Inspiration for "Waiting in the Wings" Shot....

[BuffyNvrForgets]

I was recently tasked with picking an art work to copy for a class I'm taking (AFAs, amiright?), and I found this art piece:

Titled, "In the Wings, Giselle".

It really reminded me of this shot:

Do you think the painting could be the inspiration?? The inspiration for the eisode was the fact that Joss Whedon learned Amy Acker had Ballet experience, and he thought up the (deleted) scene where Wesley invisions himself dancing with Fred, and the rest of the episode came with. Perhaps this painting could be the inspiration behind this iconic shot.


Thoughts?

 

[thrasherpix]

The more shows and books I read from before Buffy and Angel, the more I think Joss saw this first. Even on the first viewing I could tell he "borrowed" from the classics (which is fine, but thought it should be tweaked more than it was), but now I think just about everything was taken from shows like Babylon 5 as well as artsy fartsy books and paintings, plus plenty of comics.

This doesn't necessarily mean he did so consciously.

And he still gave it the "Joss twist." Which when I was first exposed to it was refreshing as it wasn't as stale and predictable as so much else, but after awhile Joss becomes just as predictable in his own way.

 

[Plasma]

It could be, but the dress in the painting is a different style. The painting also appears to display an understudy during a play or show, so maybe the inspiration came from a backstage experience?

Either way, it's a beautiful piece!

 

[BuffyNvrForgets]

It could be, but the dress in the painting is a different style. The painting also appears to display an understudy during a play or show, so maybe the inspiration came from a backstage experience?

Either way, it's a beautiful piece!

Ooh, I see what you're saying!

It's quite common for different ballet companies to have different costumes, as each will have their own costume department. Of course, the Act II dress for Giselle is always white (to match the dresses of the other Willis), in Act I, Giselle's dress varies wildly from company to company. Some have blue bodice, white skirt, some have brown bodice, yellow skirt, in the episode it was a blue bodice with a blue skirt. The material differs too. Some are more tulle-type fabrics, others almost a chiffon. In the show, it seemed a slightly heavier material. It's possible it was also a type of chiffon, just with a lot of underskirts.

For Act II however, you usually get different variations on the same white bodice and white tulle skirt. Sometimes the bodice had the little wing puffs midway down the upper arm, sometime the dress has little moth wings on the small of the back. Sometimes (as in the show) it has simple butterfly/flutter sleeves.

Also, (as someone who isn't a ballerina, I just like ballet) I dunno about understudies. Do ballerinas have understudies that wait in the wings? I would assume the dancer pictured is perhaps just waiting for her cue to go out, as perhaps she isn't in the current number. I get the impression Ballerinas have to wait there for their cue. To paraphrase the wonderful Summer Glau, "You have to wait there, ready, because if you miss your cue...you're fired".

I'm sorry, this is a lot of random facts to dump on you, my unwilling victims, I just get geeky about this kinda stuff! 😂

 

[NileQT87]

Lucifer outright used the exact same Giselle costumes and painted backdrops in an episode (both filmed in Los Angeles, so there was a high chance they were rented from the same costuming warehouse or ballet company).

That homage was one of the least subtle, but still a nice nod.

 

[NileQT87]

The episode is Anything Pierce Can Do I Can Do Better (3x21).

It happens to be smack dab at the culmination of the infamous love triangle between Chloe, Lucifer (looking in on a life he can never have, of course) and the duplicitous Marcus Pierce a.k.a. biblical Cain (the old WB's very own Tom Welling--people who have seen Smallville appreciate his part more than those who don't know who he is, for sure), which is a rather appropriate parallel. It's also the same paralleling found in Waiting in the Wings (not just Count Kurskov, but also Angel with Groo and Wes with Gunn).

It was particularly memorable for me because it's yet another example of my own first name (Amber) being used in a really unflattering way (I'm still smarting from Clueless and Casper).

Definitely watch Lucifer if you're an Angel: the Series fan. It took a lot of inspirations. David Boreanaz literally cameos because of Lucifer having a Bones binging obsession. Besides D.B. Woodside and Aimee Garcia having been in BtVS and AtS (not to mention Kevin Alejandro in Bones), there are also tons of other cameos like Charisma Carpenter. The first episode even copies City of... with the set up of Lucifer attempting to genuinely help a troubled girl who found herself on the bad side of trying to become famous in L.A., only to end up dead. The season 1 cinematography definitely has strong Hollywood noir AtS season 1 vibes. And of course, it plays with the same curse of immortality trope playbook. There's another episode that strongly parallels the end of I Will Remember You and another episode that full-blown homages "Close your eyes." with the exact same context (going to hell/Hell). Lucifer definitely likes to make nods to Supernatural (there were some back-and-forth nods between the shows!), as well. I've made a few fanvids that point out swaths of these parallels, but the show is definitely worth watching on its own merits.