2. Where It All Began
Buffy the Vampire Slayer Movie (1992)
Screenplay written by Joss Whedon, directed by Fran
Rubel Kuzui
Starred Kristy Swanson, Luke Perry, Donald Sutherland
The movie was not as successful as hoped
The original intention of the script did not
match the film. (TvTropes)
3. Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Joss Whedon – Executive producer, Director and head Writer
Premiered on the WB March 10, 1997 and ended on UPN May
20, 2003
7 seasons
Characters:
Sarah Michelle Gellar – Buffy Summers
Alyson Hannigan – Willow Rosenberg
Nicolas Brendan – Xander Harris
Anthony Head – Rupert Giles
David Boreanaz – Angel
James Marster – Spike
(IMDb)
4. Who is Buffy?
“The Chosen One”
She is the Vampire Slayer, whose sole purpose is to kill
vampires, while trying to stay a normal teen by dealing
with school, friends and boys.
“Into every generation she is born: one girl in all the
world, a chosen one.
She alone will wield the strength and skill to fight the
vampires, demons, and the forces of darkness; to
stop the spread of their evil and the swell of their
number.
She is the Slayer.”
5. Demographic Makeup
Target audience: Ages 18-35
By the music presented, aimed at
young, college educated middle class
viewers (Hill, 2010)
For most of the shows existence, it was
on the WB (1997-2001), whose
demographic ranged from ages 18-34
According to International Movie
Database (IMDb)
Demographic: White men and woman
under the age of 18
Women ages 30 – 44
“By 1997, the WB was actively pursuing
new programming that went after young
white viewers” (Hill, 2010 p. 167)
6. “BuffyVerse” Fandom History
Social Aspect vs. Interpretive Aspect
Social Aspect – “where media fans band together in either
informal or more formally structured groups” (Sullivan, 2013 p. 195)
Interpretive Aspect – “producers of media content”
BuffyVerse – the universe/community of Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Whedonites – A follower of the works of Joss Whedon; a fanatical
supporter of the ‘Whedonverse’
Buffistas – Buffy fans
(Buffy World)
2 Divides
Whedonites vs. Non
Buffy Relationships
7. Slanguage
Slanguage = Slayer Language
BuffyVerse, Whedonites and Buffistas
Whedon created a new language that enhanced the culture behind the
show
Slanguage gave “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” an identity
Developed through the show
Shortening Sentences & Wittiness
“We aren’t in that stage in our relationship where we can
send flowers” = ‘we’re definitely pre-posy’
Slayer Slangs or Buffy-isms
Five by Five – feeling no pain, another way of saying “im good”
Backseat Mothering – unsolicited advice from nonparent
Fang Gang – vampires, “nasty pointy bitey ones”
Having Ors – considering options
(Buffy World)
9. Henry Jenkins's Textual
Poaching
Originally by French Scholar, Michel De Certeau
Jenkins's related textual poaching to television fans
Textual Poaching: taking texts and aspects from media
and incorporating it into new forms of text (Jenkins’s, 2013)
Fan fiction
Websites
Creative content
10. Fan Created Media
Social Aspect
Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr
Fan page for show and characters
Wanted movie fanpage
Waffle Meringue Productions Tumblr
Created episode guide through clever limericks
(Healey, 2012).
YouTube videos of love interests, action scenes
Movie trailers
Unofficial Adult Productions
Erotic Parodies in film and comic
Buffy the Vampire Layer (1997)
The Erotic Adventures of Buffy and Evil Vampire Willow (2004)
11. Fan Created Media
Fan Films
Interpretive Aspect
“The Animated Adventures of Buffy” Trailer
Takes place after the end of the 2003 finale
Created by Buffy fan, Stephan Byrne
“No one television show has impacted me as
mush as Buffy” – Bryne (Burton, 2014)
12. Fan Created Media
Fan Films
Buffy Fans are international
German Buffistas create Buffy inspired film (Duenner).
Created by Kurt Kliebisch and Kevin Schmidt
Denial Haven
Website of Adult Fan fiction stories created from previous buffy
episodes.
Joss Whedon made it possible for fans continue the
story lines or create new ones
13. Fan Interaction
One of the first shows to have a strong internet presence through
websites, email groups and forums because the timing
Joss Whedon
Virtcom
Convention
PaleyFest2008
14. Buffy Virtcom
Virtual Community
“can gather strangers from the far reaches
of cyberspace and throw them together in
the real world” (Metz p.134)
Websites
Dedicated to characters, relationships with
the show and specific episodes of the show
Once More with Feeling Episode
Fans were able to share their fears, loves
and experiences with the show.
