And Even Yet Another New Slideshow

[Gothick]

Thanks for that, MB.  Fascinating.  Now I'm wishing you I had more of a memory of the scene in the 1991 pilot show where somebody is at the Blue Whale and Sam and Maggie are both there.  Am I remembering that right?  It's really vague.

I do remember why Maggie might have pulled the Death card as Carolyn was leaving in this version, however...

G.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

The next chart:

And that next sequence of scenes will be dealt with in their entirety tomorrow because there's only one bit of dialogue in the entire sequence.

(And as for Sam and Maggie in the '91 DS, I can think of at least three times in the show when Sam and Maggie are at the Blue Whale together. Though there isn't very much exploration of their relationship within those scenes. In fact, in two of them I don't think they even speak to each other - they interact with the other people at the Blue Whale.)

[Mysterious Benefactor]

The script deals with today's big scene as such:

EXT. BLUE WHALE BAR - NIGHT

Carolyn leaves the Blue Whale and starts down the sidewalk. Ground fog willows around her feet as she cuts down the cobbled street. As she walks, CUT TO:

A DISTORTED, NIGHT-VISION POV.

Weird, over-exposed, it' s the intense, night-acclimated vision of the VAMPIRE as he hunts in the darkness, following Carolyn down the street.

OUT OF THE POV, Carolyn suddenly turns, as if sensing something. As she passes a wooden fence, a

FROTHING DOG

suddenly jams against the slats, spittle flying as it BARKS ferociously. Carolyn JUMPS as the air fills with other ANIMAL CRIES. Freaked, Carolyn picks up the pace, spotting

GRIFFIN'S GARAGE.

A late-model Mercedes is parked out front under the branches of a large tree that also shades the garage itself. Seeing the car, Carolyn hurries forward...

THE VAMPIRE'S NIGHT-VISION POV

continues to follow her, moving up on Carolyn as she nears the car, closer, almost on top of her... As the POV ENDS,

CAROLYN

spins, but sees NOTHING. Unnervingly, however, all the animal noises STOP. Scared, Carolyn does a complete 360, but the streets are empty. She relaxes for a moment...

It's at this moment that Carolyn delivers today's quote -

Page 26 - Carolyn: 'Looks like Halloween's over.'

- then the script continues with:

She's about to slide her key into the car door when.

POWERFUL HANDS

suddenly reach DOWN from the dark tree. The Vampire GRABS CAROLYN around the throat and using superhuman strength,

LIFTS HER BODILY,

kicking helplessly, her SCREAM strangled off as she disappears into the dark tree. Between the branches, we
catch quick FLASHES of action...

A GLIMMER of blood-red eyes. Carolyn's eyes, WIDE and TERRIFIED. Then a sudden, violent SLASH of WHITE FANGS. All at once, the RUSTLING stops.

INT. GRIFFIN'S GARAGE - NIGHT

A repair bay, crowded with tools. Looking up from the floor, there's a glass SKYLIGHT with a view of the tree overhead. In EERIE SLOW-MOTION,

CAROLYN'S UNCONSCIOUS BODY

falls out of the darkness, CRASHING THROUGH THE SKYLIGHT to the floor below. OFF CAROLYN'S BLOODIED BODY, sprawled on the floor amidst glistening shards of glass...


However, there are differences in the actual pilot.

For one, Carolyn doesn't leave the Blue Whale because the Blue Whale scene was never shot - we simply see her on streets in Collinsport (like similar sequences were shot with Daphne in the pilot for the '91 DS). And because the Blue Whale scene was never shot, I suspect that's why they decided to move the scene between Carolyn and Joe so that things would flow more smoothly to Carolyn out on the streets.

For another, Carolyn doesn't encounter any frothing dog (sorry, frothing dog fans).

I don't recall any vampire night-vision POV effect (but I left it on the chart in the pilot's section just in case it is there or somehow alluded to as an effect to be added later).

Also, I don't recall any sounds as Carolyn walks along other than crickets - and I don't recall the sounds of the crickets coming to a stop (though that may be because the score replaces them).

I'm thinking Carolyn simply becomes nervous, as if she's being followed, but after she looks around and sees nothing, relieved, she makes her Halloween remark and then continues on - she barely has a clue of what's about to happen to her until it's much, much too late.

