NBC’s St. Denis Medical is a mockumentary about an underfunded, understaffed hospital in Oregon. The show consists of a quirky cast of characters, with Wendi McLendon-Covey playing the hospital’s director, Joyce, who is always trying to raise funds and keep the team motivated. David Alan Grier plays Ron, a doctor who mostly minds his own business, but can’t help to observe the unusual behavior of the hospital’s younger staff members. And Josh Lawson is surgeon Bruce, the “Diana Ross” of St. Denis, who never misses an opportunity to toot his own horn. Allison Tolman, Kahyun Kim, Mekki Leeper and Kaliko Kauahi also star.
The series is co-created and executive produced by Eric Ledgin and Justin Spitzer. Ruben Fleischer directed the pilot for the series, which is produced by Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group, and Spitzer Holding Company.
Heather Jack directed four of the series’ 18 episodes (106, 111, 112 and 115), more than any other director. She has a history of collaborating with NBC and Justin Spitzer, including work on Superstore and American Auto. Here, she speaks exclusively with Post about the show — which was recently renewed for a second season — its workflow, production challenges and creative rewards.
Heather, how did you get involved working on St. Denis Medical?
“The show is from the creators of Superstore and also American Auto, and I was fortunate enough to work on both of those shows. Actually, Superstore was my first TV directing job, so I came up through a program with NBC for female directors. I shadowed on three episodes of Superstore and then was given an episode to direct, and that was my first episode of TV.”
What were you doing prior to that?
“Prior to that, I was doing a lot of branded entertainment, short-form content. I made a short film that got into Tribeca that was kind of a little comedic romp. That was kind of my calling card. I made a little reel. I submitted to this program. I interviewed with the show runner of Superstore, creator Justin Spitzer, and that was my entry into directing episodic for television, but also that specific camp. I’ve been lucky enough to work with Justin Spitzer on Superstore, American Auto and now St. Denis Medical, and the crew has also largely stayed intact — department heads and a lot of people have gone from show to show. And it’s always been at the NBC Universal lot. For me, it’s always like coming back to kind of a home base or a family.”
You worked on Episodes 106, 111, 112 and 115. Did you have the luxury of seeing any early episodes to get a handle on the look of the show?
“I did get to see the pilot ahead of time, however, Episode 6, when we shot it, was actually, I think, the third episode that was shot, so I didn’t get to see much else beyond the pilot. I got to read some scripts of other episodes. The pilot was directed, then there was one episode before mine, and then I shot mine, so it was having trust in the DP because we worked together on the previous two shows.”
That’s Jay Hunter?
“He’s just incredible to work with (and) also very collaborative. (He) has a really great sense visually and spatially about what works best, so I can always come to him with ideas and he always makes them better. It’s a really great relationship because we’ve worked together over the past years. And then also the editor, I believe, for all four of my episodes, was Christian Kinnard, and he’s also incredible to work with. I would get these editor’s cuts and they would be so dialed in already, and so then you just get to play with performance and making small adjustments to kind of bring it there. He also, worked on American Auto. He worked with Justin Spitzer previously as well, so he has a sense of the kinds of stuff that they’re looking for.”
The cast really does a great job on this show.
“The ensemble is incredible. They’re so on! There’s also a lot of room for playing around with the words, and there’s some stuff that makes more sense to do just as scripted, and the writers are brilliant. Then, of course, Wendi comes from an improv background, so to be able to let her have a stab at it is really fun because it always kind of opens things up in a really fun way.”
Was the workflow pretty well established by the time you worked on your episodes?
“There was a little difference from like the third episode to kind of the last couple that I directed. In the beginning, we were still kind of figuring out a workflow in terms of what do you shoot first, because there are different ways to cover the scenes. It’s different than shooting something that’s not mockumentary. For example, there’s a take that you do with a swinging camera, so we were still figuring out, does it make sense to do that take up front, or does it make sense to save that until the actors have the lines down? When is that most useful? Jay Hunter helped inform (us) because he’d done a couple episodes already by that point.”