Social media & fan created websites
Buffistas.org
BuffyWorld
BuffyGuide
Hellmouthcentral
BuffyTheVampireSlayerOnline
15. Joss Whedon
“Graduation Day” Season 3 Finale 1999
Preempted episode after Columbine shooting
Wanted to stray away from violence in a high school setting
(Graduation Day, Part Two)
Buffy Fans React
Petitions sent to the WB
Online group “Stand Up for Buffy” collected over $3,000 to have
editorial ads in a trade magazine
Episode was not delayed in Canada, bootleg digital downloads were
surfacing
“bootleg the puppy” – Whedon
(Entertainment Weekly, 1999)
16. Convention
PaleyFest 2008: Buffy the Vampire Slayer Reunion
March 14 – 27 at The Paley Center for Media in
Los Angeles, California (The Paley Center for Media, 2009)
Discussed the past and possible future events for the
series
Discussed specific episodes
Fans asked questions about return of show, movie and
musical (After Ellen, 2008)
This was the last major Buffy The Vampire Slayer event where fans could
come together and reminisce on this pop culture phenomenon.
17. Works Cited
After Ellen . (2008, 3 21). "Buffy" Reunion at PaleyFest. Retrieved from After Ellen: http://www.afterellen.com/buffy-reunion-at-paleyfest/03/2008/
Buffy World . (n.d.). Buffy Slanguage. Retrieved from BuffyWorld: http://www.buffyworld.com/slanguage/slang.htm
Burton, B. (2014, Sept 29). 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' Returns in Fan-Made Animated Trailer . Retrieved from Cnet.com: http:/www.cnet.com/news/buffy-the-vampire-slayer-
returns-in-fan-made-animated-trailer/
Duenner, G. (n.d.). New Buffy Fan Film from Germany . Retrieved from Geek Girl and Proud.wordpress.com: http://geekgirlandproud.wordpress.com/
Graduation Day, Part Two . (n.d.). Retrieved from Buffy.Wikia.com: http://buffy.wikia.com/wiki/Graduation_Day,_Part_Two
Healey, N. (2012, Nov 12). Buffy Episodes Recapped as Limericks . Retrieved from Cnet.com: http://www.cnet.com/news/buffy-episodes-recapped-as-limericks/
Hill, K. (2010). Punks, Geeks and Goths: Buffy the Vampire Slayer as a Study of Popular Music Demographics on Popular American Commercial Television. In P. G.
Attinello, J. K. Halfyard , & V. Knights (Eds.), Music, Sound and Silence in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Surrey, England: Ashgate Publishing Limited.
Metz, C. (2004, Jan 20). The Real World . Retrieved from PCMag : http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,1418456,00.asp
The Paley Center for Media . (2009, Mar 5). The Paley Center for Media Releases New DVD PaleyFest: Buffy the Vampire Slayer Reunion . Retrieved from Paley
Center : http://www.paleycenter.org/paley-center-releases-new-buffy-the-vampire-slayer-reunion-dvd
TvTropes . (n.d.). Film: Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Retrieved from TvTropes.org : http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Film/BuffyTheVampireSlayer
Entertaiment Weekly . (1999, Jun 18). "Buffy" Breaks Out. Retrieved from Entertainment Weekly : http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,273808,00.html
IMDb. (n.d.). Buffy the Vampire Slayer . Retrieved from International Movie Database: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118276/
Sullivan, J. L. (2013). Media Audiences: Effects, Users, Institutions, and Power. Sage Publication Ltd.
Jenkins, H. (2013). Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Participatory Culture . New York City , NY: Routledge.
Editor's Notes
The plot is the same: A valley girl named buffy finds out she is the Chosen one and is to be trained by her British mentor to become the “slayer” and kill vampires.
The movie was suppose to be a subversion for the cliché role women play in horror films as the “damsel in distress”
HOWEVER,
The movie didn’t go as Joss Whedon had intended for the script.
According to Tvtropes.org, the originial scrip Whedon had written was meant to be a serious metaphor for female empowermeant but the director turned it into a comedy
The film did well in the box office, however received mediocre reviews
WB to UpN = CW
Explain the show
Buffy Summers is a sixteen year old girl who finds out she is the “chosen one.” the one person chosen to kill the beasts and the monsters that lurk in the shadows.