What actually happens in the pilot, and what is really quite effectively done to build suspense, is that at first Carolyn sees a few leaves falling from a nearby tree. She looks up and sees nothing - but the audience soon sees a figure stealthily stalk across one of the tree's branches. Carolyn then sees a larger group of leaves fall. She looks up again, and this time she sees the withered (but now recognizable to those who know Alec Newman) face of Barnabas with fangs bared. He swoops down, grabs her, and carries the screaming girl up into the tree to feast upon. (After having seen the attack on Kelly and then watching this sequence, basically everyone at the screening I was at in '05 was going, "Whoa - this is amazing!!" And thankfully so unlike anything we've ever seen before in any version of DS.)

And finally, unlike the script, in the pilot there is no scene inside Griffin's Garage in which we see Carolyn fall through the skylight. Though Griffin's Garage does play a part in things, as we'll learn in an upcoming scene when Joe explains how Carolyn was found.


And just to give you a bit of an idea of how Barnabas looked up in the tree, here's a production drawing:

Though he looked different in the pilot (for one, we already know his clothes are different) - and I honestly suspect his face in the pilot was created with a CGI effect rather than makeup. But we'll get into why I suspect that when we get into tomorrow's scene...

[Gothick]

Fabulous!  Thanks for sharing all of that with us, MB.

Fascinating sketch.  This version of Old Barnabas makes me think of Uncle Creepy, in the old mags I grew up with as a kid.

G.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Starting a new chart with tomorrow's sequence of scenes (because the other chart was getting really long):

And as you can see, the next sequence of scenes is yet another that was never shot.

[Uncle Roger]

The sequence where Carolyn is stalked and then attacked is not just one of my favorite bits from the pilot. It's one of my favorite moments from any incarnation of DS.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

I completely agree, Uncle Roger! The way it climaxed was so unexpected. And that can't help but make one wonder what other types of unexpected twists they might have come up with had the pilot gone to series. (Though for me there's another unexpected twist coming up in the August slideshow - an unscripted scene that completely replaces a scripted scene because, for one, they decided not to cast Sarah. But more on that in August...)

[Mysterious Benefactor]

I honestly suspect his face in the pilot was created with a CGI effect rather than makeup. But we'll get into why I suspect that when we get into tomorrow's scene...

Actually, I may be wrong about that and the reason is that I was just going over some of the stuff written with regard to today's sequence in the slideshow and there's conflicting info. But I'll get into that after we deal with how things are presented in the script:

EXT. FAMILY CEMETERY - COLLINWOOD - NIGHT

The dark figure of the Vampire returns, face hidden as he crosses through the gravestones, moving with animal grace.

INT. SECRET ROOM - MAUSOLEUM - NIGHT

The Vampire enters, stopping next to Kelly's body. Strong hands lift her by the hair and her head lolls back, dead, revealing two vivid puncture wounds on her neck. Cold, the hands drop her. The Vampire continues past

WILLIE,

semi-conscious, lying in a pool of blood, throat torn. As Willie MOANS, the Vampire goes to the wall and finds a

RECESSED IRON RING.

He pulls the ring and a secret compartment slides back, revealing the treasure Kelly had been trying to find. As he runs his hand over the gold and jewels, the

FIRST RAYS OF MORNING SUN

filter down from the upper mausoleum. As a shimmer of light hits the floor, the Vampire quickly crosses the secret room and puts his shoulder against the heavy door. Barely conscious, Willie realizes he's about to be sealed in.

It's at this point that Willie delivers today's quote -

Page 27 - Willie: 'No, please... NO...'

- then the script continues with:

The door SLAMS SHUT with frightening finality, cutting off Willie's cries. OFF this moment—


However, things may have been intended to play differently in the actual pilot because one article (from which I'll be quoting below for a different reason) describes the scene as Barnabas thwarting Willie's weakened attempt to escape, yet in the script Willie makes no attempted escape. But then, as we saw earlier, Willie and Kelly's encounter with Barnabas is different in the pilot than it is in the script, so it would make sense if this scene might have been intended to be different, too. Though we'll probably never know because it was never shot. And with that in mind, here's an excerpt from an article written by our very own Darren Gross (who was lucky enough to have worked on the pilot) that gets into just why that was:

In order to meet the May delivery date, the pilot was edited primarily during the filming, with director Hogan making suggestions and adjustments after the strenuous shooting days were over. Because of the number of location changes and the technical complexity of several sequences, lensing went a day over schedule and the company was constantly making slight dialogue adjustments and script trims in order to stay on time.
This chain of events forced Hogan to drop a thrilling sequence in which Barnabas, having just attacked Carolyn, returns to the Collins crypt's secret room, where he thwarts Willie's weakened effort to escape. This involved creating an interim-stage makeup job between 200-year-old, desiccated Barnabas first found in the crypt (played by Hellboy's Doug Jones) and Newman's normal appearance. (Todd) McIntosh designed an effectively subtle look that made it clear that the rotted crypt creature was indeed Newman's Barnabas and not a different character. McIntosh applied it to Newman for the last two days of shooting, but the scene never went before the cameras when the high-pressure, overbudget production ran out of time.

