Moonrise Residence

From what I can gather from the myriad of interviews I've read, the art director and production designer of Moonrise Kingdom seem particularly proud of the Bishop Family Home set - and you certainly don't have to have more than a passing interest in architecture and design to appreciate how incredible it is in the film's opening sequence. Now I've never been to New England, and really don't know too much about its aesthetic beyond hurricane lamps and adirondack chairs, but that first 3 1/2 minutes seemed like a crash course in New England style. Well it turns out that the influence for the house was an amalgamation of five New England houses of varying iconic status. 

Thanks to a great piece on the film's official website (shout out to Focus Features!) I could learn all about the most important of these house inspirations. The first one, Conanicut Light on Rhode Island, was used solely for the exterior, and has been replicated almost exactly: (set house on left, real house on right)

Another great influence was Clingstone house, the inspiration for interior shingles, which literally sits out in the bay off Newport, Rhode Island. The New York times has a detailed piece on the house, but I'll just steal some of their photos:

From Comfort Island house, which sits on the St. Lawrence River right on the cusp of Canada, the designers took the Alson S. Clark impressionist wall murals and the kitchen and inserted them into the Bishop family home. And apparently they even rented furniture from the house itself!

Clingstone house images by Erik Jacobs from The New York Times

Comfort Island images from here

Empty Rooms

Deep post title right? But in this case it is literal. I've been browsing the personal websites of production designers/art directors and the photos on the sites are great. These photographs make what seemed like 'real life' on the film screen look like a stage set. In some part this is due to the lack of people, but the way these rooms are photographed is just kind of weird. They don't look like interior design or architectural photos, they don't look like family snapshots, they are something else. What? I don't know! I just like 'em!

So this first bunch and the next three are all from Carl Sprague for The Royal Tenebaums. He's got a background in film sets which works really well with Wes Anderson. You should definitely check out his website it's got all these great sketches from his projects, and more photos like these (plus Anderson with short hair!)

Good design can make a mediocre film watchable. I didn't like Synecdoche, New York all that much, and yet I could watch it three times. I was initially perplexed, then I realised - IT JUST LOOKS PRETTY. Well not pretty but aesthetically pleasing, and it has this excellent cohesiveness, like a darker blue, mouldy green alternate universe where everything relates to each other. So thank you Mark Friedberg for making an overblown, pretentious film worth watching three times.

And let us not forget exteriors and non-domestic interiors! Wes Anderson's movies don't just co-ordinate everything inside, but outside too!

images from Carl Sprague and Mark Friedberg's websites