I would imagine there are certain efficiencies to shooting, say the interviews, etc.
“You kind of work with our ADs to figure out the best way to kind of slot those in. They’re very fast. In the mockumentary world, the filmmaking team has just pulled someone away for a moment to grab their thoughts on something, so in the actual shooting space, you’re not too far from where a scene just took place. So sometimes it makes the most sense to just schedule it back-to -back. You shoot a scene and then you grab the interview portion right after. But then there may be different considerations, like just the timing of the day or actor availability. So sometimes those get shuffled around, but they go pretty quickly. Again, the actors are very, very skilled at what they do. So you can knock out a few different variations of those pretty fast, and they’re really fun to do.”
Is the show shot on the NBC lot? It has the look of a working hospital.
“Yes. I believe that the pilot was shot in a different location — maybe a hospital set somewhere else — but the subsequent episodes were all shot on the lot. As far as I know, there might be some location work, but not on mine. They’ve replicated this hospital on the studio a lot. It’s also a really fun place to shoot things because they’ve made things very efficient. The production designer, Elliot Laplante, she also worked on American Auto and, before that, on Superstore.”
What does the schedule look like?
“You get four days of prep, and five days to shoot. And then I get two days to work with the editor, which is generally enough time because the editor will submit their editor’s cut to each director. Then I get two passes, and I really love to sit with Christian or any editor when I get the chance, since we’ve been able on this show, in a post-COVID world, to sit in-person. For the past few years it’s been on Zoom. There’s been more of an opportunity to go and sit in-person again, and be in the room and work on the edit. And that’s been really great.”
Do you know the camera and editing systems being used?
“I think it’s an Avid, and I think it’s an (Arri) Alexa? I’m, again, very grateful and reliant to Jay Hunter, our DP, because he can walk me through the technical aspects, and what’s helpful and what’s not, especially when there’s something specific that needs to happen in an episode. We did one…where there’s security-cam footage, so it was like, ‘Do we need a different setup for that?’ We talk through those things in prep. He always thinks ahead and loops me in, or kind of asks, ‘What are you thinking for this scene? We could go with something like this.’”
The episodes all come in around 22-minutes in length. Is it a challenge to stay within that timeframe?
“I think you’re always aware of pace. I’m always aware of pace. The scripts are longer than what ends up on the air, and when I turn in my director’s cut, it’s always a little bit longer than the allotted timeframe, because I’m not necessarily the one who has to make those tough decisions about what will ultimately be cut. I like to show everything that I think is good to the producers and to the network so that they can see what we have and then, unfortunately, they have to make the harder decisions of what needs to cut out so we can make that timeline.”
Do you have a favorite episode or sequence? The hot-dog scene was hysterical.
“Honestly, from each episode, I think there are parts that I love. I love the same one — the hot dog/mannequin. I love the Christmas dance sequence. I really loved doing it and I love how it turned out. I love the cat sequence. Those were all a little complicated, and those challenges are really fun. I feel like anytime there’s something that’s a little more complicated, you spend more of your time working that out in prep, but it can be so rewarding when you’re shooting it or when you see the end result. I love the hot-dog guy!”
What's next for you? Do you have anything lined up for the months ahead?
“Well, first of all, I would love to come back for Season 2, and that’s my hope. I know they’ve been renewed. They were renewed after just a few episodes in January, so I was really happy about that news. As for my own career aspirations, I love working in comedy. I’d also be interested in some more dramatic material, as long as there’s always some kind of little bit of comedic hook or some kind of thing to dig into. I love working in television, but I’m also very interested in working in features in the future. I just love material that feels smart and funny, with a sense of optimism, but without going too saccharin. That’s kind of what I’m most interested in making, and whether that’s for TV or film, that’s kind of my hope going forward. And I’d love to be directing pilots — kind of more involved in a project from the outset.”