My Fox Searchlight

I don’t Tivo a lot of shows. In fact, I don’t Tivo anything right now, because I have this shitty Time Warner DVR box instead that crashes constantly and works like Tivo’s retarded cousin. Anyhow, I’ve got Mythbusters, Family Guy, Curb Your Enthusiasm, HBO Sports, Canucks games on the Center Ice package, and most importantly The Office.

So when I got the call that they’d like me to direct an episode, I jumped at the opportunity. Days later, I found myself driving up to their lot out in Van Nuys. It’s at the end of this street of repo lots and neon sign dealers. However, once you drive in, you find yourself passing parking spaces with the Dunder Mifflin logo and the character names… that’s right, not the actor’s name. Carell’s spot says “Michael Scott”. Rain Wilson’s spot says “Dwight Schrute”.

So I walk onto the sound stage, and let me preface this by saying I’ve been on a lot of sets. It always looks different and faker in person. The Office set is an anomaly. It looks exactly like it does on TV. It’s a four-wall set with ceiling and floor. None of the walls fly away. And here’s the trippier part – The actors hang out at their desk, in costume, even when they’re not shooting. Their computers are on line and they’re checking email and stuff.

I knew Rainn, Krasinski, and Helms from before. As soon as I walked in, they all start to hug me, and then more actors join in, until I’m in a giant group hug from the entire office… in The Office. It is the craziest, coolest thing of all time.

Preparing to direct an episode of The Office is very tricky. There’s no set-ups or lighting. There’s two guys with video cameras on their shoulders and you have to treat their movement like actors in the scene – because they are technically the documentarians. At the beginning, they gave me floor plans of the office so I could map out the camera movement… because every scene is done in one shot.

One shot.

That means every close up, wide shot, reaction shot, insert… everything is done in one shot from one of two cameras… that can’t see each other but must shoot simultaneously. It’s like a big game of Rummy Kub.

Wierd moment of production design surprise - There's a three ring binder on Creed's desk with the logo from the Academy of Tobacco Studies that we created for Smoking. I have no idea how it got there and neither does he.

Anyhow, the whole experience was awesome. They’re all geniuses over there. I didn’t have to contribute much at the end of the day because they’re all so on their game.

Here’s a weird note. When they’re doing the talking heads… They’re speaking to the director. So if you watched my episode - when Michael is talking about how he thought up a unicorn before he ever heard of one. How he was five and drew a picture of a horse flying over a rainbow with a spike in its head… He was looking directly at me… and I had to hold a straight face.

I can’t explain the feeling of watching the episode live the other night and seeing my name come up on the credits. As Michael Scott would say… it’s like seeing your name on a great monument… like the Vietnam Memorial… only you’re not dead.