Lost on a Mountain in Maine

Lost on a Mountain in Maine: Fendler's Maine Home / November 1, 2024 by Charlene Wang de Chen

Ruth and Don Sr. talk in the dining room of their home

another view of the same angle of the dining room when the light was looking particularly beautiful the morning of shooting

Of course the real pleasure and fun of Lost on a Mountain in Maine was decorating the Fender’s home set in 1939 rural Maine.

I got into set decorating to play with period interiors, so working on these interiors was a dream come true.

I’ll break down the details and fun we had by room.

DINING ROOM

The room at location before we decorated it:

we made custom curtains and this is the paper I used for measurements

A corner of the Set Dec office where we were trying out different fabrics, artwork, furniture, wallpaper and etc and how it might work together and in the location.

a close up on the period fabric we were able to find and us assessing how it looked next to the wallpaper at location and comparing it to images of 1930’s interiors.

This is the design image Darcy, the production designer, gave me at the beginning of the job of her dreams for the sheers in the home.

I’m happy to report that we were able to recreate them from scratch for the home and you can see them quite clearly in this shot of Donn Jr. in the living room that makes it in the movie!

We had put together most of the elements of the home, but I was still missing a lamp for the dining room and I had something very specific in my mind: something a little more rustic and textural to complement the other lamps we had already dressed in.

And then I saw this PERFECT lamp at a local antique store in Woodstock, NY where we were living and was so excited to get it for our set.

close-up of the lamp in the store and in the background behind Darcy while we were putting the finishing touches on the set.

you can see the lamp in the background behind Andrew, the director, on set with the kids prepping them for one scene.

PARENTS BEDROOM

Another really beautiful image Darcy gave me at the beginning of the job is this painting.

This painting was her design for the parent’s bedroom and it was our challenge to capture the essence of the dreamy wistfulness of the image but also recreate that very special canopy.

I think in the end we did get there and this still captures it best:

Ruth Fendler (Caitlin Fitzgerald) in her bedroom

I would like to note that we got that beautiful handmade fringe from a woman who owns a textile workshop in upstate New York where they still handloom and handmake fabric and trim on historic looms!

We didn’t really have the budget to commission handmade pure cotton trim from her for this job (this was a very low budget Tier 1 movie!) but got SO LUCKY that she had just enough leftover from another job she was willing to sell to us at a very discounted rate.

Then we bought the right diaphonous fabric from another store and sent it to one of my favorite drapers with a lot of photos and measurements and asked her to custom make this canopy for us.

another angle on the bedroom where you catch a corner of that custom canopy cascading down.

A little before and after of the Fendler Bedroom:

BEFORE

IN THE MIDDLE

yes we re-wallpapered this bedroom with period wallpaper!

AFTER!

we also made a custom cushion for this bay window

getting this window measurements precise were very important

picking the right period lace sheers to go with the wallpaper we picked out.

I feel like all the elements come together nicely here though you can barely see the pattern on the lace sheers.

LIVING ROOM

To me, the early american rag rug we found to rent is EVERYTHING with the perfect mix of rustic, americana, and colors and pattern and really pulled the set together.

One minor challenge was to find the right desk that fit perfectly in the space between the windows for the telephone for one of the key scenes in the home.

I found this desk at an antiques store but was unsure it was period accurate…

So I had to refer to the books I brought up with me and especially the 1920’s and 1930’s Sears Catalogues I ordered for the job.

Seeing some tables with that similar design in one of the 1930’s Sears Catalogues made me feel ok to get the table.

And here is the desk in the set.

so so so happy you get to see some of the rug on screen!

BROTHER’S BEDROOM

what is hard to see, is the the lace sheers are woodland scenes for some fun foreshadowing…

I think the way this set turned out was actually one of my favorites of the whole movie.

We made custom curtains, rented that rag rug which I think really worked in there and my favorite detail is working with a specialty quilt collector to find two period appropriate quilts.

The room before:

collecting various period toys and children’s books was so fun and I love the way the set dressers put it together in this corner.

And then the bed traveled to the forest for this magical scene where Donn imagines his bed while stumbling around the forest alone for days.

PORCH EXTERIOR

This was the first day of shooting and our first set and I was very happy with how all the outdoor porch elements came together.

This is from a 1930’s Sears catalogue and I loved how specific that shape of a kids bike was.

so was thrilled when we found one to rent that matched the shape AND that made it into the shot here!

Lost on a Mountain in Maine: Ranger Office / November 1, 2024 by Charlene Wang de Chen

One set we see a few times is the Mt. Katahdin Ranger’s Station Office.

We wanted to convey that this was a very remote office stuck in the past. I mean up till today, Baxter State Park where the real Mt. Katahdin is located, still does not have electricity in any of its facilities!

In the corner you still see some metal nib pens and ink in the corner of the desk. The metal nib pen was still in use in the 1930’s and 40’s but was declining in fashion in favor of the newly invented ball point pen that was invented in Hungary in 1938.

This movie takes place in 1939, but as said earlier doubtful that the latest in global pen technology was making it way to ranger desks in remote rural Maine.

The fun thing about sets like this is it has your researching the history of each and every element of office supplies like “history of scotch tape” and “history of clipboards” etc.

Finding that wooden brochure holder at a local antiques store made me so excited because it was able to bring some texture and color to the background of those shots with Don’s parents talking to the Ranger.

had to make a lot of custom curtains for this set.

Picking artwork to match with the antique and rustic frames we thrifted with Darcy the production designer.

one of our set dressers Nick modeling the area where the shot below would be filmed.

Lost on a Mountain in Maine: Canoe Gate / November 1, 2024 by Charlene Wang de Chen

The story of finding the canoe on the lefthand side of this shot is quite a fun little saga.

