Introduction
For my research, I've mentioned that I will be researching into the cinematic style of specific Mockumentaries where here I will be analysing The Office (UK). The Office is a 2 series Mockumentary that was first aired in July 2001 and ended in December 2003. Created, written and produced by the widely known Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, this 2 six episodes series follows the day-to-day lives of those who work in an office in a branch in Slough.
I will be analysing segments of episodes from The Office and focus on the following cinematic aspects:
- Camera Movement
- Camera Shot Sizes/Angles
- Interview Setup
- Lighting
- Sound
- Exposure
Camera Movement
Whilst watching The Office, the use of the camera works in an intellectual yet realistic way. It is clear that every shot used is handheld (apart from interviews). This creates this third person perspective feel to the show, making it seem realistic so that it conforms to the documentary conventions. Whilst on the topic of having this third person perspective feel, The Office constantly uses shots where the camera is positioned behind an object, creating a 'spying' feel which in some cases act as if the Documentary Crew shouldn't be filming (as seen in the image below).
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| The camera hides behind a flip chart (right foreground) as we see David talk to Dawn |
It is clear that The Office consists of a variety of long-framed shots for a numerous amount of reasons. For dramatic emphasis, following the action, and so on. However, what is interesting with The Office is how these shots are long due to the camera zooming to follow the action, instead of cutting to a different shot. This is conventional throughout the narrative of The Office and the camera literally follows the action which is shown.
As well as this, The Office also uses frequent panning and tracking shots to switch between the action of characters, which too is often done by cutting between two different shots. Therefore, the use of zooms and panning/tracking shots are frequently used to expand on the length of shots, often used to increase tension and for dramatic emphasis.
Camera Shot Sizes/Angles
In terms of shot sizes, there isn't a major trend that occurs throughout the narrative. Nonetheless, the camera tends to remain quite wide in it's shots - it seems as if the camera could be tighter for most shots however the shots used choose to have extra space. The reasons for this remains loyal to documentary conventions- documentaries tend to generally have wider shots incase incase anything which they are recording tend to move a lot and therefore move out of frame. Thus, this makes The Office seem more realistic as it shows that the DoP keeps in mind of this idea to film safe and make sure everything is in shot.
As mentioned in the camera movement section, we often see shots that zoom in to close ups/mid close ups purely for dramatic emphasis. These shots remain conventional and the majority of close-ups are used to show character reactions and emotions.
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| A Close up, which is used to show character's emotion/reactions |
Interview Setup
Although not quite an asset of cinematography, I've also decided to research into interview setups to see whether they differ between different Mockumentaries. Nonetheless, The Office tends to focus on close ups for the interviews and rarely uses the conventional mid shot or mid close shot.
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| A typical close up used within an interview. |
Furthermore, interviews are always still shots and used on tripods - it is very rare to see camera movement unless other action happens within the interview, such as a character interrupting.
In terms of lighting, The Office consists of naturalistic lighting and doesn't have any footage of artificial lighting to make the interview seem fixed. This is mainly to enhance the realism of the interview, making sure that it doesn't fixed.
Lighting
In terms of lighting, The Office tends to rely particularly on naturalistic lighting (or at least convey lighting that seems naturalistic). This is particularly to make it seem more like an office - it would seem odd if there was artificial and forced lighting within an office as it effect the realism, thus generally making it seem that everything is forced.
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| A typical shot that shows how we assume that the shot is lit is from the ceiling lights coming from the office. |
Sound
Due to The Office typically having scenes with more than one person and scenes where it seems as if the camera isn't inside the same room, the use of sound is used very effectively. We don't see any evidence of clip mics, boom poles etc within shots and they have hidden the sound equipment very well. This differs to other Mockumentaries who sometime/intentionally show actors wearing clip mic's or having boom poles in a shot.
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| A shot that shows no sound gear wired onto the actor, even though we can hear him whisper when he is on the phone. |
Nonetheless, this helps to add to the realism as it seems that The Office want the audience to feel as if they're actually involved in the mockumentary themselves - following this idea of being being a third person perspective. Therefore, the use of sound is used in a clever manor and helps to enhance the realism by allowing the audience to almost forget that there is a documentary crew filming (apart from interviews and when the actors look directly into the camera).
Exposure
The exposure within The Office is reasonably simplistic so that it seems more realistic like a documentary. The only aspect which I can pick up would be how in some cases the camera looses focus when switching between two or more actors. This, whether it is intentional or accidental, too helps to reinforce this realistic approach, as it is inevitable for documentaries to master every shot because they are filming actuality. Nonetheless, such change in exposure is very quick and sudden, meaning the camera only looses focus for a second or two.
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| A shot that is blurred for a couple of seconds. |
Nonetheless, it is clear that The Office is most likely to use cameras which have a high f stop (wide depth of field) to enable more objects to be in focus (apart from interviews, which tend to be quite sharp as they focus on the actor). This is because The Office typically has shots with more than one character in shot, and often pans and tracks, meaning having a camera with a high f.stop (wide depth of field) is more likely to stay in focus compared to one with a lower f stop.
Additionally, we often see pull focuses between a group of characters, where the character changes focus depending on whom is talking in shot. This follows this approach of enabling shots to seem longer, as the camera doesn't have to move to a new shot when it can simply change focus.
Therefore, when discussing the use of pull focuses, The Office may also use a camera which has a low f stop (shallow depth of field) to enable these pull focuses to be as sharp and quick as they are. Thus, it is suggested that The Office uses cameras which have a high and low f stop lens.
Key Conventions for The Office
To conclude, The Office seems to be quite conventional for the documentary genre. It consists primarily of:
- It follows similar interview conventions however uses close ups instead of wider shots.
- Consists of long framed shots for dramatic tension. This is done from literally following the
action by zooming, tracking, panning and pull focusing.
- Keeping shots generally wider than expected to create 'safe' shots, as the idea is that the Crew
aren't meant to know what to expect (thus remaining loyal to documentaries)
- Typically eye level shots to make shots seem neutral instead of being biased.
- Sophisticated level of sound use: not showing any evidence of sound gear.
- Fast zooms and close ups for dramatic emphasis
- Following a third person perspective to make it seem as if the crew are 'spying' on the actors.
- Using both high and low end f stop lenses to gain sharp images to enable pull focuses to occur,
and shallow focuses so that the camera captures all the action within a shot.
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