Daniels’ Ads and Promos: (Almost) Everything All At Once
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UPDATE: This article was originally published on Thursday 9th March 2023, prior to the Academy Awards ceremony on Sunday 12th March 2023. We have added this short update this article in the wake of Everything Everywhere All At Once winning seven Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay.
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‘Everything Everywhere All At Once’, the second feature film from directorial duo Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, better known as Daniels, became A24’s highest grossing movie ever. This weekend, Daniels are nominated for the three biggest awards in filmmaking, Best Picture, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay at the Oscars.
But the duo have been tantalising our eyeballs since long before their wondrously hectic tale of a Chinese-American immigrant’s descent into the multiverse during a mundane tax audit. So, what better time for a trip down memory lane?
Daniels spoke to LBB’s Addison Capper about the eight pieces of work from their music promo and commercial catalogue that have shaped the directors they are today. Ali Brown, president of PRETTYBIRD, the duo’s long-time production company, has written an introduction to the article.
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Chances are, ‘Everything Everywhere All At Once’ was on your list of favourite movies this past year. If not, what’s wrong with you?
In advance of what is already a tremendous achievement in terms of accolades, Addison [Capper, Americas editor at LBB] asked the fellas to choose some of their favourite commercials and music videos to share. I [Ali Brown, president at PRETTYBIRD] wanted to add some of my favourite things about the Daniels.
1. Daniels are the consummate example of having something to say and a way to say it that is uniquely theirs, and never deviating from that voice. Look at their first video and their latest film (really, do it) - it’s them in every frame. Their innate talent is incredible but the fact they can communicate that genius to the rest of us is the real gift.
2. Daniels are the bar for talent, creativity, behaviour, passion, loyalty, and good old fashioned fun. They are what young directors should aspire to be - not to imitate their style but their path. Have something to say, surround yourself with people who will help get that into the world without compromise, and be nice to everyone along the way. And laugh. A lot.
3. If you’ve heard the expression good things happen to good people, they are living proof. No humans are gooder than these guys.
Ali Brown, president at PRETTYBIRD
Ali Brown, president at PRETTYBIRD
FM Belfast - Underwear
"First music video we ever did, so it holds a very special place in our hearts. We didn't know what we were doing, we weren't even planning on directing it together at first. It was just us playing around with friends after work, hoping to learn something. It was this video that got us first signed to PRETTYBIRD and launched our careers, and you can see the roots of our DIY messy aesthetic was born here."
Manchester Orchestra - Simple Math
"This video was the first music video we made after a long year of rejections, and so a lot was riding on the success of it. If it wasn't for Bryan Younce at Columbia records, who vouched for us and believed in us, I don't think we would have been allowed to make something so ambitious for a relatively low budget. We went down to Alabama (where Scheinert is from) and we made a big messy personal story that we're still very proud of. It changed our lives in many ways: we won best video at the UKMVAs that year but, more importantly, we met Andy Hull and Robert McDowell (of Manchester Orchestra) who went on to score our first feature film Swiss Army Man."
Foster the People - Houdini
"This video was the first time we had a chance to work with long-time collaborators Jess Fleece (1st AD) and Larkin Seiple (cinematographer), both of whom were essential in most of our projects after that. It was one of the most ambitious shooting schedules we had ever faced up until that point, and Larkin and Jesse blew us away with their skills and passion. Also, after being in the music video industry for only a year, we were dying to make a video where the band died at the beginning of the video, and we were finally allowed to do it here."
Weetabix - Dancer
"This is the first commercial we ever released. We felt like we were in way over our heads, flying to London, shooting with a crew we had never met before, but we ended up having so much fun and falling in love with the city of London. We met many people who have become life-long friends (it's a long story that involves the 2011 London Riots and getting trapped on the east side of London). One highlight that came out of this video is a European lemonade brand made a shot-for-shot rip off of this commercial that is hilarious and that we still revisit from time to time."
Battles - My Machines (feat. Gary Numan)
"This video terrified us because it felt so different from our other work. A single shot with a motion control camera for a very dumb premise of a man falling down an up escalator would mean we wouldn't be able to resort to our usual editing tricks. It taught us to be braver with our work and also taught us what a pain in the ass motion control cameras can be when you have no money. We met our longtime collaborator Tim Eulich on this job. He was the poor stuntman who had to fall down the escalator for the entire day, but went on to be our stunt coordinator for both our feature films."
The Shins - Simple Song
"We both loved The Shins in high school and college, and were excited to create a story worthy of this beautiful song. Predictably, we tried to cram in way too much narrative into a single video, but ultimately we are very proud of how it all came together. This was a special project because our small crew had to road trip up to Portland, and driving that long up and down the West Coast is an incredible bonding experience. We ended up driving by many of the places we shot our film Swiss Army Man."
DJ Snake and Lil Jon - Turn Down for What
"Obviously, this is the video that we are most known for, which is ironic. We were about to transition into feature films and were exhausted by the music video industry and told ourselves, this might be one of the last ones we do, let's screw around since we have nothing to lose. Once again, Bryan Younce went to bat for us, and convinced the artist that we weren't insane for pitching them the concept. We have never laughed as hard on set. People were literally crying at the monitor because of how much fun we were all having. Our crew had been working together so often that we felt like a well-oiled machine, we were pulling off so many incredible shots in a very short amount of time, it's kind of astounding to think about it now. We all knew we were making something pretty ridiculous at the time, but none of us knew what a phenomenon it would become. We credit the success of this video for getting investors comfortable with giving us money for our first feature."
Nike - Unlimited You
"During the press tour of Swiss Army Man, we were kind of broke (independent filmmaking is not kind on the wallet), and so we pitched on this massive Nike Olympics campaign, not thinking we would get it. It was ridiculous going from our tiny small budget indie feature, to this commercial which would have a runtime of only a few minutes, and a budget two or three times the budget of our entire feature film. We got to work with some incredible (and intimidating) athletes, and Wieden+Kennedy really let us do our thing, which was not typical for us in the ad world up until that point. We never got to meet Oscar Isaac (who did the VO for the commercial) because we were busy on the press tour of our movie. But finally, we got to say hi to him after the release of Everything Everywhere All At Once. He had no idea we had directed the commercial."
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