Visual Semiotic Analysis of Prince Family Paper

The shots in The Office always vary, however most of the time it is filmed with a closed frame. Since this is in fact a documentary, there are many times where there is an interviewee seated in front of the office window, creating a lot of medium shots. Whenever there is a lot of activity in the office the camera zooms out to a wide shot so everything can be seen, but then there is usually something important going on in the background that the cameraman zooms in on. Generally it would be a close-up of Jim’s facial expression.

This show is supposed to be humorous, and even the filming reflects that. It’s supposed to be shot in a way that makes it appear real life. The camera will follow always the most important subject and show their every move, not leaving anything to our own interpretation. For example, in the episode Prince Family Paper, right at the end of the episode, Michael walks in with Dwight past a picture of Hilary Swank. He says, “Who’s that? She’s hot,” and walks off camera into his office. The camera zooms in on Jim and Pam. The whole office was debating on if Hilary Swank was hot or not, and they had been split right down the middle until Michael tipped the scale. Not following Michael into his office, but rather having a close-up of the triumphant faces of Jim and Pam made the end of the show funnier.

We still would have laughed at the fact Michael was the tie-breaker, but with the camera panning so we could see Pam rubbing it in the other’s faces was way more entertaining.