Anyway, I think my favorite visual effect from Buffy may've been when life flows into Buffy's dead shell in Bargaining and her eyes go from dead to being rather immediately filled with terror because she realizes her nightmare has (once again) been realized.
YES. Such a perfect example of what I was thinking about. It's a small effect, but it merges perfectly with the performance and helps to tell the larger story. We don't even know yet where Buffy was yet, but that first look on her face plants a seed in our brains.
Or possibly that awesome sequence in Primeval when Buffy turns Adam's attack to doves. That was just awesome.
I agree. Weird, I was just watching that scene yesterday while I was trying to write this. Lots of little-but-meaningful effects in that battle.
EDIT: Oh, right, new layout is awesomesausage. I wish mine looked this awesome, but I don't have a paid account and if I did I'd spend so much time making a custom layout it's not even funny.Thanks! Yeah, I'm still trying to figure out all the bells and
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Hahaha. Fine art and journalism. If I didn't already respect you so much I'd mock you. Then again, I'm an anthropology major. XD
And it does look quite nice. I just randomly checked this page seeing if you'd written anything and I was surprised to see everything look all shiny and new. I didn't post anything on your Chosen discussion, but that was awesome too.
I feel like everything I'm typing isn't even words right now. XD
Also, you know another effect I really loved even though it's been done a thousand times? That thing where Sweets went from wearing the red get-up to the blue get-up in OMWF. I don't know why, but whenever I think of something awesome from Buffy, I think of that. Maybe it was just that that song was just amazing.
If I didn't already respect you so much I'd mock you.
Eh, go ahead and mock. It's definitely mock-able.
Also, you know another effect I really loved even though it's been done a thousand times? That thing where Sweets went from wearing the red get-up to the blue get-up in OMWF.
Yeah, it's an oldie-but-a-goodie. A great example of using low-cost, practical effects to add an extra dash of magic to a scene.
One of the best moments from one of the best episodes, yes. To add to what you're saying, this moment also highlights the danger of what Willow's doing by showing the speed of her "education". Giles is not always correct, of course, but in "I Robot - You Jane" he contrasted the tactile experience of reading books as physical entities with knowledge from a computer disconnected from any physical referents; and Willow, who has a hacker's mentality (which is not always a bad thing, of course!) lacks a respect for the slow method of learning. Knowledge accumulated over time, each bit of information absorbed and contextualized, is not dangerous the way learning everything at once is: Willow cannot possibly process all the information she is taking into herself, cannot possibly figure out for herself which pieces of information are valuable to her, which aren't, which to trust and which to dismiss. We compare this to a scene of Buffy's for example, from Out of My Mind
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Yeah, I agree that the speed (and the apparent ease) of the book-drain effect is also a very important part of why it works, since it reminds us of Willow's propensity for taking shortcuts. She prefers to rocket boldly ahead, hacking her way around any obstacles in her path without stopping to fully consider the consequences. The juxtaposition of Willow and Giles has clear left/right ideological angles, but it's also describing their personal human flaws... not that the two are mutually exclusive, either in the Buffyverse or in our world. By the end of the series, Buffy has seen both the good and the bad in their extreme world-views, and strikes the balance between them. They seem to tip their hat to this balancing act in the composition of the final shot of Buffy in "Chosen", with Giles' shoulder on her right and Willow's shoulder on her left.
Ooh, great point about the left/right framing at the end of Chosen. Gah.
And on hacking, I love that image, too, of Willow and Warren: the two "hacking" (in the physically attacking sense) their way through the woods and trees to find each other (well, for Willow to find him). That whole chase sequence is another of my favourite sfx sequences in the show (Warren's little gadget with mechanical wings, the way Willow freezes the explosion into glass that cracks under her will, the trees reaching out to grab Warren, the bullet's slow entry and the vines reaching out to shut Warren's mouth, the flaying proper). The rest of the arc isn't bad either with the lightning bolts of magic and the very effective low-tech (well -- still high tech because careful camera placement!) effect of representing teleportation by spinning the camera while Willow talks so that the audience doesn't notice until Buffy does that the location has changed.
