Flamin’ Hot director Eva Longoria and cinematographer Federico Cantini

Flamin' Hot is an entertaining biopic about Richard Montañez, a
janitor at the Frito Lay chip factory who rose to become a
marketing executive after (he claims) he came up with the idea for
Flamin' Hot Cheetos. While Monteñez may be exaggerating his role in
the invention of Flamin' Hot, the movie is based on his real life
experience as detailed in his book, “Flamin’ Hot: The Incredible
True Story of One Man’s Rise from Janitor to Top Executive.”
Director Eva Longoria was drawn to telling Montañez's story for her
first feature film debut. She wanted to tell a heroic, positive
story about a Mexican American who worked hard to achieve the
American dream, with the support of his family and community.
Cinematographer Federico Cantini had previously worked with Eva on
Unplugging, a small indie movie, where the two of them were the
only Spanish speakers on set. Eva admired his energy, passion and
collaboration with the female director. When it came time for her
to choose her DP for Flamin' Hot, Federico was Eva's top choice.
The original script Eva received for Flamin' Hot was a very
straightforward, factual biography film, without any elements of
humor. Eva knew she needed to capture the charismatic character and
voice of Richard Monteñez, so she watched videos of his TED talks
and other public appearances. She worked with writer Linda Yvette
Chávez to rework the script during COVID. It was important to keep
the film high energy and constantly push the narrative forward.
“Ron Howard's one of my mentors,” says Eva, “and his motto is
something should be happening every nine to ten pages. So you
should have nine to ten page sequences. It's a page turner, you
know, it's constantly moving.” She also admires the narrative style
of director Adam McKay's films (The Big Short, Winning Time) and
the way he fluidly uses montages and voiceovers to tell stories
based on fact. Flamin' Hot has 11 montages, with tons of
information crammed into each shot. The movie also never strays
from Montañez's point of view. Even in scenes where he isn't there,
Eva used the comedic device of Moñtenez narrating what might have
happened in certain scenes, such as at Frito Lay executive board
meetings. Once the script was complete, Federico read it and found
it extremely relatable. As an immigrant himself, Flamin' Hot was an
opportunity to make his mark, much as Monteñez had. Fortunately, he
and Eva had lots of pre-production prep time. They are both big
planners, which was important- the shooting schedule was extremely
tight, with just 30 days to shoot Flamin' Hot on 108 sets, during
COVID. The film was primarily shot in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and
the entire Frito Lay factory was a set. Today's Frito Lay factories
are extremely modern and automated, so they knew it would not have
the right look for the 80s and early 1990s. With the set, they had
lots of control over where they could shoot and what it would look
like with depth and color. The set pieces such as the tumbler and
conveyor belt were all on wheels, so they could easily be moved
around. Coming from TV, Eva felt confident that they could
accomplish all they wanted in the time that they had, and they left
all their creative energy on the screen. Federico and Eva wanted to
break up Monteñez's story into three different decades with three
distinct looks to separate them. Federico used Crystal Express
lenses for Montañez's childhood, Canon K-35s for his gang banger
days, and then for the 80s and 90s, Panavision Panaspeeds, but
modified to look like Super Speeds from the 80s. He also used a
probe lens to emphasize the size of the factory and for drama in
the tasting scenes. Eva enjoyed directing a biopic, and she looks
forward to telling more stories from her community. She likes
directing projects she's also acting in, and she wants to continue
to direct and produce films with purpose. Federico had a great
experience working on Flamin' Hot, and he and Eva plan to work
together again soon.