Pictures’ “IN THE HEIGHTS,” a Warner Bros. Caption: (L-r) DAPHNE RUBIN-VEGA as Daniela, STEPHANIE BEATRIZ as Carla and DASCHA POLANCO as Cuca in Warner Bros. We’d start to figure out oh, this would be a great crane move here, or let’s do something low here, or can we make this a really long shot? Our process is very fluid and connected, and we all have a similar work ethic and style, so it’s a great collaboration. On the weekends, we would get together and AirDrop the videos to each other, and Jon would start to edit things together.
We had these anamorphic adapters for our cameras, for our iPhones - we shot anamorphic lenses on the movie - and the three of us would shoot from different angles. We each would take an iPhone and film the dance rehearsal. When Chris wanted us to see stuff, we’d come and start to work out the little details. So Jon and I, after we looked at locations in Washington Heights in the morning, we’d spend the afternoon at the dance rehearsal space.
We learned so much about how to capture dance and how to light dance and how to use it as a storytelling method. The three of us have a very close relationship in terms of figuring out dance. We’ve done a lot of music-driven projects together, including T he Legion of Extraordinary Dancers, which is when we started working with Chris Scott as a choreographer. We bonded over our love of musicals at a time when very few features were being made into musicals anymore. We went to USC to film school together, and I shot his short musical, When the Kids Are Away, when we were in college. You’re not just lighting and shooting a movie, but a musical with huge dance numbers. CHU, STEPHANIE BEATRIZ and DAPHNE RUBIN-VEGA on the set of Warner Bros. Caption: (L-r) DP ALICE BROOKS (foreground), director JON M. We had the chance to speak with Brooks about these aspects of the film, along with how she used practical effects during the blackout, hit the perfect golden light in Usnavi’s bodega, and the unexpected coincidence that helped achieve the special lighting in Abuela Claudia’s apartment. For cinematographer Alice Brooks ( Home Before Dark, The Walking Dead), this meant ensuring getting Washington Heights’ unique sunlight right just as much as it meant highlighting the dance numbers to the fullest possible effect. The film opens with a major number at 175th Street, and throughout the film, some of the biggest set pieces take place in a public pool, a courtyard, and a club that pulses with energy right up until the lights go out in a major blackout. Aside from Usnavi’s narration, which takes place on an intentionally overly picture-perfect beach in the DR, and ten shooting days on a soundstage, In the Heights was in fact largely shot in the Heights. The action, whether it’s a piece of the twin unfolding love stories or a major dance number, takes place across sets at the heart of a few blocks in Washington Heights: Usnavi’s bodega, Abuela Claudia’s cozy apartment, Kevin’s dispatch office, the public pool. Caption: (Left Center-Right Center) ANTHONY RAMOS as Usnavi and MELISSA BARRERA as Vanessa in Warner Bros. Softee, while far more seriously, Usnavi’s young employee, Sonny (Gregory Diaz IV), grapples with the personal implications of the politics swirling around DACA. On the comedic side, Miranda makes periodic appearances as a disgruntled piragua seller in an ongoing feud with the local Mr. At the center of the community is Abuela Claudia (Olga Merediz), an elderly Cuban matriarch universally beloved by all. Benny, her ex, is still smitten, but Kevin (Jimmy Smits), Nina’s father and Benny’s boss at the local taxi service, doesn’t approve. Nina is the pride of the neighborhood, but after a harrowing first year at Stanford, she’s struggling to reveal that she may be returning to 175th St.
Usnavi, an orphan and bodega owner who dreams of life in the Dominican Republic, is too bashful to pursue Vanessa, who’s concerned with leaving the salon where she works for a career in fashion design and an apartment downtown. The action is centered on two would-be couples, Usnavi (Anthony Ramos) and Vanessa (Melissa Barrera), and Benny (Corey Hawkins) and Nina (Leslie Grace).
Chu ( Crazy Rich Asians) is set over a handful of days at the height of summer in Washington Heights.
In the Heights, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s pre-Hamilton musical transformed into a film by screenwriter Quiara Alegría Hudes and director Jon M.