A closer look
John Krasinski secretly filmed the opening credits footage for The Office while visiting Scranton with friends shortly after getting cast as Jim Halpert. He recorded the local paper company signs, passing trains, and grey buildings from the window of his jeep, successfully capturing the utterly depressing aesthetic of a mid-level regional supply company. Network executives actually liked his amateur tourist footage so much they kept it for the opening sequence, effectively using an actor's low-budget home movie to set the tone for one of the greatest sitcoms of all time. It is perfectly fitting that a television show fundamentally mocking corporate cheapness managed to score its most iconic establishing shots completely for free by relying on a twenty-something kid with a camcorder
