Production designer, Adam Stockhausen oversaw the entire look of ‘Moonrise Kingdom’, now playing in theaters, and would have to coordinate with every department on the look of the final production. His research was therefore multifaceted. He comments, “I researched everything from general lifestyle to very specific objects. For example, I wondered, ‘In what exact year did switches develop on night lights?’ so that we wouldn’t make a mistake.” Producer Jeremy Dawson says, “Adam did an amazing job, especially with his research into the origins of scouting and camping.” Stockhausen’s crew proved inventive and resourceful, making camp signs out of sticks and logs tied together.

The story’s requisite canoes were built to design specifics; many mornings at the local Holiday Inn Express, crew members would test out the newly built and painted canoes in the hotel pool. Since these were made out of plywood, buoyancy was not always achieved; ultimately, for many of the scenes involving canoeing, off-camera ballast of weighted keels had to be rigged underneath, helping to maintain the actors’ immersion in the moment rather than risk their immersion in the drink.

Rhode Island’s existing pool of craftsmen joined the group effort. Citing their contributions, set decorator Kris Moran enthuses, “A local artist, James Langston, carved little raccoons on the front of the canoes, and he also made some totem poles for us. Chris Wiley made corn finials [e.g., sculpted ornaments] for Scout Master Ward’s tent. Another artist made all the stick furniture inside that tent – all matching out of chicory, an entire suite! We even had a chainsaw artist make some of the totems on top of the signage for the Khaki Scouts’ camp.”

For the Bishop family home, the hope was to find a house that could immediately assume the role. The house chosen to portray the Bishop home exterior was Conanicut Light, in Jamestown, RI – a former lighthouse. For the interior, four candidates had such strong qualities that the production sought to re-create elements of each. The decision was made to build the house interiors on a soundstage in a vacant retail space at a local strip mall in Middletown, RI. On the soundstage, all the best elements – whether architecture or furnishings – of the favored locations were re-created.

Dawson notes, “At each of these homes, we picked up inspirations and reference points. There were things that we just loved and wanted to see up on-screen. Adam would run those through his brain. When he went back to Wes, a hybrid was created – one that comes fully alive in the opening sequence of the film.”

“All of them were unique houses,” marvels Stockhausen. “Together, our favorite pieces of them inform and convey the eclectic and individual family that lives within.” The four houses that went into the DNA of the Bishop home interior were Comfort Island, in Alexandria Bay on the St. Lawrence River, at the border between New York and Canada; Stafford House, on Cumberland Island in Georgia; the Cottage at Ten Chimneys, in Wisconsin; and Clingstone in Narragansett Bay, which is visible from the shore of Newport, RI.

“The wall murals, with the trees, are replicas of the walls at Comfort Island,” reveals Moran. “The interior shingles are a defining feature of Clingstone. The kitchen set is part of Alexandria Bay. On-screen, it all coheres as the Bishop family home.”

“There is definitely that certain New England feel to it,” states art director Gerald Sullivan. “Some of that architecture you just wouldn’t see anywhere else. The sets and the environment were meant to bolster the characters – and the actors.”

As with the Spartanette trailer in its original state, the camera movements that Anderson and Yeoman envisioned for the opening sequence necessitated something of a dissection of the home’s interior. Stockhausen notes, “It all developed once Wes decided to go with his idea of moving through the house in a very specific manner – from room to room without cuts – for the opening sequence. It was broken down shot by shot for us with storyboards.

“We sat down and started to figure it out from a design point of view, and also from a budget point of view. It was like a puzzle; is this piece of research right for that shot? We took a deep breath, and we went for it. It was a lot of fun.”

Working on a soundstage allowed the filmmakers to slightly bend the rules of architecture and physics so that they weren’t constrained by congruent placement of windows, doors, and rooms. Sullivan remarks, “Wes was a constant collaborator, a total partner all the way who was always receptive to input. He would augment things a day, or an even an hour, before shooting.” Unique features that were built in to the Bishop house, such as the bead board, contribute to an eclectic interior with a hint of age. Books pervade the home, reflecting the parents’ vocations as lawyers; some are vintage books, while others were crafted by the crew. A good portion of the furniture and artwork was rented from Comfort Island, including works by painter Alson Skinner Clark.

With the home being a former lighthouse, a nautical theme also flows through the Bishops’ interior. Although the time of the story is 1965, the house itself is not meant to be from any particular time period but rather an amalgamation of period details through the mid-1960s. Moran notes, “We made room for stuff in their lives from the 1940s and 1950s; there are random objects that they might have found, reflecting a strong love of the arts.” “It’s a beautiful set, with all its handmade work,” Bill Murray says admiringly. “It’s one of the nicest ones I’ve worked in. The crew spent a lot of time making it feel authentic – how a house gets decorated by the first person who lives there, and then later you’re sort of stuck with it – so we could feel authentic when we were acting.

“There was cool stuff around, a lot they didn’t keep track of – if you wanted something you could walk right out of there with it.” Moran laughs, “Bill thinks we weren’t keeping track of the record albums, but I know exactly which ones he took.”

Image Courtesy of  Moonrise Kingdom

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About the author

Claudia Sondergaard
Specialised in American foreign policy media discourse, I have a real passion for media and writing and feel comfortable in subjects such as human rights, politics, environment, social issues, movies, TV and books. Reporting from Denmark. Follow me @swirlgirlversus

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