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The shows aesthetic is overseen by Thomas, a producer-director, and Alex Buono, a cinematographer and director.
How do you decide what youre going to tackle next?
And then how do you set about making it look credible to a documentary nerd?
Rhys Thomas: Its a combo of story and style.
We also want to check that that were not repeating ourselves in any of the episodes.
Is the show shot entirely digitally?
Alex Buono: We dont use film.
We use a lot of different camera formats, but none of them are film.
Thomas: We absolutely would shoot film if we could, but its a small show.
Over the years, we got to the point where we were good at simulating film grain.
Lets go through the third season in order of airdate, starting with Batsh*t Valley.
Buono: We started off knowing we wanted to do a cult documentary back in December of last year.
The biggest challenge of Batsh*t Valley was the sheer scale of it.
So we stole a day from that one and gave it to Batsh*t Valley.
Were both of you on set for the episodes where the other one is credited as director?
For season one and two, we were together on each episode.
But this season, I got held over working on a pilot.
It was Alex who carried the burden of the season for sure.
Buono:Wild Wild Countryis a series that makes remarkable use of all this archival material from the 1980s.
We wanted it to look like it actually came from that era.
How do you do that?
What are the steps?
Buono: We started with an old standard-definition video camera.
Its very fun, but its also detective work.
The challenge is reengineering what the circumstances were in the original documentary.
Youre beyond obsessive with this.
This is Ahab level.
If the result feels in any way halfway-done or cheap, its just not as interesting or funny.
Were trying to go beyond making fun of stuff.
Were almost saying, Here are things that actually exist in a parallel universe.
I thought youd just say something like, We use the VHS filter on the editing software.
Its a little box that you check.
Thomas: Oh, no!
We had a pretty fun time learning how to do this [onSNL].
If you dont do that, its never going to look quite right.
So on this show, we shoot things and redub things.
Sometimes well have something go through several generations [of reproduction] so that the image is degraded.
Thomas: Thats totally what its like.
Thomas: Newspaper print is incredibly hard to replicate digitally in a realistic way.
It always looks fake.
Another thing thats hard is chyrons, like all those news anchor names onscreen in the old videos.
I dont know if you guys ever saw this movie calledNo, by Pablo Larrain?
Thomas: Thats fantastic.
Speaking of getting the period look just right, lets move on to Co-Op.
Its based onOriginal Cast Album: Company, a 1970 D.A.
Pennebaker film done in a specific style known asDirect Cinema.
And here, youre doing Pennebaker only.
Buono: We actually spoke to D.A.
Pennebaker, Chris Hegedus, and his son Frazer Pennebaker.
Theyre all friends of the show.
They come to our premieres and theyre all very helpful.
What have they helped you with?
Buono: Heres one example.
And obviously, the Maysles Brothers and D.A.
How do you imitate the camera style of Albert Maysles?
He liked the energy of that panning to find the shot thing.
Especially in comedy, its used quite a lot.
I would be remiss if I didnt ask you about the sound recording in that Co-Op episode.
Were they singing live in all of those takes, or were there moments when they were lip-syncing?
Buono: They were all miked.
There was this microphone expert who lived in the woods and had this arsenal of old microphones.
Well, I got these two I can give you that are from 1970.
But that one there is from 72.
Im not going to give you that one!
He wouldnt evenrentit to us!
Buono: We were like, Welcome to the team, man!
Theyre all in a room with an orchestra playing and theyre sitting next to each other.
They were able to tell us, Heres how you record a cast album.
The hardest part was that we wanted a serious sound booth.
They dont exist in Portland.
But we had to go to another location entirely to film all the stuff in the booth.
Lets talk about Waiting for the Artist.
Buono: That episode is another example of our dumb naivete.
But frequently, we just get lucky and things fall into place when they shouldnt have.
Thats definitely what happened here.
We shot it in Hungary.
When youre shooting a fake documentary, does it ultimately feel any different than shooting fiction?
Theyre who they want to be on-camera.
You the filmmaker are working with your editors, and its all an interpretation of the truth.
Youre trying to encapsulate somebodys life in a way that people recognize as a story, which is artificial.
Honestly, having a real documentary serving as our source material is incredibly helpful and freeing.
The plot feels almost like one of those long cons that youd see in a movie likeThe Sting.
Buono: Yeah, it was an amalgamation.
That informed our sense of what the relationship between our two main characters would be.
And then, Seth [Meyers] came up with the fun ending.
Its a little bit like the one on the Calvin and Hobbes cartoonist, right?
Thomas:Dear Mr. Watterson, yeah.
That was the closest equivalent, but there are a lot of documentaries like that.
Lets move on to another Fred Armisen tour de force, Long Gone.
Obviously, Bruce Webers documentaryLets Get Lostis the main touchstone.
Youve even got a version of the scene where Chet Baker is riding in a convertible with two women.
Pretty soon we landed on, Oh, the perfect example of that is the Chet Baker documentary.
Buono: Yes, but remember its also Chet Baker himself who critiquesLets Get Lost.
Also, look out, here comes Flea for no apparent reason!
What do you think?
Are you going to enjoy this?
Did you have a good time?
Its hard to use this documentary as inspiration without taking the opportunity to critique it.
How did you approximate the look?
The best thing aboutLets Get Lostis how photographically bold it is.
And we finish the season with Any Given Sunday Afternoon.
They brought usA League of Ordinary Gentlemen, which checked that sports documentary box for us.
Thomas: Bowling is a sport that we can actually do.
We couldnt do basketball or football.
Buono: I hope not.
Thats what Bill and Fred are really remarkable at doing.
Finding that genuine feeling, even though how we got there is absurd.
Were never concerned about whether something is funny when were shooting it.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
