Local Produce: DSLR Production for IFC's 'Portlandia'

IFC's hit original comedy series Portlandia (@PortlandiaTV) brings viewers a romanticized and dreamy rendering of Portland, Ore., while gently satirizing the earnest Pacific Northwest community. Fred Armisen, who is on Saturday Night Live, and Carrie Brownstein (@Carrie_Rachel), guitarist and vocalist in the band Wild Flag, are the creators and stars of Portlandia, a strange and beautiful sketch comedy show shot entirely on location in Portland, where Brownstein makes her home.

Inside Portlandia
Trouble seeing the video above?Click here.

In its first season, the series brought Portland to popular culture with catch phrases such as "Portland is where young people go to retire," "Put a bird on it," and "The dream of the '90s is alive in Portland." To support the second season, which premiered January 6, Portlandia has embarked on a six-city tour, bringing the series to life for fans across the country. The tour, which began December 27 and runs through the end of January, features Armisen and Brownstein performing live music, presenting clips from the show's second season and sharing anecdotes about the creation of the series and the inspiration behind some of its most beloved and notable characters.

The City of Portland on Portlandia
Trouble seeing the video above? Click here.

Portlandia co-creator, co-writer and director Jonathan Krisel (SNL; Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!) knew that the show needed an indie look to match the quirky earnestness of the show's character sketches. "I had used the Canon EOS 5D before, so I knew its limitations, but I also knew how beautiful it could look," says Krisel, who says he was influenced by the work of Gus Van Sant and his beautiful portrayals of Portland.

	Guest star Joanna Newsom (standing) with Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein as "Jaoquin & Raven" in Portlandia. Photo by Danielle Mathias/IFC

"The first time I used the Canon 5D was for a parody of the SNL opening credits," Krisel continues. "I had been reading about low-light tests in Prague on the internet and said, 'Guys, we have to try this.' I shot it myself and couldn't believe the result. Then I ended up working at SNL and they re-shot the show open using the 7D. We had parodied it with the 5D and then they ended up using it. That camera is amazing."

• SNL Open Captured with Canon DSLRs, Videography.com, December 22, 2009

Krisel acknowledges the limitations of shooting video with a DSLR but insists that the quality makes up for it. "The camera can get a little shaky sometimes, so you have to use optical stabilization with slower lenses," he explains. "We opted to use the 5D instead of the 7D because we knew we'd get a lot of shallow depth of field that way, and not because the f-stop was super low but because the chip was bigger. So we'd use stabilized lenses, which I liked because the chip would give you the lower depth of field, as opposed to opening it up to a two.

	Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armisen Photo by Chris Hornbecker/IFC

"Focus is such an issue with this camera," Krisel adds. "When you're shooting improvised scenes and someone doesn't hit their mark, or they move to a new place, you want to be able to accommodate that, and so we wanted to have a healthier f-stop. With a bigger camera you can get that shallow depth of field, but you have to be on f/5 or something. Most of the stabilized lenses we were using would only go to f/4, but that was fine for us. The 5D just seemed like the best of both worlds."

One of the things Krisel likes most about the Canon 5D is how accommodating it is of natural light. "We shoot everything in natural light," Krisel says. "We had one scene that was at night, and it was so expensive and so complicated and it didn't necessarily make the sketch any funnier, so we decided we would shoot everything in daylight. It's kind of a lazy attitude, but it gives us more bang for the buck. A night scene for us is so extravagant, it's almost like a getting a Steadicam."

Krisel says the Portlandia production team considered other cameras but just couldn't find what they were looking for in them. "Some of them had features that made them easier to work with, but they didn't look as good," he says. "We really didn't have to experiment very much—that camera just worked."

Editing for the series is handled in Apple Final Cut Pro, and Krisel insists that it's a crucial part of the process of creating the show. "Because everything is so improvised, editing becomes such an important part," he says. "You're basically rewriting as you're editing. It's inefficient in terms of how much time it takes to make an episode, but it's really a labor of love. We never let it go—we always work on it until it's good."

Portlandia may poke fun at some of the city's residents, but it also seeks to make Portland and its lush, natural beauty one of the unifying characteristics of the show. "I created Portland as a third character," Krisel says. "It's like, 'We make food that is fresh and local and we don't add a lot of different things to it—we just let it be great,' and yes, we're making fun of that somewhat, but we all love this city, and capturing as much of its abundant beauty as possible was always part of the plan."