Is it me, or was there something almost... whimsical about that thing. But I agree, the whole sequence was wonderful, taking place in the "lost" space that the woods represent. There was something that felt very real and immediate about it, too. The episode is very much a long fight, with Warren trying to (and in some cases, succeeding) outwit Willow, and the final few licks play out so simply and succinctly: Warren tries to hit her with the new-fangled, hi-tech gizmo, then he tries to hit her with the old-timey, low-tech axe, but nothing works... her hate is too strong.
And yes the teleportation effect was also perfectly done, creepy and wonderful.
I think Willow soaking up the knowledge is the best one of all. But I also have a fondness for the "dusting vamp with winds of hell sound effect" that we see so often. Perhaps my very favorite version of this is in "School Hard", when we don't even see it, just some grit being thrown into the frame.
Other early stuff: The Master's weird "I'm stuck in this here Hellmouth" jello effect. Old school!
But what does it say about the nature of vampires that, when they're killed, they disappear almost entirely? Such a weird fragility for creatures who are otherwise so strong and resilient. Does it mean they were hollow, that once the souls which gave their bodies substance are gone, then what's left is like a balloon, and if it's popped then little remains?
Yuuuuup! "From ashes to ashes, from dust to dust," and all that jazz.
I always assumed that the master left behind bones due to his horrible, powerful will, and that the rest of them dusting was just a symbol that they didn't cling as ferociously to life as he did. And with Dracula, I just assume he didn't dust at all, but rather kept shape-shifting to trick Buffy (just like many readers think he did at the end of the novel.)
Maybe it's my experience in horror film-making that my favorite scenes are the in-house effects scenes, or maybe it's my love of Lucio Fulci always doing stuff to eyes that I have an appreciation for the simpler things, but... when Caleb gouges out Xander's eye? Whoa. Not only was this a totally easy special effect, but it looked completely real and made my stomach turn. I'm privy to the scenes where they paid someone to actually create a monster, like the bugs that the Mayor has to eat. I'm a naturalist, is what I'm saying.
But yes, that Willow scene is fantastic! I'm just saying, if I had to pick my favorites, they'd all be in-house shit.
Yeah, love the eye scene so much. It was really so well-done and effective without being flashy or gratuitous. If George Lucas or Michael Bay did that scene, it would be a million dollar hi-def CGI eyeball, exploding out of the screen in IMAX 3D. Very old school and lit with traditional horror lighting. And Caleb's creepy line: "You're the one who sees everything, right?" So again the effect helps to tell the story and flesh out Xander's character arc. I have to admit, I was still on the fence about what Xander's series-long arc was really all about until Caleb summed it up so succinctly.
I'm privy to the scenes where they paid someone to actually create a monster, like the bugs that the Mayor has to eat. I'm a naturalist, is what I'm saying.
Me too. I'm all about "Guy-In-Suit" technology except in cases where it's absolutely necessary to composite an effect. The constant CGI animation has really ruined fantasy/sci-fi cinema lately. I might be the only person on Earth who wasn't impressed by "Uncanny Valley" "Avatar", but I
( ... )
I tend to stay away from movies that are obvious cash cows without integrity but "awesome CGI!", like Avatar. I caught it on TV once and I was underwhelmed, to the point that I had to turn it off after 30 minutes. The more that animation becomes "realistic looking", the more we become detached from imagination. When we were kids, even though we knew they were puppets or guys in suits or what have you, we bought it because we had imagination. We could dream up things that are now commonplace for kids. They don't have to suspend disbelief anymore. It's all laid out right there for them. And I think that's really sad, because fantasy is supposed to be fantasy. It's not supposed to be real. It's supposed to be disjointed and intangible. I could rant about this for hours, so I'll just stop here. Basically, I wanted to say that no, I hated Avatar too.
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YES. Such a perfect example of what I was thinking about. It's a small effect, but it merges perfectly with the performance and helps to tell the larger story. We don't even know yet where Buffy was yet, but that first look on her face plants a seed in our brains.
Or possibly that awesome sequence in Primeval when Buffy turns Adam's attack to doves.
That was just awesome.
