Thursday, October 14, 2010

Writing about Whedon as a Director

I thought that readers of the blog might like to see some of the assignments that go along with the Buffy seminar at Emerson College. The first assignment is designed to encourage students to look at the series not only as a narrative with a novel's narrative complexity, but also as a visual art form with a corresponding artistic complexity as well. In addition, this assignment should help students to look at Joss Whedon as a director, rather than an auteur, a producer/creator, or a writer.
Students write a 3-5 page paper comparing Whedon's choices as a director in his very first attempt, the unaired production pilot whose link is in the syllabus, with another episode that he has directed, either in this series, another of the series that he produced or as a guest director. (In the latter case, please provide a link to the episode, as I may need to refresh my memory of it.) Students may NOT compare the aired “Welcome to the Hellmouth” to the unaired pilot, as Whedon did not direct the aired pilot. (IMDB’s designation of him as an uncredited director of the aired pilot references the production pilot.) Students should not feel the need to do research for this assignment although they may, of course.
Questions to consider for this assignment: What virtues and flaws do you see in the unaired production pilot? What remains the same in his approach and what changes? What techniques does he turn to in each case and why? How does genre impact his choices? Budget and available resources? Medium? How does he position his viewers? What is the impact of these choices?
Papers are evaluated based on the following criteria:
· Evidence: Does the paper use concrete examples or does it simply refer to the episodes in question? Does the paper precisely describe how various techniques in framing, composition, color, set and costume design, editing, sound design, lighting design or does it use empty adjectives like “beautiful” or “striking”? Does the paper describe what the actors physically do to create meaning or does it describe the 2D patterns of light and shadow we call characters as feeling or thinking certain things? Does it use quotes from the script or does it paraphrase? 
o text (narrative, character, form)
o genre (patterns of pleasure, narrative and formal expectations)
o art history (genre across media)
o medium (means of communication)
o culture (ideology, myth)
One goal of this course is to foster the student's ability to discern the entire meaning of a media product.
Some of the more interesting comparisons used Prophecy Girl (the first season finale was Whedon's first aired effort), The Freshman (Buffy's season four re-boot), and Serenity (the original pilot for Firefly).
What do you think? Which would you choose?


  1. there's a Buffy seminar at Emerson? I go to Emerson and I love Buffy! Will this be taught next semester as well?

  2. Sorry, it's a once a year thing! Take a look for a VM400ish class called "Deconstructing TV's Buffy." There will, however, be a fandom seminar next semester that will touch on the Whedonites.