Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1542296
40 C I N E M O N T A G E F E A T U R E dead spots while giving you some additional insight into the characters. CineMontage: Nicole, what was the creative dynamic between you and David Rogers? Nicole Artzer: I started working with Dave as his assistant on the pilot, and I had the privilege of getting to cut episode 7 with him. While I've worked as an editor on other shows, I found the mockumentary style of filming to be so different from any other show I've worked on, and I learned so much from Dave about how to work with the footage as he has been an expert of that style since his work on "The Office." I cut scenes, shadowed him on the pilot, and I also worked with him on Episode 4, so by Episode 7, I felt the show's rhythms. Episode 7 centers on Ned in a moment when his personal life starts to bleed into his role as the boss. Domhnall gave such a great performance, and I remember laugh- ing so much going through takes with Jen Celotta, our director. Rogers: When I had to step away to prep and direct, we looked at how to schedule editors. As an assistant editor coming up on "Seinfeld," I worked with Skip Collec- tor, and he let me cut scenes, then give notes — timing, how long to hold a joke, when to speed things up. I try to pay that forward; I like giving assistants real cutting opportunities. CineMontage: How important was it to recognize this program with its own identity? Rogers: Greg really wanted to go back to the early "Office "shooting style. Sometimes he'd ask, "Did they move the camera and film this without the camera there?" And we'd have to prove to him that we had two cameras going at the same time — they cross-covered this one, but one camera is behind the door frame, so you can't see it in the other shot. We also introduced new elements into the show's style. In the pilot, there are on- screen captions — when Oscar says, "I'm not letting you use my likeness," we pop a chyron noting he signed a release back in 2005 with no end date. We're a bit looser with things because documentary and real- ity shows have changed. On one of Sascha's shows, they were doing something with talking heads. On "The Office," with talking heads, we'd shoot one camera, and you were stuck in that take. It was hard to cross takes. If we did, we'd usually have to cut to some B-roll, or we'd do a trick and morph something. Now t h ey b ro u g h t i n t h i s e d i to r i a l style element where we can pop in tight, and that's an edit, and even jump things a little bit. That was new, and it freed us to speed things up in certain ways and not be so restrained. CineMontage: The comedy takes different forms, and the humor or conflict is sharpened by the irony or absurdity of the moment, situation, or the workplace. Cohen: You're watching the dailies almost the same way you would watch a documentary, marking whenever some- t h i n g a w kw a rd o r h i l a r i o u s h a p p e n s, whether it was scripted or not. Any time something cringey or unexpected pops up, you grab it and build around it. A big part of that is the reaction shots — leaning heavily into the awkward part by having the whole cast react to it. We used a bunch of different tricks to milk those moments, but well-chosen re- action shots are always key. Great reaction shots can let us in on all the weird social dynamics going on. It can reveal something about the character who's reacting, or it can act as a stand-in for the audience, giving us permission to laugh along and fully absorb the absurdity of the moment. CineMontage: It's a classic Midwestern setting, and it's almost subversive to have all of these foreign actors, like the 1930s films of Ernst Lubitsch. Stanton-Craven: With any sitcom, you want a distinct bunch of characters. Donal's playing an American, but he, Sabrina, and Tim Key all play characters who arrived on different roads and bring different flavors. It's funny that while Sabrina and Tim's characters are not entirely distinct from themselves as actors, they feel emblematic of an Italian and a Brit. Some people have pointed out that Tim Key brings a flavor reminiscent of Ricky Gervais's work on "The Office." His rhythm is totally different from that of other people on the show. With Esmeralda, Sabrina is doing her own thing, but in a way that makes sense within the show's world. CineMontage: The show has already been renewed for a second season. Was the final episode meant as a summing up, or a tease of what's to come? Cohen: One of the most exciting things about this finale is that the whole episode takes place outside the office. We've met these characters in their own environment, gotten to know their weirdness and quirks, and now they're interacting with the public. Jeff Blitz directed it — he worked on the original "Office" and has a documentary background — and despite so much chaotic action happening with all of the characters, he did such a great job of keeping that energy while making sure each beat was articulated. Esmeralda and Ken have a hilarious speech full of improvisation, and there's just a ton of funny and heartfelt stuff from each character. It was a 50-plus-minute assembly that we had to cut way down, so we had to sacrifice some of the strongest bits from the set and the original script. But what we kept really pops, and hopefully it leaves people wanting more next season. Rogers: The hardest thing for us was to sum it up, because without getting into the plot specifics, seeds that were there for many of the characters culminated with that episode. We said we have answers for some things — like, "this" started here, but it's now also becoming something new to launch into specific relationships and affect other things we'll see in Season 2. ■ Patrick Z. McGavin is a Chicago-based writer and journalist. He collects his writing at www. patrickzmcgavin.substack.com. 'We did the set as a 1970s newsroom.'