I agree. Weird, I was just watching that scene yesterday while I was trying to write this. Lots of little-but-meaningful effects in that battle.
EDIT: Oh, right, new layout is awesomesausage. I wish mine looked this awesome, but I don't have a paid account and if I did I'd spend so much time making a custom layout it's not even funny.Thanks! Yeah, I'm still trying to figure out all the bells and ( ... )
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Then again, I'm an anthropology major. XD
And it does look quite nice. I just randomly checked this page seeing if you'd written anything and I was surprised to see everything look all shiny and new.
I didn't post anything on your Chosen discussion, but that was awesome too.
I feel like everything I'm typing isn't even words right now. XD
Also, you know another effect I really loved even though it's been done a thousand times? That thing where Sweets went from wearing the red get-up to the blue get-up in OMWF.
I don't know why, but whenever I think of something awesome from Buffy, I think of that. Maybe it was just that that song was just amazing.
Reply
Eh, go ahead and mock. It's definitely mock-able.
Also, you know another effect I really loved even though it's been done a thousand times? That thing where Sweets went from wearing the red get-up to the blue get-up in OMWF.
Yeah, it's an oldie-but-a-goodie. A great example of using low-cost, practical effects to add an extra dash of magic to a scene.
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And on hacking, I love that image, too, of Willow and Warren: the two "hacking" (in the physically attacking sense) their way through the woods and trees to find each other (well, for Willow to find him). That whole chase sequence is another of my favourite sfx sequences in the show (Warren's little gadget with mechanical wings, the way Willow freezes the explosion into glass that cracks under her will, the trees reaching out to grab Warren, the bullet's slow entry and the vines reaching out to shut Warren's mouth, the flaying proper). The rest of the arc isn't bad either with the lightning bolts of magic and the very effective low-tech (well -- still high tech because careful camera placement!) effect of representing teleportation by spinning the camera while Willow talks so that the audience doesn't notice until Buffy does that the location has changed.
Reply
Is it me, or was there something almost... whimsical about that thing. But I agree, the whole sequence was wonderful, taking place in the "lost" space that the woods represent. There was something that felt very real and immediate about it, too. The episode is very much a long fight, with Warren trying to (and in some cases, succeeding) outwit Willow, and the final few licks play out so simply and succinctly: Warren tries to hit her with the new-fangled, hi-tech gizmo, then he tries to hit her with the old-timey, low-tech axe, but nothing works... her hate is too strong.
And yes the teleportation effect was also perfectly done, creepy and wonderful.
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Other early stuff: The Master's weird "I'm stuck in this here Hellmouth" jello effect. Old school!
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YES! I know exactly which shot you're talking about. Hilarious. Reminds me of a similar shot in "The American Astronaut."
Other early stuff: The Master's weird "I'm stuck in this here Hellmouth" jello effect. Old school!
Hahahaha. Yes, totally old school goodness.
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But what does it say about the nature of vampires that, when they're killed, they disappear almost entirely? Such a weird fragility for creatures who are otherwise so strong and resilient. Does it mean they were hollow, that once the souls which gave their bodies substance are gone, then what's left is like a balloon, and if it's popped then little remains?
Yuuuuup! "From ashes to ashes, from dust to dust," and all that jazz.
I always assumed that the master left behind bones due to his horrible, powerful will, and that the rest of them dusting was just a symbol that they didn't cling as ferociously to life as he did. And with Dracula, I just assume he didn't dust at all, but rather kept shape-shifting to trick Buffy (just like many readers think he did at the end of the novel.)
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But yes, that Willow scene is fantastic! I'm just saying, if I had to pick my favorites, they'd all be in-house shit.
Reply
I'm privy to the scenes where they paid someone to actually create a monster, like the bugs that the Mayor has to eat. I'm a naturalist, is what I'm saying.
Me too. I'm all about "Guy-In-Suit" technology except in cases where it's absolutely necessary to composite an effect. The constant CGI animation has really ruined fantasy/sci-fi cinema lately. I might be the only person on Earth who wasn't impressed by "Uncanny Valley" "Avatar", but I ( ... )
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