Craft: How Sam Bader Brought the Shakers’ Universe to Life for The Testament of Ann Lee - MovieMaker Magazine

      The Shaker sect depicted in Mona Fastvold’s The Testament of Ann Lee viewed work as a form of worship, believing that constructing a chair or a house could resemble a prayer.

      As a result, the film’s production designer, Sam Bader, aimed to reflect their dedication to craftsmanship.

      Bader endeavored to fully immerse audiences in the spiritual journey of Mother Ann Lee, the group’s pioneering leader, portrayed by Amanda Seyfried in the film. The historical Ann Lee brought her small group of followers from England to America in 1774, and the Christian community became renowned for its ecstatic worship, celibacy, and handcrafted furniture that remains valued to this day due to its simplicity and durability.

      Bader drew upon existing structures from the Hancock Shaker Village in Massachusetts and constructed new sets primarily in Budapest, Hungary. He used artworks to envision the pre-photographic era of the Shakers.

      “While researching, I looked at artists like John Lewis Krimmel and Francis Guy to see the appearance of homes during that time,” he explains.

      His designs were influenced by the Shaker emphasis on practicality and the restricted living spaces of the period.

      “The foundational layer was an understanding of 18th-century realities, both in work and daily life, and the way people navigated their surroundings,” Bader describes. “People possessed very little and had even less room to store it. The truth was that multi-room houses were not typical, especially for the lower class in England.”

      In The Testament of Ann Lee, the Tree of Life, an important motif in Shaker art, is prominently featured.

      Fastvold co-wrote the film's script with her partner, Brady Corbet, with whom she also collaborated on The Brutalist, set for release in 2024, which he directed. Both The Testament of Ann Lee and The Brutalist explore themes of starting anew in America, making strong impressions through bold production design.

      Bader employed the sets to depict the Shakers’ challenging transition from a harsh existence in England to a more promising one across the Atlantic.

      Life in England “was darker and more chaotic,” Bader notes. However, once the Shakers relocate to New York, “everything opens up with new constructions, clear skies, and calm waters. It creates a spatial narrative arc, concluding in functional areas that resonate with nature.”

      Fastvold and cinematographer William Rexer II chose to shoot on 35mm film for its painterly aesthetic. The film incorporated minimal CGI and primarily analog matte paintings to achieve a handmade quality that complements celluloid, as Bader emphasizes.

      For instance, the meeting house facade was a standalone structure with its roof extended by a CG matte painting.

      “When I saw the film's first cut, I had difficulty distinguishing between the real and the digitally created, even though I designed them,” he remarks.

      The painterly style felt instinctive to Bader, who avoided the use of AI.

      “I have a background in oil painting. I studied both classical drawing and abstract oil painting from a young age, got into college with an art portfolio, and eventually ended up in Los Angeles and USC, aspiring for a studio art career,” he explains.

      He later moved to New York and secured a position as a production assistant under production designer Adam Stockhausen on Steven Spielberg’s 2015 film Bridge of Spies.

      “There’s an unbroken chain from that time to now,” he adds. “The journey through the art department into art directing has shaped my emergence as a production designer for various projects across different budgets and scales.”

      Sam Bader discusses Gifts From the Shakers

      One of the artworks featured in The Testament of Ann Lee.

      A powerful symbol in the film emerged from the Shakers' archives.

      “The most significant symbol that wasn’t explicitly in the script, which I discovered with Mona, was the tree,” Bader states. “The Biblical tree of life, Eden, and the apple orchard are prominent in Shaker art, and we wanted to build on that.”

      The team also drew inspiration from the Shakers’ “gift drawings,” which are artworks conceived through spiritual experiences. The Shakers believed these creations were divinely inspired and often depicted them on simple paper cutouts.

      Bader and Fastvold took creative liberty in portraying these drawings as murals on the film’s set walls.

      “While there isn’t a Shaker meeting house that features painted murals in that manner, we aimed to explore that concept,” Bader says.

      The film's title cards are inspired by “hieroglyphic, primitive, cave-painting-like designs” found in the Shaker messages.

      “As the movie concludes, woodcuts, artwork, and photographs become solidified in the audience’s perception,” Bader notes.

      The Testament of Ann Lee is currently available on video on demand from Searchlight Pictures.

      Main image: Amanda Seyfried leads the cast of The Testament of Ann Lee.