Why the Cinematography of ‘The Chair Company’ Went Darker to Be Funnier — Watch

There’s the old writing saw in Hollywood that you don’t want to put a hat on a hat — to get too cute or emphasize a beat too much, defeating the purpose. The tricky thing (and also the great freedom) of working on a Tim Robinson project, though, is that Robinson is the hat (and/or life-size hot dog costume) that goes on everything.

Accordingly, the look and feeling of Robinson’s latest HBO comedy, “The Chair Company,” really leans into the sinister, conspiratorial elements of the story that Robinson’s character, Ron, stumbles into navigating. Cinematographer Ashley Connor’s job was to make as sharp and sleek-looking a show as she could (on a half-hour comedy budget, no less), and doing it with a straight face actually makes “The Chair Company” funnier.

“Tim can play stronger and louder than the rest of the world, and we didn’t need to put anything on top of that. I think we needed to bring it down and bring it a little darker,” Connor told IndieWire as part of our Craft Roundtables series.

And the world of “The Chair Company” is quite dark, the depth of its shadows taking inspiration from films like “Klute” and its sickly suburban streetlights looking like the cousins of those found in “Prisoners” or any David Fincher film. “ We knew that we wanted to take the comedy much more seriously, and if the visuals could kind of ground it in a more serious container, then Tim’s and [showrunner Zach Kanin’s] voices could kind of play a little louder. So we really tried to embrace kind of a ’70s, ’80s thriller look,” Connor said.

“The Chair Company” is streaming on HBO Max.

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