When Portlanders watch TV shows such as "Grimm," "The Librarians" and "Portlandia," we see our city and its surroundings transformed. Depending on the show, supernatural Wesen stalk downtown, magical battles break out in the woods, and neighborhoods overflow with artisan knot shops.



To create these illusions, hundreds of professionals toil behind the scenes, doing the largely unglamorous, but necessary, work of casting, costuming, producing and so on.



While it's up to TV networks to cancel or renew series, the local scene is likely to stay busy, since the Oregon Legislature voted earlier this month to increase the cap on tax credits, a vital part of incentives programs designed to attract film and television productions. The existing $10 million cap will increase to $12 million in 2016 and then climb to $14 million in 2017.



"Grimm," "The Librarians," and "Portlandia" may all film in and around Portland, but each series has a distinct vision. "Grimm," nearing the end of its fifth season, follows a Portland Police detective hunting creatures that lurk beneath the surface of ordinary-looking humans. In "The Librarians," which returns for Season 3 later this year, a gifted team protects ancient artifacts. And "Portlandia" recently wrapped up a sixth season of having fun with the foibles of eccentric characters in the City of Roses.



What does it take to put together these shows? To get an idea, we talked to three veterans of the local TV and film industry, who shared their down-to-earth experiences in making these stylized worlds come to life.



LANA VEENKER



Job: Casting director; founder of Cast Iron Studios



Credits: Veenker's company has cast actors in NBC's "Grimm," TNT's "The Librarians," TNT's "Leverage," and the movies "Twilight," "Wild," and "The Road," among others.



How she got into this: A Portland native, Veenker moved overseas for about a decade, where she traveled and went to school. She completed her performing arts degree at Portland State University, then moved to London to pursue theater directing. "The job fell through, and it was winter, and I was starving, and I had no food." After getting a job with a London casting director, Veenker eventually moved back to Portland.



"My parents were here, and I thought I could crash on their couch, save up some money, then go to Los Angeles. Somebody here found out I had experience, and hired me for a commercial. I hung up a shingle in 1999, and made it official. I started my casting company on a shoestring, with a cell phone and a card table as a desk."



What a casting director does: After meeting with producers to find out what roles they need to cast for a commercial, TV show or movie, Veenker reaches out to acting agencies. "We look through hundreds of submissions, and we narrow it down. We do auditions and forward those clips, and they tell us who they want to see for callbacks. The actors come back and do the same thing for the directors and producers, who decide who they want to hire."



Rising to the challenge: "One time an actor we booked on 'Leverage' walked into a glass wall and gashed his head. I got a call at 6:30 in the morning saying, 'We need to replace this actor right now.' Recently, on 'Grimm,' an actress who had signed a contract got a text from her agent saying she got booked for a job she wanted more. She left for L.A. the night before her shoot, and completely left us hanging. We knew who to call, and got someone on set."



Casting for diversity: "Our clients are always asking us for more diversity. We put actors of color through a training program (in 2015) that TNT agreed to pay for. Hopefully, we'll be booking them on 'The Librarians' and other shows. And I would love to see more women's roles in shows. There are lots of good women in town who haven't been cast."



Familiar faces: "If you watch 'Grimm,' Bud the refrigerator repairman is a local, Danny Bruno. We cast another recurring role on 'Grimm,' Sgt. Franco, who's played by Robert Blanche, who's a local actor. We cast from five to 25 costar and guest star roles per 'Grimm' episode - it varies. Maybe they're bringing two people up from L.A. as guest stars, but all the rest are budgeted to be hired locally. We cast mostly from Oregon, with some people coming down from Seattle."



Can local actors make a living in Portland?: "There are a few that make a living full-time as actors. They kind of have to piece things together, doing voice-over, which pays pretty well, or commercials, or print modeling. Some teach acting classes, or have other little side businesses."



Parting thought: "I went to the Fox Searchlight Oscar party when 'Wild' was at the Oscars, in 2015. I got to meet the director of 'Birdman,' Alejandro Inarritu, and I got to hold his Oscar like, five minutes after he got off the stage. Mostly what we do is work, but every once in a while we get a little splash of glamor. So that's kind of fun."



