Daniels & “Everything Everywhere All At Once” DP Larkin Seiple on developing their own filmmaking methodology, finding ways to support their “silly”, “surreal and extraordinary” stories – the process

As cinematographer for Daniel Scheinert and Dan Kwan – the film duo known collectively as Daniels – Larkin Seiple’s typical job was to appreciate the goofy surrealism of their “craziest” ideas and find ways to ground them so that every moment like felt “real or honest or meaningful”. “

Take Everything, everywhere, all at once, Seiple’s latest project starring the filmmakers. In one of his early conversations with Daniels about this, they discussed the possibility of a scene revolving around “a cat nunchuk”. The question the DP asked itself at the time was, as always, how could it make this concept “so real” that the public forgot “how silly” it was?

“I think, especially the stories of yours, they’re so surreal and extraordinary that it’s my job to try to make them feel like they… so you almost forget you’re watching them,” Seiple tells Daniels in the latest issue of the process. “A lot of it is … just trying to ground it and feel like you’re really there. Because then, in my opinion, your stories will work if you believe in them. That’s the whole thing. It is a magic trick. We’re just trying to get people to believe what they see.”

It is Seiple’s embrace of Daniel’s sense of humor and sensitivity, along with his flair for storytelling, unique creative and technical skills, and problem-solving skills that led Kwan to call him Daniel’s “secret weapon.” The DP has been working with the filmmakers for years – first on several short films and music videos, then on the feature films Swiss Army and Everything everywhere – develop with them a unique “version of filmmaking” that enables them to realize the seemingly impossible. From Daniel’s point of view, Seiple is so valuable to this process that their films would not work at all without his contributions.

“[Everything Everywhere] would have just crashed and burned if you weren’t able to improvise, react and solve problems that day,” says Scheinert, “because there was so much we had to tackle every day.”

In fact, Daniels’ final film for A24 is what Seiple calls her “most sublime” film to date. While it’s impossible to do justice to the martial arts-filled multiverse film by your standard logline, it focuses on Evelyn Wang (Michelle Yeoh), an elderly Chinese immigrant who is drawn into a crazy adventure where only she has the power , can save the world. by exploring other universes related to the lives she could lead.

Remarkably, Op Everything everywhere, would help Seiple create looks for nearly 150 different universes. 7-8 of them will appear a lot on screen, 15 of them to a lesser extent as “mini-universes” and about 120 in just one take. Each will use a different film genre and set of references to allow viewers to orient themselves to the story. “There is so much happening [the film] that you need stronger images for the audience to connect the disconnect between the variations of Michelles in different universes, and that’s why this one has a lot of looks,” says Seiple. “It wasn’t because we wanted him to look cool, because we wanted people to really appreciate and understand where we were and why we were there.”

In theaters in March following the world premiere at SXSW, Everything, everywhere, all at once is now A24’s highest-grossing film of all time, grossing over $103 million worldwide. Kwan and Scheinert directed the critically acclaimed blockbuster from their own screenplay and produced alongside Joe Russo, Anthony Russo, Mike Larocca and Jonathan Wang. The cast also includes Stephanie Hsu, Ke Huy Quan, Jenny Slate, Harry Shum Jr., James Hong and Jamie Lee Curtis.

During his time at The Process, Seiple talks about the first time he met Eeverything everywhereearly conversations and visual breakdowns of the film, that’s the working title air bubblesMoments during production where he pushed back on Daniels’ visual ideas, mastered lighting challenges, developed LUTs (or lookup tables) with colorist Alex Bickel, and gleaned insights from the project that would inform his future work.

The DP also talks about the movies he watched growing up, why his favorite creative conversations often take place outside the context of his own department, his first music video with Daniels where he shot between 80 and 90 setups a day, the importance of cognition
“Playgrounds” to work that allow their productions (including the abandoned office complex where Everything everywhere was filmed), the preparation of the action and its choreography on location and much more.

In turn, Daniels talks about the film school’s perception of cinematography versus the reality of what they aspire to do in the field, Seiple’s status as “the biggest film fanatic” of their entire core team, how Seiples make their incredibly ambitious productions possible, their sense of it Everything everywhere ended up being “nicer than expected,” visual ideas for the film that didn’t pan out, the scene Seiple joked would “make a great DVD extra,” figuring out how to make an epic beltbag fight go of time to shoot per Tag, their divide-and-conquer strategy as co-directors, and the contributions of other key contributors to the film, including but not limited to Chief Lighting Engineer Matt Ardine.

Watch the full conversation above.