Master Class: The Sound & Music of the Daniels’ EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE | Presented by the Dolby Institute

Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, collectively known as DANIELS - have been writing and directing together for over a decade, initially with a slew of viral music videos, commercials, and short films, then with feature films and TV directing.

They've developed a reputation for combining absurdity with heartfelt personal stories. Oftentimes they incorporate a unique brand of visual effects, and visceral practical effects into their genre blending projects.

They have directed music videos for Manchester Orchestra, Foster the People, and won a VMA for their video for ‘Turn Down For What’, which Scheinert bullied Kwan into being the lead actor in. Kwan is a really good dancer.

They wrote and directed the feature film SWISS ARMY MAN starring Paul Dano and Daniel Radcliffe, which went on to win the Directing Award at the Sundance Film Festival, received multiple nominations, and gained a large cult following.

While they were writing & developing their new movie EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE, a kung fu sci-fi dramedy starring Michelle Yeoh, Scheinert went and directed a small redneck dramedy called THE DEATH OF DICK LONG, also released by A24.

They both live in Los Angeles. One of them has a son. The other has a goofy dog. But to be honest Daniel does most of the work.

From the start, Son Lux has operated as something akin to a sonic test kitchen. The band strives to question deeply held assumptions about how music is made and reconstruct it from a molecular level. What began as a solo project for founder Ryan Lott expanded in 2014, thanks to a kinship with Ian Chang and Rafiq Bhatia too strong to ignore. The trio strengthened their chemistry and honed their collective intuition while creating, releasing, and touring six recordings. The result is a carefully cultivated musical language rooted in curiosity and balancing opposites that largely eschews genre and structural conventions. And yet, the band remains audibly indebted to iconoclastic artists in soul, hip-hop, and experimental improvisation who themselves carved new paths forward. Distilling these varied influences, Son Lux searches for equilibrium of raw emotional intimacy and meticulous electronic constructions. Son Lux has most recently scored the new Daniels film for A24, Everything Everywhere All at Once (March 2022). The full score album features new collaborations with Mitski, David Byrne, Randy Newman, and Moses Sumney, among others.

Based in New York, Rafiq Bhatia is the first-generation American son of Muslim immigrant parents who trace their ancestry to India by way of East Africa. Early influences such as Jimi Hendrix, John Coltrane, and Madlib—as well as mentors and collaborators including Vijay Iyer and Billy Hart—prompted him to see music as a way to actively shape and represent his own identity, not limited by anyone else’s prescribed perspective.

When Ian Chang describes his creative process, the phrase "third culture” keeps coming up. Born in the colony of Hong Kong in 1988, Chang has lived a nomadic life. Stationed out of New York for 10 years and since relocated to Dallas, Texas, he built an impressive roster of progressive pop collaborators such as Moses Sumney, Joan As Policewoman, and Matthew Dear, among others, all while performing internationally and recording as a member of Son Lux and Landlady.

Ryan Lott makes his home in Los Angeles, but grew up all over the United States. Music was the one constant, his formative years spent at the piano. In addition to an extensive career writing music for dance, he also has become a sought after composer for advertising, television, and film. Lott’s feature film credits include The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby (2014), Paper Towns (2015), and Mean Dreams (2017). He has co-produced and co-written music for and with Woodkid, Sufjan Stevens, and Lorde.

Andrew Twite is an award-winning sound designer based in Los Angeles with over fifteen years of industry experience spanning feature films to documentaries and adult animated comedy. In 2008, Andrew won the MPSE Golden Reel Award as the dialogue editor of RETURN TO HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL for Best Sound Editing for Direct to Video. He earned an additional three MPSE Golden Reel Award nominations for sound editing STAR TREK: DISCOVERY, RICK AND MORTY, and BOJACK HORSEMAN.

Andrew most recently sound designed A24’s critically-acclaimed drama EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE starring Michelle Yeoh, Jamie Lee Curtis and Ke Huy Quan from directors Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (the Daniels).

Andrew first worked with the Daniels on their Gotham Award and Indie Spirit Award-nominated film SWISS ARMY MAN starring Daniel Radcliffe. Andrew has sound designed numerous award-winning films and television series including Alma Ha’rel’s breakout feature HONEY BOY which won the Sundance Special Jury Prize among several other notable awards. His credits further include Hulu’s thriller feature RUN starring Sarah Paulson; the adult animated series BIG MOUTH, ROBOT CHICKEN and DREAM CORP LLC; and the hit YouTube Red series ESCAPE THE NIGHT created by Joey Graceffa.