CRITTER PIERCE



Job: Freelance costume designer, wardrobe stylist; costume designer, "The Librarians" Seasons 1 and 2



Credits: Assistant costume designer, "Leverage" Seasons 2-5; wardrobe stylist on commercials for clients including Facebook, Roku, Nike, Intel, HP, Toyota, Oregon Lottery, and more.



How she got into this: The Miami native's real first name is Christy. "I was always really small, and my fifth-grade teachers started calling me 'little critter.' The other students thought it was funny, and it followed me." She loved sewing from an early age, "building things for Cabbage Patch Kids, and Barbies." After studying costumes in college in Florida, Pierce moved to Atlanta, where she met her husband, Russell. They moved to Los Angeles, where Pierce worked on costumes for about three years before moving to Portland.



L.A. vs. Portland: "I don't want to sound negative about L.A.; it was a great springboard for me, but it was too intense. There was just something about the energy. There was always a lot of yelling. And I came up and worked on sets here, and it was a lot more calm and understanding that we're all doing our job, and doing it as efficiently and quickly as we can."



What a costume designer does: "The costume designer is the department head. We all read the script so we all know what's going on. After the designer meets with all the other department heads, and knows what the look is going to be, we all go out of our way to make things happen. If there are things that need to be made specifically, the tailor does that. It's the shopper's job to source. We try to source stuff from within the state. The Oregon Shakespeare Festival has a great costume department, so we can rent stuff from them."



The Portland TV and film scene: "When I first moved here, maybe all of the department heads came from Los Angeles. It's changing in part because there is more crew coming here. There's more opportunity here where people can move up. I worked on 'Leverage' for four years as the assistant designer, and when 'The Librarians' was greenlit, my 'Leverage' boss told (executive producer) Dean Devlin, 'Call Critter.' I was able to build that trust. There are producers and directors and other department heads that do come from Los Angeles, but the heart of the crew is local, which is really great."



Parting thought: "Sometimes, before the costume fitting, actors don't have a clear idea about the character. But having that tangible thing to put on, and that moment of epiphany, it's magic. Happiness. That's the playing dress-up part of it, and when it all fits together, it works."





DAVID CRESS



Job: Freelance producer; producer of IFC's "Portlandia"



Credits: Producer, "Paranoid Park"; executive producer, "Restless," "Sequin Raze," among others.



How he got into this: After moving around a lot with his family, Cress finished high school in Portland, at Lincoln. "I said to my parents that being a filmmaker would be cool. They were both like, 'That's not a very good idea. Who do you know who does that for a living? You need a Plan B.'



Cress studied economics at Portland State University, and after dabbling in other jobs, went to film school at Mt. Hood Community College.



"I noticed in the film studio, there were two or three seats that were elevated, and had a built-in table. I asked, 'Who sits there?' The answer was, 'Well, the producers.' I could tell by the elevated chair position it must be a pretty good job."



From advertising, to movies, to TV: After interning with a local production company, Cress was a founding partner with the commercial production house Food Chain Films. Director Gus Van Sant asked Cress to produce his film, "Paranoid Park." Cress had worked with Carrie Brownstein on Sleater-Kinney music videos, and Matt McCormick's film, "Some Days Are Better Than Others," when he got the call about being a "Portlandia" producer.



Funny business: "I'd never really done comedy. When you're shooting a commercial, it's so hectic and stressful. The difference with comedy is you're kind of smiling all day. With Fred (Armisen) and Carrie, even if you've read the joke 20 times, it's still funny."



What a producer does: "Someone hands us a script, and we put together a budget. We figure out if that is viable. And someone gives us a schedule. Someone needs to make sure all the legal stuff is done, and all the accounting is done. It's not the most glamorous stuff, but if you're working at a high level, you're creating good teams. We try to be careful with the money, so we can spend it on stuff that matters to the creative team."



What's rewarding about producing: "TV is the kind of thing that people think is vaguely sexy, and although it's not, and I know it's not, it's nice to have a job that people think is interesting."



What would surprise people about your job: "No other art form requires so many people to do it."



Parting thought: "My boss on 'Portlandia' says that we're lucky that the network (IFC) was so young. He thought if the network had been making TV shows longer, they would have looked around for people with longer resumes when it comes to making television."



-- Kristi Turnquist

kturnquist@oregonian.com

503-221-8227

@Kristiturnquist





