JAMES GUNN [ SCREENWRITER:
1) I've seen several blogs by your wife about The Office having guest directors for several shows. Would an episode be really different based on who directs them?
Yes, they'd be different. By watching episodes of the Office I can usually tell who it's directed by because different directors have different styles and strengths. (I can also usually tell who the director is by whose name it says under 'directed by' in the opening credits - just a little insider knowledge.) Anyway, some directors are very meticulous about the shots, and others care a lot less about camera and a lot more just about the actors' action. In Joss Whedon's episode, perhaps my favorite episode yet, he was amazing at two things - focusing on the emotions of the characters, and the choreography and shooting of the slapstick sequences in such a way as to make them believable (this was definitely, in my opinion, the best physical comedy the show ever featured). Charles MacDougall, another occasional Office director, is very meticulous about the way the show is shot. You'll find the most perfect shooting style in his episodes. His shots are a lot more extravagant and filmic. It should also be mentioned, that all the directors are, to some extent, incorporating the shooting style created by the original director on the show, the great Ken Kwapis.

But, still, in TV, the writers have more power than the director, so TV shows will vary in style less than movies with different directors will. If a director would wander too far from the Office style, it would be the job of the executive producer, Greg Daniels (the real boss on the Office), to reign them in. Luckily, the Office is one of the most well respected shows on TV, so they're able to attract the very best directors around.

In movies, the director has a lot more power, and the writer or writers have very little. So the directing style from movie to movie changes a lot. The MISSION IMPOSSIBLE movies are different in almost every respect because they had three very powerful directors (Brian DePalma, John Woo, and J.J. Abrams).