Now, other reports have said that not only was it the case that the scene of Barnabas returning to crypt was never shot, but the makeup created by Todd McIntosh never went before the cameras either. That is what led me to believe that perhaps Barnabas' look in the scene in which he attacks Carolyn was created using CGI. But Darren writes that Alec Newman was in the makeup for two separate days. So, perhaps they did actually shoot him in the makeup for the attack scene and it's just the crypt scene where it wasn't used.    Though I would believe Darren rather than someone on the Internet whose track record at reporting accurate info I know nothing about because, as anyone who reads his posts here knows, Darren's info is always accurate. And for what it's worth, here's a production photo of McIntosh applying the makeup on Newman:

And here's a wonderful publicity photo of Newman in the finished product:

Either way, it's still a shame we never got to see the crypt scene...

[Gothick]

Those are awesome photos, MB.  Very cool!

G.

[DarkLady]

Wow, thanks so much for posting these! Alec Newman would have been a terrific Barnabas, I'm sure. If only....

[Mysterious Benefactor]

I completely agree, DarkLady - he was a definite standout in the pilot!

And to think some execs at the WB initially balked at Newman's casting because they wanted someone younger (please - Newman was only 29 - and his age jibes well with Marley Shelton, who was also 29, though playing a bit younger - not to mention he was years younger than Frid or Cross) and they wanted a "soap stud" (again, please - Newman may not be a "soap stud," but he's certainly handsome). It was quite sad that the WB wanted to stress age/looks over talent (which Newman has in spades). But thankfully the producers won out and Newman was cast - and those execs came around once they saw dailies of Newman as Barnabas.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

The chart for the new scene starting with today's quote:

And this scene just might be the most drastic example of the dialogue adjustments and script trims that were done to attempt to keep the pilot on time because, as you can see, the scene that chronologically should be appearing now scriptwise (the yellow scene) is being combined with another one from the script that wouldn't have appeared until well down the road (the red scene) to create the scene in the pilot (the orange scene). And along the way Roger's stuff was completely dropped from this scene, which is a crying shame because there really should have been more Roger in the pilot, not less. Though, to no doubt make up for being dropped from this scene, Roger is inserted into an upcoming scene that he wasn't scripted to appear in - but he's by no means as interesting in that scene as he is scripted to be in this scene's original version. C'est la vie. But because we're using the script for the slideshow, at least we'll get to quote his dropped dialogue...

[Mysterious Benefactor]

The script sets up this new scene as:

INT. DINING ROOM - COLLINWOOD - DAY

Roger and Elizabeth are already eating as Victoria enters, sliding out a chair.

And it's right then in the script that Elizabeth asks Vicki today's quote -

Page 27 - Elizabeth: 'Sleep well?'

- however, before Elizabeth even asks Vicki how she slept, in the pilot she and Vicki exchange good mornings. And, of course, Elizabeth and Vicki are alone in the dining room because Roger isn't there in the pilot.

And BTW, the way things work in the reworked version for the pilot is that the beginning part of it is taken from the first parts of this scene, and the ending part of it (except for the very end) is taken from the other scene down the road in the script. As this scene unfolds, I'll point out what wasn't used. And then once we come to the other scene, I'll point out what wasn't used from that one.

[Cousin_Barnabas]

 

I don't think the dialog is correct for today's slideshow caption... unless Victoria has a curse of which I am not aware... and SGS lifted from the '04 pilot.  (He probably should have, but that is neither here nor there.)

____

It's fixed now!  That was quick... or maybe it was my computer playing tricks on me! 

[Mysterious Benefactor]

I just fixed it. Earlier tonight I'd formatted the quotes for June but forgot to upload them to the database. Oops. 

And thanks for posting about it. I did catch it fairly quickly on my own this time - but sometimes we don't catch these things for hours because no one posts about it. Trust us, we appreciate it whenever someone points out something that's wrong.