DIRECTIONS: Director's Statement

 The key aspect of my creative vision in my re-directing of 'The Office' came from an aspect of the show that annoyed me when I first watched it. The premise of the show is a faux-documentary watching the lives of office employees and I occasionally found the cuts and coverage always too clean for this. Whilst I understand this is because 'The Office' was in reality a comedy drama filmed with a multi-camera set-up I thought I would take this opportunity to see how the show looked filmed how I had always imagined - more like a single camera documentary than a drama.

Location

 For David Wallace's house I wanted a location that would reflect a mid-high income of the CFO of Dunder Miflin. I chose a detached house with an intimate, homely interior that also reflected the episode's romantic themes. On a shoot with a bigger budget I would have looked at acquiring a location such as those pictured below that would have better reflected Wallace's career. However, the shortening of the episode made this less of a necessity, enabling a location that reflected the episode as opposed to a singular, minor character.

Production/costume design

 My original intention for costume design was significantly more formal than the final product. Given a bigger budget, David and Michael would have worn suits: David's stylish and tailored to reflect his high status and Michael's being a tailored suit that seems a few years old. Jim's outfit would have been more smart-casual, mixing either a plain shirt or stylish t-shirt with a casual blazer. Karen's outfit would have been sophisticated but slightly more playful than Jan's pricey, sophisticated dress. 

 

Sound design 

My plans for sound design are heavily influenced by the episodes of Teachers directed by Otto Bathurst and his use of occassional diagetic sound effects for humour purposes. Whilst this varies from my idea of producing an episode that feels more like a documentary than the original, I believe it is an unexpected and effective way to emphasise some of the show's subtle comedy. 

Camera approach

 To try and reflect the intended documentary style I filmed each scene as one continuous shot. As an attempt to try and emphasise this naturalistic style and make my actor's actions seem comfortable I did not give them much direction in stage directions except where to move etc, instead allowing them to act as they felt the character would.
 However, as a contrast to this I repeatedly showed Jim and Karen through a face-on two shot of the couple sat on a sofa, hopefully conveying a feeling of intimacy between the pair. This shot choice was influenced by my research into Edgar Wright and Otto Bathurst.
 One of my initial creative ideas was to, in the scene where Jan drags Michael into the bathroom, have her pull him through the party and down a long hallway and into a bathroom at the end where the camera would be placed to show the party on one half of the screen and the hallway leading to the bathroom on the other.

Mood/tone/visual style 

I wanted to show Jim and Karen's relationship to be more comfortable and healthy than Michael and Jan's so had them sitting in all of their interactions on comfortable sofas whilst Jan and Michael would be stood and almost always moving in order to reflect the idea that their relationship was unstable and progressing towards the end. 
 One of my main ideas was to keep the majority of the action happening in one central room in the house, reflecting the show's usual setting of an office. This was to convey an idea that even though the characters have escaped the close quarters of the office, they are still forced together in their off time as well. To emphasise this connection, I twice transition one scene into another without cutting and instead just turning the camera's attention.

Editing

My approach to editing was very minimal, keeping with my one-camera documentary vision. I filmed no cut-aways or extra footage to cut to and as such most of my editing was in making sure sound design was crisp.