When Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen set out to make The Studio, Apple TV+’s inside-baseball Hollywood comedy set in the cutthroat halls of the fictional Continental Studios, they hit on an excitingly ambitious visual approach, simply out of the desire to avoid repeating themselves.
Released in March, The Studio has wowed with its technical achievements, first and foremost, given the fact that each scene is shot in a long, continuous oner. Part of the impetus here, Goldberg explains is that “Seth had just been complaining about coverage, in general. As an actor, he was like, ‘I’m doing coverage that’s unnecessary, and I know it’s unnecessary, and it’s really annoying me…’”
In their next outing, Goldberg says, “he wanted to try to do something different, something more efficient, and something that demanded accuracy in a way that didn’t rely on editorial.”
Beyond the desire to expand their artistic horizons, Goldberg and Rogen were inspired by “the concept of panic” as a “primary motivating energy that takes you through the show” — the fear that informs every move made by executives trying to ascend the Hollywood ladder, or at the very least, keep their jobs. So while setting aside a methodology rooted in loose, improv-heavy work within multi-camera setups, the duo embraced the handheld camerawork previously adopted for their apocalyptic 2013 comedy This Is the End, which lent itself to capturing the feeling of being “trapped” in a room of panicking people. Another aspect to what was new, in comparison to earlier films the duo had made, was the stylistic consistency that comes with shooting with just one lens.
For Goldberg and Rogen — who co-created The Studio with Peter Huyck, Alex Gregory, Frida Perez — as well as their cinematographer, Adam Newport-Berra, all of the above choices stripped away the sense of a safety net and heightened a feeling of urgency in the storytelling.
From Newport-Berra’s perspective, the one-lens idea felt like “the obvious choice,” given the “strong approach” being taken to the material in general. “We used a 21mm Zeiss Master Prime. I think it was the perfect lens because…you could easily obtain a wide shot in a room, but you could also get close to somebody and it wasn’t so distorted,” he shares, in conversation with Goldberg, on The Process. :I think we messed around with a couple different focal lengths in the first week and then we realized it was a waste of time because we were talking about focal lengths instead of shooting and rehearsing. It’s very liberating to not even have to think about those choices.”
The other thing that Newport-Berra liked about the 21mm was that it wasn’t overly soft. “A lot of times, we pick these softer lenses because we’re trying to smooth over something or avoid seeing detail, and I could tell very quickly that we were going to build a really incredible world,” he says. “Julie [Berghoff] did a great job with production design and Kami [Lennox] did an amazing job with costume, and even the hair and makeup team. Everyone did such a good job that I wanted to feel and see all that.”
Part of the fun of The Studio was being pushed never to settle for anything less than the ideal outcome, when it came to visual choices like location, says Newport-Berra. “There were plenty of times where we could have been like, ‘That’ll work.’ But we realized very quickly it was paramount to how the show felt to pick the right locations. Also, a lot of it was informed by just if I could light it or not, and how I could light it. Because we were always lighting basically [in] 360 [degrees].”
Already at work on Season 2, Goldberg asks Newport-Berra about his hopes and fears going forward, and what he’d love to get on screen, recognizing that the team has to try to “one-up” everything that’s come before.
“I really want to do some big action chase scene. That’s what I’m calling for…” says the DP. “I just want to go bigger and better and funnier, and have more cameos, and just have fun.”
Continues Newport-Berra, “I love the challenges. I think they’re the best part. That’s why this show works, I think, because everyone is challenged on another level. Not only me, but you guys, the actors. It pushes everyone, and I think those confines are where we make the most creative choices.”
Check out our entire conversation with Goldberg and Newport-Berra above.