By the time we were shooting this canoe scene, all of the big sets were done and all we had to do was hang a line of laundry.

I was chilling and enjoying life.

the line of laundry which was the main set for that day of filming for the set decoration department.

it was fun compiling period fabrics and wardrobe let us borrow some period clothes.

Boats, like cars, are usually the province of the prop master and not set decoration.

I don’t quite remember the specifics of what happened that morning but the second canoe they were planning for didn’t pan out, and the canoe they had for the shot was a no go for the designer.

We were filming in two hours and the whole art department was on Operation Find a Period Appropriate Canoe in two hours.

The props teams were working some leads, and the Art Director Jaf and I both pitched in to see if we could help. Since Jaf lived locally in the area he was working some leads.

I remember this one local sporting goods store I passed by a lot driving around the area and gave them a call and asked them if they had any wooden canoes that could look like it was from the 1930’s that we could rent in the next hour.

I spoke to one of the manager who said, you know we might have something….

I jumped in my minivan and drove right over to the store and what they had was PERFECT!!!!!!

look at this beautiful and perfect period looking canoe!

canoe in the water on time for the shot!

I normally don’t enjoy last minute stress situations. But sometimes, these kind of time pressure extreme shopping challenges are thrilling and what I live for!

Lost on a Mountain in Maine: Search Party Camp / November 1, 2024 by Charlene Wang de Chen

One of our big outdoor sets was the volunteer search party camp that pops-up as the local community comes together to search for Don as he is lost wandering Mt. Katahdin alone.

Finding a quantity of period tents was challenging, but after much work Ashley found a prop house in LA that had the number we needed and could ship them across the country in time.

always looks best once it is filled with people in period costume.

Putting together a camp site of 11x tents, of course starts with putting together just one.

And it isn’t as simple as the modern pop-up tent. These are old fashioned tie down tents that required us to get wooden stakes to assemble.

Us figuring out how to assemble the tent. Fortunately one of our set dressers was a set dresser on Dickinson (one of my fav shows of all time with GORGEOUS sets and costumes) and remembered putting together similar tents for their Civil War battle camp sets.

And to make matters worse, it started raining and it had been raining overnight at the camp location so the ground was all muddy…

The set dressers being champs assembling the tents in the rain. And in the far right, us trying our best to protect all the rented set dressing under the tree cover and with tarps as it rained.

The plans we were working from to transform an open field into something like a bustling pop-up search party camp.

As you can see it got quite swampy and muddy in some areas. …And the crew would be arriving in a few hours so we had our greens guy Tony try and dig an irrigation system of sorts to literally “drain the swamp.”

But eventually the sun came out and we were able to assemble the set before the crew arrived!

The director Andrew talking to some background actors at the camp.

I like this view on the set

Lost on a Mountain in Maine: Cobwebs with a Cobweb Gun! / November 1, 2024 by Charlene Wang de Chen

cobwebs in the cave set Don finds while he is wandering on the mountain…except these cobwebs are FAKE!

Did you know you could shoot cobwebs out of a gun? I learned this fun little special effects secret while working on the cave set.

here’s the furniture we brought in for the set before it been aged with all the cobwebs.

Fun fact that chair on the floor is the same chair as the chairs used in the hospital.

I had to buy them as a set of 3x from a local antiques shop with this third one missing its seat, which I realized would make it a perfect candidate for this set.

Here is the special effects person Amira showing us how to use the cobweb gun which is essentially a hot glue gun with special attachments. Was super fun to watch her in action and how you can fill out a set with cobwebs.

as the cobwebs are being created with prop master Dan in the background.

Lost on a Mountain in Maine: Hospital / November 1, 2024 by Charlene Wang de Chen

Hospital sets are usually dispiriting and no fun, but a PERIOD hospital set is a little more fun.

In this case, despite the simplicity, I really love the way this short brief set came out.

I mean the radiator covers do not look period appropriate to the 1930’s but everyone told me we did not have the money for fixing that and it wouldn’t be in the shot anyways…

little sketch of how I imagined the set based on the info Darcy told me and the scout.

a very makeshift plan for our set dressers

for the hospital hallway scene, we had to change out one overhead light as it would be seen in the long shot of the hallway and we got to rent this GORGEOUS period light fixture.

well one of the sheers fell here, but it’s a pretty good angle on the hospital set.

The actors just hanging out chatting with our DP Idan in the foreground.

sigh, while the non-period accurate radiator covers are a bit blurred in the background UNFORTUNATELY YOU CAN TOTALLY SEE THEM IN THE SHOT!

Lost on a Mountain in Maine / October 17, 2024 by Charlene Wang de Chen

A movie I decorated in 2022 is coming out November 1!

This truly was one of the projects I enjoyed working on the most, even though it was a Tier 1 (low budget) period movie which is an almost impossible math equation, for a few reasons:

1) the reason I got into set decorating was the prospect of playing with period interiors and this movie takes place in the 1930’s one of my favorite aesthetic eras: ART DECO! (not that rural Maine in the 1930’s was on the cutting edge of art deco design) . So decorating a period movie, for me, was LIVING THE DREAM.

2) Everyone on this job was so kind and lovely which I’m sorry to say is a true rarity.

A lot of credit goes to the director Andrew Knightlinger who was a fountain of positivity and gratitude and really set the tone for the whole production.

Darcy laughing with the Art Director Jaf

And then of course the person I worked most closely with, the production designer Darcy Scanlin, and I clicked so quickly and were so in sync from the moment we met and she is just THE loveliest person to be in the trenches with.

Our shared love of the color green and period interiors was so fun. We even coincidentally had the exact same green notebook we used throughout the production!

But also I got so lucky with a FABULOUS Set Dec team of women I had never met before we started this project but was so eternally grateful for throughout the time we worked together.