‘Teenage Sex & Death at Camp Miasma’ Production Designers Brandon Tonner-Connolly & Matt Hyland Talk Building Its Surreal Landscape
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- Brandon Tonner-Connolly and Matt Hyland served as production designers on Jane Schoenbrun's 'Teenage Sex & Death at Camp Miasma,' given just 25 days to construct the film's visual language while shooting in Canada's Pacific Northwest.
- The pair employed old-school optical glass matte painting techniques — including a technically demanding cinematic matte — to create painted backdrops designed to function as portals pulling protagonist Kris into Billy's fantasy world.
- Scenic artist Joel Rodriguez spent sleepless nights executing a massive Magic Eye-style painting for Billy's cabin, which was then ferried to Vancouver Island and trucked up to the remote location.
- A "square-within-a-square" motif reflecting Billy's unresolved trauma from the original Camp Miasma film was deliberately repeated across watercolors, drawings, and sculptures throughout the cabin.
- To keep Canadian candy packaging off-screen, the production had crew members drive across the U.S.-Canada border to purchase American candy; sweets are layered progressively through the film as a symbol of pleasure and growing intimacy between Kris and Billy.
- Seasonal shifts and an evolving quality of snow operate as impressionistic markers of Kris's deepening absorption into Billy's world, culminating in a final scene lit in pinks, purples, and watercolors that integrates Kris fully into Billy's constructed fantasy.
Why it matters: The 25-day timeline and choice of optical glass matte painting over digital effects show a deliberate commitment to practical, handcrafted production design in a remote Pacific Northwest location. The team's willingness to drive candy across the Canadian border to avoid Canadian packaging on-screen underscores how every visual detail — even snacks — is engineered to serve the film's psychological and emotional layers.
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