Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/957795
DGA QUARTERLY 53 don't want her to really even see them," Lynch explains. Still, the space's existing lighting needed help. "They had, like, three lightbulbs hanging in the background, up high, so I designed lights coming down at all different depths. Because I'd be shooting on long lenses, I'd get a real sense of depth and softness behind her so everything doesn't flatten out." Less Is More Given their seeming ubiquity lately, and the inherent limitations of the form, how does a director make a comedian's "special" live up to the very title of the genre? As varied as the performers are in persona and stage presence, cer- tain artistic considerations prevail behind the camera. No. 1: Know your comedian, their offstage predilections and onstage rhythms. Make the viewing experience feel seamless; a lot of what directing a special involves takes place in the editing room, cutting among mul- tiple performances of the same hour-long set. Think of the special as a story, and try to get the comic to structure the hour accordingly. Ultimately, however, it's probably best not to try to reinvent the wheel. "You can have an artsy angle, but with joke-telling, it doesn't land as well if I'm not shooting them from the front," says Shannon Hartman, who directed four 2017 comedy specials, including Roy Wood Jr.'s Father Figure, on Comedy Central. The special was shot at a black box theater in Atlanta that seats around 500. Hartman used eight cameras and added some lighting elements "as architec- ture," but again, Wood wanted things stripped down. "They work on this material for a year or more," Hartman notes of the stakes for a comedian about to do a special. "It's a lot of pres- sure to nail the essence, to make them happy, so they feel good about material they've been working on so long." For his part, Chris Robinson—who directed the 2017 Showtime special Tiffany Haddish: She Ready! From the Hood to Hollywood! —says standup comedy has "a very analogue, human patina. It doesn't have to do with technology at all. It has to do with people congregating in a room." "You have to get into their psychology and find what gives them confidence," says Liam Lynch about directing comedians like Sarah Silverman.