Brent Kiser is an Emmy-winning sound designer and the founder of post sound company Unbridled Sound based in Los Angeles. His 15 year career in sound spans feature films, TV series and documentaries. Brent most recently served as the sound supervisor on A24’s critically-acclaimed drama EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE starring Michelle Yeoh, Jamie Lee Curtis and Ke Huy Quan from directors Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (the Daniels). Brent first worked with the Daniels on their Gotham Award and Indie Spirit Award-nominated film SWISS ARMY MAN starring Daniel Radcliffe.

He also served as the sound supervisor for various films and television series including Alma Ha’rel’s breakout feature HONEY BOY which won the Sundance Special Jury Prize among several other notable awards; Netflix’s MURDERVILLE and UNTOLD docuseries; and the 2021 Sundance comedy film TOGETHER TOGETHER.

Brent’s work on the History Channel’s GETTYSBURG (2011) earned him the primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Sound Editing for Nonfiction Programming, and the MPSE Golden Reel Award for Best Sound Editing – Long Form Documentary. He later received his second Emmy nomination as the sound supervisor of Netflix’s WILD WILD COUNTRY, which won the Emmy for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series and was executive produced by the Duplass Brothers and the Way Brothers.

In addition to film and television, Brent’s past credits include commercials, podcasts, art installations and visual albums such as Frank Ocean’s Endless. He graduated from the Savannah College of Art & Design and is a Kentucky native.

Peter Golub is the composer of numerous works for film, the concert hall, theatre and dance. His film scores include: Frozen River (directed by Courtney Hunt and nominated for 2 Academy Awards); The Laramie Project (for HBO); The Great Debaters (directed by Denzel Washington and co-composed with James Newton Howard); Wordplay (directed by Patrick Creadon); Countdown to Zero (dir by Lucy Walker); Sound of a Dream (dir by Zhang Wei); and Songs My Brothers Taught Me (dir by Chloe Zhao). Scores for Broadway include: The Country House (by Donald Marguiles, directed by Daniel Sullivan, with Blythe Danner), The Heiress (directed by Moises Kaufman, with Jessica Chastain) and Hedda Gabler (directed by Nicholas Martin, with Kate Burton). 

In his early career he was Composer-in-Residence for Charles Ludlam's legendary Ridiculous Theatrical Company in Greenwich Village, along with considerable work composing music for the theatre with Joseph Papp at the New York Shakespeare Festival (including numerous productions at the Delacorte in Central Park as well as at the Public downtown) and at La Mama, including work with Ethyl Eichelberger, Ellen Stewart, Jospeh Chaikin and others. His musical, Ampigorey, with book, lyrics and designs by Edward Gorey, was produced at the American Music Theater Festival (Philadelphia), as well as at the American Repertory Theatre (ART) in Cambridge, culminating in an off-Broadway run at the Perry Street Theatre in NY. Amphigorey was nominated for a Drama Desk Award for Best Musical. 

His ballet based on Gorey's The Gilded Bat, choreography by Peter Anastos, was commissioned by Ballet West and performed at the Kennedy Center and throughout the US. Other ballets were commissioned by the Miami City Ballet, Milwaukee Ballet, and Atlanta Ballet. Recent concert music includes: Sleepwalking (a cello concerto), Ghost Songs (for voice and piano, to texts by Thomas Hardy), Six Dirty Limericks, Garden Paths (for flute, viola and Harp), Florestan & Eusebius (for saxophone quartet) and A Child of Children and Art (commissioned by pianist Anthony de Mare as part of a set of original piano pieces in tribute to Stephen Sondheim). He studied composition with Toru Takemitsu and Henry Brant.

Golub is the Director of the Sundance Film Music Program and teaches at UCLA's Herb Alpert School of Music. He is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Glenn Kiser is the Director of the Dolby Creator Lab, Dolby’s initiative to bring education and inspiration to filmmakers and content creators about the creative use of sound and picture in storytelling. Previously, Kiser was the VP & General Manager of Lucasfilm’s Skywalker Sound, where he oversaw sound work on film projects such as Avatar, The Incredibles, the Star Wars prequels, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, the Pirates of the Caribbean and Harry Potter films. 

Before joining Skywalker, Kiser was a post-production executive at Propaganda Films, where he worked with directors including David Fincher, Spike Jonze, Jane Campion, and Neil LaBute. Fun facts: Glenn played a mean tuba in high school, and at one time Marlon Brando called him obsessively for two weeks. 

He is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Patty West is a producer and educator based in California. She led the Directing Workshop for Women and the Thesis Program at the American Film Institute prior to joining the Sundance Institute. She came to Sundance Collab in December of 2019 and now serves as its Director. 

West is a Chicago native and holds a B.S. from Northwestern University, an M.F.A. from the AFI Conservatory and an Executive M.B.A. from Quantic School of Business & Technology. She is a member of the Producer's Council of the Producers Guild of America.