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her. We could see that the certainty, the passion, and the conviction were there.” Because of the historic nature of the location, Holland had to decide what could be allowed in each of the spaces, which is the reason why it also was shot on a set in Hungary. Filming began in January 2024 at Hancock Shaker Village— good timing, with the village closed for the season. It was also bitter cold. Fastvold and Corbet brought their daughter and a small crew. They had to be very careful in the buildings, and staff was on hand to monitor and serve as extra hands and eyes, Holland says.“ Hancock was very generous with us, and we got to come there a lot to shoot and to visit a lot and to shoot exteriors and architecture as well, early on. That was incredible,” says Fastvold.“ When we were building our sets in Hungary, we literally had the blueprints in hand. And we also had the sense and feel of the space. It was incredible to have access not just from a creative standpoint, but really understanding the architecture and the design and getting such a strong sense of that, and
also just a little bit the spirit of the place to take with us. When you ' re standing on the set that ' s built, it doesn’ t have that same sort of feeling. Of course, there’ s problems with shooting in the museum. You have to be very mindful of your surroundings and careful with everything. Things like smoke detectors, you have to paint out.“ It’ s great to build a set where you can pull a wall out and have room for equipment and stuff, but there is something very exciting for performers, as well, to be able to be in that real space and feel that real wood and feel its history and think about the people. Hancock was not Ann Lee’ s village, but she did visit and spend a lot of time there. So, knowing that she was there and talking to the specialists and interpreters and hearing their stories and their relationship to the Shakers and to Ann, that is just a wonderful added layer. My composer came and visited up there, as well. We got into their archives and played with some Shaker instruments. It was just a wealth of knowledge that they have up there.” Fastvold was in post-production of The
Brutalist when the filming started for The Testament of Ann Lee. Like The Brutalist, they had a modest budget and an ambitious screenplay.“ I felt like we deserved to tell her entire story and felt that was the most radical and exciting way to approach this, as well,” says Fastvold.“ I wanted it grounded in storytelling, and then I wanted hundreds of dancers and all these other things. I worked very close with my team and very closely with my producer, Andrew Morrison and Maddie Browning, and my co-producers in Hungary and Sweden. I knew the cost of every line item. I knew how to manipulate my budgets and my schedule so that certain days were very expensive and others were cheap.” She also turned to old-fashioned filming techniques, such as working with a traditional matte painter.( This pre-digital form of matte painting is a technique that involves painting on glass or board to create large-scale, often partially open landscapes that were photographed and combined with live-action footage to create the illusion of elaborate sets.)
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