EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE

A24

In filmmaking duo Daniels’ (aka Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert) genrebending story, Chinese American immigrant Evelyn (Michele Yeoh) and her family live above a laundromat, their family business. Research began with examining the styles of such ’60s- and ’70s-inspired businesses, and as production designer Jason Kisvarday explains, “What we found is that the laundromats in North America were a lot less exciting than the launderettes in the United Kingdom in the 1960s and ’70s. They were amazing — just bright colors and patterns and wallpaper. So, we actually pulled a lot of our inspiration from British launderettes.” The next challenge was finding a location. “There was a lot of specific choreography for the scenes that they wanted to shoot there, and the problem we were finding was that a lot of laundromats are small, and you can’t see across them,” he says. “The machines might be tall or there are visual obstructions. We traveled all over Los Angeles County looking at lots of laundromats.” The one they chose for filming, Majers Coin Laundry in San Fernando, ticked all the boxes. “It had the big parking lot in front, where we had some scenes play out, and there was enough room inside that you could get depth and shoot down the rows of machines. But creatively, I think it was a little less than halfway there, so it was a good start to build on. We added layers on top of what was already there. For example, a lot of the machines were brandnew stainless steel machines, and we wrapped them in different shades of off-white and almond vinyl and the scenic department painted them to make them look like older machines, and not even matching older machines. There was a wonky one that had a piece replaced [or one that] had some rust dripping down the side of it.”