The Studio

thinking about the wide range of LA films and shows I have seen over the years, and how close this city feels without me ever having been there. Hollywood has a long history with films about the film industry, a theme it has embraced and celebrated time and again. From Sunset Boulevard to La La Land, from Mullholand Drive to Babylon, films about films are as natural to Hollywood as the the gradient in LA sunset*. (*as seen in the films) Most of these films have looked at Hollywood with a pinch of salt. It isn't just the land of dreams like we, as outsiders, would invariably imagine it to be. It is also a city of failures, disappointments, self-destruction, madness and worse. These films have painted a somewhat realistic idea of a world that otherwise feels nothing more than a figment of our imagination, where it was a close-gated community of some of the richest and most famous people in the world who party a lot and have perfect lives. More often than not, these films are great because they borrow from personal experiences. I believe that a big reason for why a lot of good filmmakers start making irrelevant films at some point in their careers is because storytelling needs to come from honesty, vulnerability and real life experiences. Most artists in the industry become entrapped inside the very bubble they struggled to break into at one point, ultimately getting detached from the outside world that enriched them enough to become a filmmaker in the first place. So if the only world they do have access to is the movie industry, there's a good chance they will reflect some of their best work. Which brings me back to The Studio, a show created by a comedy/ writer-duo Seth Rogen & Evan Goldberg, known largely for their slapstick comedies like Superbad & This Is The End. Even though they were amazing comedy films in their own right, the kind of storytelling & filmmaking prowess that's on display in The Studio is something that I'm sure, and with all due respect to them, no one saw coming. Not only is the show hilarious, witty and deliciously self-aware, it has some of the most original and laborious filmmaking set pieces that I've seen in a show in the past few years. The show is a grand satire on the film & TV industry, mounted on a huge budget and uncompromising in its vision. It looks visually better than any comedy since Master Of None. It evokes the nostalgia of classic Hollywood, with Mayan Revival-inspired set designs, use of bright colours and by crafting a "film-look" (something it's clever enough to mock), mixes it with PTA & Damien Chazelle - inspired cinematography & soundscape, but at the same time adds a distinct tonality to every episode, each of which pays tributes to different styles and genres of cinema. The effort is palpable, and the writing is airtight. These 2 comedy writers have made an honest, incredible and original tribute to cinema that will put all those filmmakers to shame who claim to be students of cinema and yet keep contributing to a system that favours lazy sequels and franchises over originality. And it made me think about something that has always piqued my curiosity - how is it that so many extraordinary shows have come from the minds of stand-up comics and comedy writers? Seinfeld, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Louie, The Office, Horace & Pete, Barry, Master Of None, Russian Doll, 30 Rock, Better Things, Atlanta, Girls, The Rehearsal - the list is endless. And the fact that most of these shows are parodies about the film, TV & comedy industry makes it even more interesting. There's a myth that films about films don't work because people don't want to see stories about making movies as it kills the mystery behind cinema, and it might even be true to an extent, especially in India where films & shows about films have rarely worked. But comedians have somehow seem to have cracked the code like no one else, having made some of the most profound shows about the industry. I mean, there have been very few moments on TV better than Jon Hamm playing himself in Curb trying to act like Larry David. And in every show that I have mentioned in Slide 7, the one undeniable fact remains that they have some of the masterful storytelling & filmmaking that you will ever watch in a comedy show. Louis CK used to do everything from directing to editing the episodes in Louie in order to have complete creative control over the show, because he used to approach it like a comedy set. Episodes were shot and edited to create visual punchlines, with some of the most clever & understated uses of camera that you'd watch in comedy. To quote a line from 'The Studio' - "Turns out perverts make great movies Watching Louis's interviews will also reveal that he's a big movie buff, and watches & learns from a lot of world cinema. If you look at both Master Of None & Barry, two of the most groundbreaking comedies of all time, they come from two comedians who are admittedly big film buffs. And the inspiration on them is quite apparent. Master Of None has film homages spread all over the show, from Woody Allen to Tarkovsky & De Sica, and most notably Bergman. Season 3 is essentially a reinterpretation of Scenes From A Marriage. Bill Hader draws heavily from Coen Brothers, Scorsese, Andrzei Wajda, Kurosawa for Barry. Here in India, I love what Sumukhi Suresh did with 'Pushpavalli' which I still believe is one of the most authentic tragicomedies made in India. Naveen Richard's 'Better Life Foundation' was an excellent show with the kind of writing that very few comedies since can even try to rival. I think the early years of Indian OTT was an interesting time for comedians in this regard, because a lot of comedians were getting chances to make their own shows. But because some of them failed, I feel like that trend kind of died out. But I feel that in a time when our comedy TV is practically non-existent, it's time to pass the baton to comedians again. I would love to see more fiction shows from comedians where they're given more creative control and opportunity to experiment. Sadly I see very little interest from Indian comedians in cinema, which I believe is a pre-requisite to make good fiction. Years of practice and deep understanding of joke-writing, mixed with an interest in world cinema is a deadly combination which has the potential to give us shows and films that can be more profound, more cinematically rich, and funnier than possibly even people who have studied film but don't have writing or stage experience.