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How Director Mike Diva Makes Some of Your Favorite SNL Short Films
Little sleep, loads of ingenuity
When Saturday Night Live is in production, Mike Diva, the show’s lead digital director, puts in crazy hours, doesn’t get much sleep and has little time for a social life. And that’s fine with him. “There’s nothing else like it,” he says of working on the iconic late-night sketch series. “I love it.”
Now four years into directing video shorts for SNL, which is in the midst of its 50th season, Diva is behind standouts including Lonely Planet’s “Sushi Glory Hole;” “Gladiator II: The Musical,” featuring Paul Mescal; and “Beppo.” The latter’s my personal fave, casting John Mulaney in the role of a NASA flight director who delivers some bad news to a chimp in orbit. Diva also directed this milestone season’s title sequence.
Other Diva highlights include the mock trailer for a dystopian HBO adaptation of Mario Kart starring Pedro Pescal and a “Jake from State Farm” parody headlined by Michael B. Jordan—both from last season.
In the ad world, Diva directs real commercials—not parodies!—for production company Lord Danger. His reel features spots for DoorDash, Axe, Old Spice and a Phillips SonicCare ad featuring former SNL cast member Kate McKinnon. He directs music videos, too, for the likes of Lil Nas X and Doja Cat.
Here, the long-time director, who first made a name for himself making YouTube videos, takes us behind the scenes of SNL:
WORKING AT WARP SPEED
Diva and his team tend to take on the shorts with bigger set builds and more VFX. “A lot of people assume that we have a month to do this stuff. They have no idea how little time we actually do have. It’s always a rushed, last-minute thing,” he says. “The only time it hasn’t been this way was for the Mario Kart short. I had one extra day because the VFX were so intense.”
On Wednesdays, Diva learns which script he will film, and then spends that night prepping with this team via Zoom, figuring out wardrobe, hair, cast requirements and set specifics. “Sometimes, we can get locations,” Diva says. “But most of the time, it’s too fast of a turnaround to pull permits. So, if the sketch calls for a Waffle House interior and exterior, we have to build those inside a soundstage.”
Thursday is pre-production day, though Diva’s crew routinely has to switch gears because of re-writes. “Then I have to go back to the production team and be like, ‘That closet you guys started building—we don’t need that anymore. Now, we need a big bathroom set.’ There’s that kind of chaos,” says Diva, who will stay up until 3 a.m. on Friday morning shot-listing.
After getting some sleep, he rises in the wee hours—typically just two hours later at 5 a.m.—and heads to the studio. Shoots oftentimes go 18 hours. Coordinating cast availability can prove especially tricky. “I have to figure out the math of using body doubles. Then for a brief sliver of time [the actors] are together,” Diva says. Locking down VFX shots rounds out the day.
Editing happens on Saturday. Diva needs to finalize a version of the short to present during the show’s dress rehearsal at 8 p.m. “And then, depending on how the audience reacts, we go back into the edit, shift things around, re-edit and cut scenes.”
After a short airs, you would think Diva would be done working on it. But, oftentimes, he isn’t. In the case of this season’s VFX-heavy “Gladiator II: The Musical” he finessed the cut after it’s live-show premiere, working on it until 2 a.m. for the Peacock version of SNL and the YouTube upload.
THE UPSIDE OF WORKING SO FAST
Aside from SNL being able to air timely material, there are creative benefits to working quickly. “You go off your gut instincts a lot,” Diva says. “I’ve been directing stuff for 20 years, so I have a lot of that built-in. But it does help you not second-guess certain things.”
This skill is especially helpful for Diva, who describes himself as a perfectionist. “I get hung up on visuals,” he admits. That’s understandable. Sometimes, comedy is best served by vibrant imagery, which is certainly the case in “Gladiator II: The Musical.”
But not every short counts on stellar VFX. Realizing that “has really freed me of a lot of that perfectionism for certain things that don’t necessarily serve the piece as a whole. At the end of the day, is it funny? That’s all that matters really.”
THERE IS TIME FOR IMPROV
Because his team functions like a well-oiled machine, Diva is able to experiment—within reason—while shooting a short like the State Farm parody that has Michael B. Jordan playing the insurance guy we all know from the commercials. As SNL viewers will recall, in addition to helping a couple played by cast members Heidi Gardner and Mikey Day with their insurance needs, Jordan’s Jake seduces the wife.
At one point, the State Farm guy kisses Day, who plays the husband, on the back of the head. I asked Diva if that action was in the script, or if it was something he added. “That was my idea on the day,” he says. “It was the last take, and I was like, ‘What if you kissed him on the back of the head?’ I just thought it was a weird shot, and vaguely threatening, but something I thought would be so funny.”
“Sometimes, we’re moving so fast that there’s no opportunities for stuff like that. But, generally, if I have an idea like that, I make the time to get a take,” he says.
THAT OPENING CREDITS SEQUENCE WAS A BEAST
Diva directed the opening credits for season 48 of SNL, but he didn’t feel the same amount of pressure that he felt when he took on the task for season 50. “I was honored,” he says of the assignment. “I really wanted to do something special.”
The director came up with the idea of paying homage to intros from the past but also subverting the format of the opening credits sequence. To do so, his camera deftly dips in and out of the famous studio where the show is performed, paying tribute to the insanity involved in putting this live comedy show together.
“I’m really glad I was able to put my stamp on it and make it my own,” he says.
