#this with ep 3 of Brian Baumgartner's podcast is super interesting

[ayankun]

Jesse Tribble - Filming The Office

#this with ep 3 of Brian Baumgartner's podcast is super interesting #Jesse comments on the ways the office breaks the rules of documentary filming in order to preserve the rules of sitcom filming #and according to the show's DP Randall Einhorn that sort of choice was 1000% by design #also #tracking the influences of the documentary style choice is beyond compelling #evidently there were these docu-soaps covering aspects of mundane British life that inspired Merchant and Gervais #so the US team had to work without that point of reference when adapting the show with the American audience in mind #and then when you get to Parks #all these specific inspirations and creative compulsions are further abstracted #and the docu crew vanishes altogether #which ultimately gets us to 2019 where the mockumentary visual style is applied to hsmtmts without ANY of the original creative reasons #for choosing to shoot a sitcom like a documentary #and was instead chosen to play on audience expectations of the style itself #as well as for the 'theatre is an agreement between actor and audience to suspend disbelief' angle that I'm still working on #because if anything comes out the analysis of 'why jim look camera' #it's 'it makes him relatable' and 'it allows this character to make a specific comment on the goings-on' #and both of those results are achieved in using it on hsmtmts #so it's a good thing to use for their intended purposes #anyway I'm like 50% sure I'll end up writing this essay #outside of tags