S25 - Ep 7 - The Chair Company - Costumes and Cinematography

The stranger The Chair Company gets, the more seriously it has to be treated. Nothing about the show tells the audience when to laugh — its world looks ordinary, its people feel real, and that restraint is exactly what lets the absurdity land.

This week on Below the Line, Skid is joined by Costume Designer Nicky Smith and Cinematographer Ashley Connor to discuss their work on The Chair Company, the HBO series created by Tim Robinson and Zach Kanin. Together, they break down how a show rooted in off-kilter comedy relies on rigorous visual logic — from wardrobe and camera movement to pacing, texture, and point of view — to maintain its delicate tonal balance.

Our conversation ranges across:

• Treating the series like a grounded crime or conspiracy drama, using mundane wardrobe and restrained visuals to make moments of surrealism hit harder

• Ashley’s cinematography approach: anchoring the camera to Ron’s emotional journey, using aggressive dollies, zooms, and imperfect movement to mirror his unraveling

• Nicky’s costume philosophy of thrifted, worn-in clothing — washing, distressing, and avoiding “newness” so characters feel unmistakably real

• Designing visual normalcy as misdirection, allowing sudden tonal shifts to surprise the audience without breaking the world of the show

• The evolving production scale from pilot to series, and how departments learned to stretch limited resources into something that feels expansive

• Building key sequences like the Episode Five bar chase and the Episode Eight wedding — where every department had to stay in sync to manage the chaos

• How casting, body types, and costume choices avoid stereotypes, creating a workplace and social world that feels genuinely lived-in

• Setting up Season Two without knowing the destination — trusting Tim Robinson and Zach Kanin’s writing while embracing uncertainty

Rather than signaling comedy through exaggeration, The Chair Company finds its power in restraint — proving that the stranger a story becomes, the more important it is that every visual choice feels honest, deliberate, and grounded in character.

🎧 Press play and go Below the Line on The Chair Company. For more, visit belowtheline.biz.