On their podcast, Fischer and Kinsey (who plays Angela) talk behind-the-scenes details for each Office episode, revealing fun tidbits that only insiders, and now superfans, could know. When it came to "Launch Party," neither could remember just how the cast and crew made this scene work, so they called up the episode's writer, Jen Celotta, for answers. As it turns out, this was a simple case of movie magic: In order to time the scene just right, the DVD logo was put in after filming, with editing. The actors were all staring at a blank blue screen, while the director made hand signals to indicate the timing of their reactions.
Fischer remarked that while normally their conference room scenes had a lot of room for improv, the writers carefully scripted Michael's dialogue for this scene so the employees' reactions would line up perfectly with what he said. Celotta added that she and the director had the cast do several different reactions, like Andy's shout of frustration, so they could play around with the scene in editing.
Despite all the careful crafting that went into such a simple premise, and compared to some of the other wild antics of Dunder Mifflin employees, this joke is as real as it gets. Celotta based the cold open on personal life experience from The Office's very own writers room. She'd seen the moment happen when no one else did, just like Pam. However, for those who never got the chance to witness the little box glide up into the corner of the frame — and probably never will now that DVDs are fading from relevancy — this cold open invites you to live vicariously in their simple moment of joy from a bygone era.
