Shawn Levy recalls learning key comedy tactic in 'The Pink Panther'

Shawn Levy learnt useful comedic techniques while directing 2006’s The Pink Panther.

Levy, who has since gone on to direct Night at the Museum, Deadpool & Wolverine, episodes of Stranger Things, and the upcoming Star Wars: Starfighter, is recalling how he learned to use the camera to make a scene funnier.

In the scene, Inspector Clouseau (Steve Martin) is following Beyoncé's character, Xania, around New York City. When he thinks he’s found, he covers his face wih a newspaper and doesn’t see the subway enrance and tumbles down the stairs.

"I remember that because that movie was pretty early in my career, and it's the film that got me thinking about how the frame helps tell the joke," Levy told People.

"I remember considering a bunch of other angles where I would've shown a stuntman tumbling down the stairwell from behind and then from the front towards the lens," he continued.

"That was an epiphany moment where I realized, 'Oh, the camera is a participant in the joke telling. And more often than not, the simpler approach is the funnier approach,' " he said.

However, the same technique is "the hard way" in other movies.

"I've tried a complex camera move in the midst of a joke, and it muddies the laugh. Steve not seeing stairs approaching because his face is hidden by the newspaper. That was an example of one uninterrupted frame that makes the joke land in a funnier way," Levy explained.

The Pink Panther was a hit and released to both critical acclaim and fan praise. Alongside Steve Martin, it starred Beyoncé, Jean Reno, Kevin Kline, Emily Mortimer, Henry Czerny and more.