The film Everything Everywhere All At Once by director duo Daniels, which was shown in theaters starting in April and has recently also been available for streaming, lives up to its name and is many things at once: a storytelling and visually wild, absurd - and at times silly - ride, with numerous allusions and borrowings a homage to recent cinema history, and last but not least also a vehicle to let Hong Kong icon Michelle Yeoh show off all facets of her skills.
As laundromat owner Evelyn, she has to undergo a tax audit, her adult daughter rebels, her husband wants to file for divorce - and then suddenly she is also supposed to save the world, while reality splinters into various parallel universes.
The film was produced on a measly budget of million by Hollywood standards, yet it contains a huge amount of stunts and visual effects. The VFX settings were implemented by a small 9-man team, and much was also implemented directly in camera and with practicals. Also the very extensive (costume) set consists mainly of cheap online and secondhand finds.
In a very interesting interview with Go Creative Show, cinematographer Larkin Seiple explains how the crazy plot with its many metaverses was realized in a visually convincing way despite a limited budget and only about 38 shooting days:
Among other things, he describes how the different looks of the various metaverses were developed - for each there were visual models (from National Geographic to Wong Kar Wai, to name two extreme poles). Each parallel universe is not only color-coded but also shot with different lenses/focal lengths, and some of the aspect ratios are different as well.
Filming was done on the Arri Alexa Mini with a great many different lenses, mainly vintage anamorphic lenses, but also once with Arri Master Primes.
If you've seen the film, you'll enjoy all the background info you learn in the interview - there's too much to repeat here in detail... In addition, here's a clip with more BTS footage:
Bild zur Newsmeldung:
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