When the show first begins, Buffy moves to a new town and starts her sophomore year in a new school, where she must balance school, ffriends, boys, social life and the saving the world
The show stars various characters
You have the three best friends, Buffy Summers, Willow and Xander
You have the love interest Angel
And you have the watchful guardian Giles
And finale the enemy/frenemy Spike and later Faith
Sunnydale = hellmouth
The WB was competing with top big netorks such as Fox Television, NBC, CBS
As Professor Billinson discussed in our last class, there is a divide within the Buffy community or “Buffy verse” in two ways,
The two divides:
Fans that are familiar with joss whedons work and so their obsession with whedon transfers over to this show and anything whedon creates.and then fans that don’t know too much of whedon they just love the show, while the whedon fans don’t believe you are a true fan unless you know who is the creator
You have fan that are pro-relationships. Particulary buffy and angel fans and buffy/spike fans. In the earlier series buffy was madly in love with this vampire named angel. And their relationship itself created a fandom, while later in the series buffy has a love/hate relationship with another vampire named spike. You have a divide between the different relationship because each relationship changed the dirrection of the show.
While being with angel, was more romantic, being with spike was more drama and anger filled.
-The Lanugage originated through the show.
-Fans use slang from the show in their every life (pictures of five by five) phrases like “five by five” and backseat mothering are phrases that orginiated from the show and stuck with the fans
- Within the community, this language is used in everyday life, at convention, fans even tattoo themselves with these poerful slogans from the show. It resonates with them
For example: the saying Five by five was developed in season 3 when a new cast member came along named Faith. She was another vampire slayer but with more edge. She was more dangerous and unpredictable. She began saying this phrase “Five by Five” and it spread. Fans were going crazy over this cool saying and began making it a trend within the buffy verse.
There were shirts being made
Posters, wallpaper
And people were even getting it as a tattoo.
The show began in the early boom of electronics and the internet.
Fans in the 90s were not as technologically savvey as they are today.
Fans in the 90s used the early forums and chatroom and boards to communicate with other fans and created posters rather than tumblers and websites rather than facebook accounts. There werent as many options to create online media at the time.
However..
Fans today create fan pages and platform accounts dedicated to the show, these include Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter and Instagram.
Fans will create walls with posts, including images, GIFS, Memes
These fans would take episode and create a film from the episodes from previous seasons.
Would provide alternative endings
By endind the shows the way he did, Joss Whedon made it capable for fans to add on to his stories and be creative with altnernative endings.
Fans interacted through many onlines sites and conventions
Fans were able to share their fears, loves and experiences with the show
Buffy Virtcom is a buffy Virtual community
A community based online where Fans of Buffy the vampire slayer would communitcate and share their interests with other fans of the show.
There would be many websites, with board postings revolving around some part of the show
Dedicated to actual characters from the show
A buffy Summers page
An Angel page
Spike page
Willow / Dark Willow page
Websites dedicate to love interests from the show
Fans passionate about a certain show romance, would be able to share that connection with other fans
Buffy/Angel
Buffy/Spike
Buffy/Xander
Willow/Xander
- After Columbine shooting in April of 1999, television stations were being very caustious about the content in their programs.
The Buffy Season 3 finale in May was delayed because of this that tragedy as they thought it would be best since the finale of that season was about a huge fight with buffy and her friend at their high school
However..
Buff fans reacted to the delay, and petitions were formed, online groups were developed protesting the fact that the season finale of their favorite show was being put on hold until further notice
But the episode was not delayed in Canada, so in the age of technology was rising, bootleg digital versions were being downloaded and seen despite the delay
When whedon was told/asked about the show illegal down loads he say “bootleg the puppy” reinforcing fans to see the show
The show was so widely popular and the fandom of this series so devoted even during season three, they fought the WB and demanded to see the episode despite what was going on in our country at that time.
Another way fans are able to communicate through this fandom is through conventions
There are many conventions revolving a show that help press and allow for more notice of the show
But in 2008, PaleyFest was hosted a Reunion of Buffy the vampire slayer cast including Joss Whedon after the show ended in 2003
The convention was a place for fans to reminisce and ask specific questions to the cast, and ask any future decisions about the show, including a reunion of the show, movie, even questions of a music
