Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1533763
BC's St. Denis Medical is a mock- umentary about an underfunded, understaffed hospital in Oregon. The show consists of a quirky cast of charac- ters, with Wendi McLendon-Covey play- ing the hospital's director, Joyce, who is always trying to raise funds and keep the team motivated. David Alan Grier plays Ron, a doctor who mostly minds his own business, but can't help to observe the unusual behavior of the hospital's younger staff members. And Josh Lawson is surgeon Bruce, the "Diana Ross" of St. Denis, who never misses an opportunity to toot his own horn. Allison Tolman, Kahyun Kim, Mekki Leeper and Kaliko Kauahi also star. The series is co-created and execu- tive produced by Eric Ledgin and Justin Spitzer. Ruben Fleischer directed the pilot for the series, which is produced by Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group, and Spitzer Holding Company. Heather Jack directed four of the series' 18 episodes (106, 111, 112 and 115), more than any other director. She has a history of collaborating with NBC and Justin Spitzer, including work on Superstore and American Auto. Here, she speaks exclusively with Post about the show — which was recently renewed for a second season — its workflow, produc- tion challenges and creative rewards. Heather, how did you get involved working on St. Denis Medical? "The show is from the creators of Superstore and also American Auto, and I was fortunate enough to work on both of those shows. Actually, Superstore was my first TV directing job, so I came up through a program with NBC for female directors. I shadowed on three episodes of Superstore and then was given an episode to direct, and that was my first episode of TV." What were you doing prior to that? "Prior to that, I was doing a lot of brand- ed entertainment, short-form content. I made a short film that got into Tribeca that was kind of a little comedic romp. That was kind of my calling card. I made a little reel. I submitted to this program. I interviewed with the show runner of Superstore, creator Justin Spitzer, and that was my entry into directing episodic for television, but also that specific camp. I've been lucky enough to work with Justin Spitzer on Superstore, American Auto and now St. Denis Medical, and the crew has also largely stayed intact — de- partment heads and a lot of people have gone from show to show. And it's always been at the NBC Universal lot. For me, it's always like coming back to kind of a home base or a family." You worked on Episodes 106, 111, 112 and 115. Did you have the luxury of seeing any early episodes to get a handle on the look of the show? "I did get to see the pilot ahead of time, however, Episode 6, when we shot it, was actually, I think, the third episode that was shot, so I didn't get to see much else beyond the pilot. I got to read some scripts of other episodes. The pilot was directed, then there was one episode be- fore mine, and then I shot mine, so it was having trust in the DP because we worked together on the previous two shows." That's Jay Hunter? "He's just incredible to work with (and) also very collaborative. (He) has a really great sense visually and spatially about what works best, so I can always come to him with ideas and he always makes them better. It's a really great relationship because we've worked together over the past years. And then also the editor, I believe, for all four of my episodes, was Christian Kinnard, and he's also incredible to work with. I would get these editor's cuts and they would be so dialed in already, and so then you just get to play with performance and making small adjustments to kind of bring it there. He also, worked on American Auto. He worked with Justin Spitzer previously as well, so he has a sense of the kinds of stuff that they're looking for." The cast really does a great job on this show. "The ensemble is incredible. They're so on! There's also a lot of room for playing around with the words, and there's some stuff that makes more sense to do just as scripted, and the writers are brilliant. Then, of course, Wendi comes from an improv background, so to be able to let her have a stab at it is really fun because it always kind of opens things up in a really fun way." Was the workflow pretty well established by the time you worked on your episodes? "There was a little difference from like the third episode to kind of the last couple that I directed. In the beginning, we were still kind of figuring out a workflow in terms of what do you shoot first, be- cause there are different ways to cover the scenes. It's different than shooting something that's not mockumentary. For example, there's a take that you do with a swinging camera, so we were still figuring out, does it make sense to do that take up front, or does it make sense to save that until the actors have the lines down? When is that most useful? Jay Hunter helped inform (us) because he'd done a couple episodes already by that point." I would imagine there are certain efficiencies to shooting, say the interviews, etc. "You kind of work with our ADs to figure out the best way to kind of slot those in. They're very fast. In the mockumenta- ry world, the filmmaking team has just pulled someone away for a moment to grab their thoughts on something, so in the actual shooting space, you're not too far from where a scene just took place. So sometimes it makes the most sense to just schedule it back-to -back. You shoot a scene and then you grab the in- terview portion right after. But then there may be different considerations, like just the timing of the day or actor availability. So sometimes those get shuffled around, but they go pretty quickly. Again, the actors are very, very skilled at what they do. So you can knock out a few differ- ST. DENIS MEDICAL BY MARC LOFTUS DIRECTOR HEATHER JACK SHARES INSIGHT INTO MAKING NBC'S POPULAR NEW MOCUMENTARY SERIES N TELEVISION www.postmagazine.com 12 POST MAR/APR 2025 Director Heather Jack