The Chair Company’s DOP reveals how the pilot “sets up” the comedy show

The Chair Company does not waste a single second in its pilot. Right from the first episode, the show quietly decides how it wants you to see Ron Trosper and the strange little world around him, then sticks to that plan.

The Chair Company builds a serious, grounded look so that the comedy and the chaos feel way sharper when they arrive. Director of photography Ashley Connor even tells Forbes in an interview that

“the pilot sets up the rest of the show,”

and the more you hear her talk about it, the more that idea makes sense.

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The Chair Company comes up with a “serious” pilot, so the comedy makes even more sense

The Chair Company might be a comedy, but Ashley Connor never treated the pilot like a joke. Talking about the first episode to Forbes, she explained,

“I think the pilot sets up the rest of the show. When director Andrew DeYoung and I first started working on the pilot, the theory behind the aesthetics was always for everything to take itself very seriously. We have to take ourselves very seriously in Ron's world to be able to depict his descent into more obsessive behaviors really seriously.”

That word “descent” is doing a lot. Ron starts as this guy who can barely keep his life together, and the camera has to make that slow slide into obsession feel believable, not cartoony. So, The Chair Company pilot locks in a style where the framing, lighting, and the pace feel calm and almost dramatic.

That way, as the story slowly turns up the tension, and the jokes get darker, it feels like a real person spiraling, not some random sketch. Connor’s whole point is that if the pilot didn’t take Ron seriously, none of the later episodes would land the same way.

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Costumes that hide every “tell” until the show is ready

The Chair Company also uses costumes in the pilot to set up its whole comedy style. Costume designer Nicky Smith talked about working with production designer Rosaria Jimenez on that first episode.

“The production designer who did the pilot episode, “Rosaria Jimenez, she's super, super talented. It was one of those things where we sat down and talked about the office a lot, but for the rest of the world, we were all on the same page.”

Once Smith saw Connor’s visual boards, she realised they were building the same idea. She explained,

“Once I saw Ashley’s boards, I understood that we were all speaking the same language: I'm going to do them in regular clothes. We're not going to give away anything, to who the characters are outside, of their socioeconomic status, who they are as people. No jokes. We're not going to give away anyone's secret feelings on anything... It surprises you when you cringe. It keeps the audience guessing what's going to happen next.”

So in The Chair Company pilot, nobody walks on screen looking like a punchline. Everyone looks like people you might actually pass in an office or a store. That choice plants the seed for how the show will work later.

The jokes and the cringe are not sitting on the surface. They sneak up on you because the pilot teaches you to expect something grounded and honest before everything gets weirder.

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Building a “normal” world that still feels like a portal

When fans compare The Chair Company to Twin Peaks, Connor totally gets why. She called herself “a huge Lynch head” and “a huge Twin Peaks fan,” but she also pointed out that the style she uses on The Chair Company is not about strange camera tricks.

“Lynchian to me, it's not photographed strangely. It's very middle of the road. And that gives the characters within Twin Peaks the space to exist and to be real people.”

For The Chair Company, she sees something similar. Tom Robinson and Zach Kanin -

“Have created a world where all these men, all these very unique characters, audiences can believe that they exist in the world, even if ‘the world’ feels like a portal next door. That Tamblay's shop scene is such a perfect example.”

Even though Tamblay’s menswear store shows up later, the way it is shot fits the rules set in the pilot. The space looks totally normal, but the people in it push Ron’s buttons in a way that it feels slightly unreal, like you have stepped through a door into a different version of reality.

Connor also talks about Tim Robinson’s performance as Ron, saying,

“It's really Tim's presence, I think, in a lot of ways he exists as an actor playing Ron, and takes it very seriously. He's not showing up and treating people like this is a joke scene. I think that sincerity makes audiences really want to understand Ron more, and aim for the journey.”

The pilot sets that tone from day one, and the rest of The Chair Company follows suit.

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A pilot shaped by limits, teamwork, and Ron’s inner world

The Chair Company pilot was not made with an endless budget, and Connor is very open about how that shaped the look that carries through the season. She said,

“It's not the biggest budget show, so you have to think smarter. And I've been on shows where you get every piece of gear, when you have a huge budget and you have every single thing that you want. But really, I find limitations to be a generator of better creative choices...so, how are we going to focus on what we do have and like, sharpen that axe.”

That “axe” starts getting sharpened in the pilot. The Chair Company team leans into references like Network, Punch-Drunk Love, and Seven to give the show a tense, driven feeling, even while the story is still figuring out how far Ron will go.

Connor also said the season -

“Does such a good job of really being on Ron's team, helping to watch him go through this process.”

The pilot kicks that off by making home feel safe, the office feel neutral, and Ron’s inner world feel slightly off balance. Everything that comes after grows out of those first visual and emotional decisions.

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In the end, The Chair Company pilot is like a quiet contract between the show and the audience. Ashley Connor, Nicky Smith, and the rest of the team agree that if they treat Ron, his family, and his office like real people in a real place, then the comedy, paranoia, and heartbreak will all hit harder.

That first episode locks in the serious tone, the “no jokes” costumes, and the smart use of limits, so when the season finale finally arrives, it all feels like the natural end of a journey that started right there in the pilot.

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