Cinematographer Larkin Seiple on shooting Everything Everywhere All At Once, Swiss Army Man, and the Emmy nominated Gaslit

When cinematographer Larkin Seiple first saw the script for
Everything Everywhere All At Once he thought: This is very long and
how in the world are we going to shoot this? But having worked with
directing team Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (known collectively
as Daniels) for ten years, he knew the film would be unique,
creative and fun. Larkin loves telling stories through the medium
of film, and Everything Everywhere explores the multiverse concept
as the most ridiculous, messy, scary, poignant, and mind-blowing
place. Everything Everywhere All At Once contains many different
scenes referencing dozens of films with a multitude of looks.
Larkin loved creating so many mini movies, and he had specific
ideas for the lighting and continuity for most of the universes-
changing up the lighting, lenses and even the aspect ratios for
each universe and what it was referencing. In order to keep to any
kind of schedule or budget, the team needed to shoot as much as
possible in one location. They shot primarily in two places- a
giant empty office building with the atrium, stairway, elevator and
cubicles in Simi Valley, and DC Stages in downtown LA, which gave
them about 40 different sets to choose from. Principal photography
was 36 days, mostly in the Simi Valley office building. The Daniels
always scout things in advance and try to find the best locations
for the budget, which was about $15 million- not a lot for such an
ambitious movie. Larkin had to creatively and carefully compose
shots so that the office location didn't seem like a big empty
space, and focused on small details and transitions, shooting
scenes as efficiently as possible. Fortunately, a lot of sets in
the office building were already there, leftover from other film
shoots, such as the elevator set and the kinky office sex room,
which allowed them to add it into the movie. Directors Daniels
often writes a script with just the bare bones of what they're
looking for, with only a line for action, such as “fanny pack
fight,” leaving it up to Larkin and the fight coordinators to
decide how to shoot it. They operate as a sort of hive mind, and
each Daniel really knows how the movie cuts together in their head.
Once he completed film school, Larkin realized that, unlike a
director, as a cinematographer he could work on many different
projects per year. He enjoys the collaborative element of
filmmaking and started his career as a gaffer and electrician. He
realized that if he wanted to become a cinematographer, he needed
to quit doing side projects as a gaffer or electrician to
concentrate on only working and shooting as a DP. Larkin began
shooting music videos and beauty commercials, until he was able to
make a living off of shooting commercials, while picking and
choosing what music videos he wanted to do. Working on music videos
led him to meeting the Daniels. One of their most memorable music
videos is Turn Down For What by DJ Snake and Lil Jon, which stars
Dan Kwan- ½ of Daniels- as one of the main performers in the video.
Another noteable video Larkin shot was This Is America by Childish
Gambino (Donald Glover), directed by Hiro Murai. After working on
several music videos together, Larkin shot the Daniels first
feature, Swiss Army Man. Swiss Army Man is a strange and surreal
movie about a man (Paul Dano) stranded on a deserted island who
befriends a dead body (Daniel Radcliffe) that washes ashore. Hank
is able to use the dead body to get off the island and he begins to
find his way home, believing that the dead man is talking to him
and helping him stay alive. They shot in Los Angeles, the woods
near San Francisco, and up in Humboldt County under the giant
redwoods, with a tiny crew. Actor Daniel Radcliffe was very
enthusiastic about playing the dead man, and even though they had a
corpse dummy for the film, he refused to let them use it. He was in
every scene as the dead guy with Paul Dano, even when just playing
dead. Most recently,