with anything he’s made.

--Nicholas Bush