In “Inside the Episode,” writers and directors reflect on the making of their Emmy-winning episodes. A CPR dummy is turned into one of Buffalo Bill’s victims from “The Silence of the Lambs.” A cat falls through the ceiling.
The world’s best boss (in his own mind), Michael Scott, gets roasted. These are just some of the antics that make up “Stress Relief,” a two-part episode that aired in 2009 during the fifth season of NBC’s mockumentary “The Office.” Jeffrey Blitz would win a comedy directing Emmy that year for overseeing all of this chaos.
Blitz, who broke into the business with his Oscar-nominated 2002 documentary “Spellbound,” talks to The Times about the rules for directing a scripted comedy to look like a serious documentary, the art of cat stunts and comedian Cloris Leachman’s commitment to her craft. I’m not sure if there’s an easy way to answer this, but what are some of the major differences between directing an actual documentary and directing a comedy meant to look like a documentary? The look is really the only similarity, and that’s a ruse, of course. Actual life doesn’t stick to a script, doesn’t have more than one take, can have pretty iffy craft service.
“The Office” as a mockumentary borrows the style of a doc, but otherwise it’s as scripted as any scripted show — with one exception: the amount of improv. Even there, it’s less like real life and more like playing games. What are some things to remember about ma.