UP students’ home is featured in Portlandia sketch
Portlandia
By Will Lyons Staff Writer lyons14@up.edu
Senior Triska Lee and her housemates peered inside their house from the street early on a July morning, trying to make sense of the bizarre scene they saw within.
In the living room of the new home that Lee and three other UP had seniors just started renting, the stars of the Independent Film Channel's "Portlandia," Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein ran around screaming, making a racket and TV gold.
Lee and fellow seniors Armine Kalan, Pricilla Osredkar and Abi Sandarac offered their house for the sketch after Portlandia's production crew scoured North Portland for possible locations this summer.
"I happened to be wearing a shirt with a bird on it when the scout came by so it really was a matter of fate," Lee said.
Wearing a shirt highlighting Portlandia's first well-known joke about hipsters, ‘put a bird on it,' proved a premonition for success as the production crew showed up a week later to shoot the sketch.
"The crew came early to set up and covered a lot of our living room with cardboard," Kalan said. "They were really respectful of our space."
The Independent Film Channel (IFC) will not allow Kalan and her housemates to reveal any content from the short, but according to the housemates, they supplied a lot of the props themselves.
"Fred (Armisen) commented on how cool our house was and was thankful for getting to use it," Kalan said.
The film crew did most filming on the street outside the house and also shot the classic Portlandia opening which will frame the seniors' house with the words ‘Amherst Street: North Portland' in hipster-punk lettering.
The housemates also got to participate as extras in the sketch, meaning that Lee and the housemates will make their cable television debut this January.
"We had to sit and observe and look surprised for the sketch," Lee said.
Being an extra may seem like a menial task, but according to UP's director of theater, Mindi Logan, who worked as an acting coach on Dawson's Creek, it is an integral part of a theatrical or film production.
"You would lose the sense of reality that the show is trying to create without extras," Logan said. "They contribute to the style of the show as well."
After 12 hours of filming, the housemates also learned about some of the frustrations of TV production.
"A downside was that we had to wait outside our house and be quiet for sometimes an hour at a time while the filming was going on," Osredkar said. "They did give us 50 bucks for the electric bill though."
Despite some inconveniences, the seniors gained a newfound respect for the organic nature of the Portland-centric show.
"The best part of the whole experience was seeing how the whole scene was improv," Lee said. "Nothing's really scripted. They just work with what they have. After all, it's hard not to improv when you have Portland to inspire you."
Lee and her housemates also found out that one of the producers of Portlandia lives in St. Johns. With the University on the Portlandia map, the housemates think that a sketch could easily be shot at UP.
Laurie Kelley, chief marketing officer for the University, would love to see UP featured in an episode of Portlandia.
"I think anytime we can reach a national audience and they represent us well it's great for the University," Kelley said. "I would love to develop a partnership with Portlandia."
Osredkar, who participated with her housemates as an extra in the sketch, agrees.
"It would be cool to have an episode on our campus," Osredkar said. "It would be funny, but they would probably be making fun of us."
IFC has used collegiate life as a backdrop for sketches in the past, having already shot sketches at the Portland Community College library and on the campus of Portland State.
The second season of Portlandia premiers in January on IFC, but the exact episode that will feature the housemates' home is yet to be determined.
"We're going to have to have a Portlandia viewing party when the episode comes out," Osredkar said.
Seniors Armine Kalan and Pricilla Osredkar at their home on Amherst Street, which was selected by the Portlandia crew for a sketch. The episode will air in the upcoming season, which begins in January. (Kayla Wong -- The Beacon)
UP students pose with Portlandia stars Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein. From left to right, senior Armine Kalan, junior Jack Kortum, senior Pricilla Osredkar, Brownstein, Armisen, non-UP student Danielle Miller and senior Triska Lee. (Photo courtesy of Armine Kalan)
