When Search Party originally premiered on TBS in November 2016 (it moved to HBO Max in 2018), it was initially marketed as a broad comedy about millennial ennui, opening with its core four — Dory (Alia Shawkat); her on-and-off boyfriend, Drew (John Reynolds); flighty actress Portia (Meredith Hagner), and loose cannon Elliott (John Early) — at (where else?) brunch.
Instead, Dory’s obsession with their college classmate’s sudden disappearance served as a totally random gateway into murder, kidnapping, and court cases alongside wacky send-ups of pop culture. In its penultimate season, after Dory was kidnapped by her obsessed fan, Chip (Cole Escola), he traps her in a terrifying felt-lined replica of her Williamsburg apartment. It premiered last January, after we had all been homebound for nearly a year, and Dory’s entrapment never felt timelier. That’s the thing that has kept Search Party surprising — and maybe why it received constant critical acclaim and gathered a cult following — it somehow knows what’s going to happen next.
Swapping a lens during a ice cream break with the help of Yayo Vang (Loader)
On set
Setting up a shot
From the initial start, Search Party followed the growing improve, comedy sketch style shows being produced at that time, “Broad City”, “The Office”, and “Parks and Recreation”.
The creators, Charles Rogers and Sarah-Violet Bliss wanted to create characters that are relatable but the show throws them into one crazy occurrence after another which lead to a unique visual representation.
Our Director of Photography, Jonathan Furmanski, being the majority driver for this “Summer Camp Family” having predominantly the same crew, leaned on his experience with documentary style shooting and comedy background to help steer this show.
His approach gave us a little more latitude with shooting style because of the DNA of comedy and drama that is the show has. He wanted to have a visual style that showed off Search Party that wasn’t just bright and wide from a typical studio style comedy but introduce a more cinematic visual style.