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(Warning: Some minor spoilers are ahead!)
You both previously worked with [director] Jon M. Chu onCrazy Rich Asians.
How did that experience inform your approach to creating an onscreen Washington Heights?
Jon loved the level of detail in what I was bringing toCrazy Rich Asians.
He wanted to have a very specific look as well to Washington Heights.
So I did that forIn the Heights,creating a wall of just the graffiti I was finding.
Theres afeeling,though, so the feeling is important.
And then wed give them a whole series of products so you could start playing with types of things.
N.C.:Part of that was in the discovery, as we found things.
But one of the central things that Jon brought up was, You know, Americans are geographically challenged.
Jon wanted evidence of the flags Dominican, Cuban, and Puerto Rican flags.
He really wanted to show [the characters] backgrounds.
So this map was very much that: Its the pride and ethnicity and the heart.
N.C.:And the map is made from pieces of everything he sells in the bodega.
So if you look really closely, theres MetroCards, SweetN Low packets, Pepperidge Farm fish.
Theres keys, because they make keys in fact, the Florida Keys on the map are actual keys.
How does the choreography and the kinetic nature of a musical likeIn the Heightscomplicate your work?
:I dont think it complicates the work; I think it gives it life and gives it focus.
The bodega and the salon are the heart of the neighborhood.
We needed all the elements to be on casters so they could move them somewhat organically.
- From the very beginning, it was designed for the movement and making room for the dancing.
Or even longer.
There really arent a lot of primary colors except for flag colors throughout the movie.
So the salon is in secondary and tertiary colors you know, pinks and greens.
So thats why it has that look.
It wasnt from the ground up designed as a salon.
[Things like] the pattern of the linoleum, that wouldve been there since the 40s.
How did you approach that sequence, and does your understanding of the characters perspective affect the design elements?
Several of the things she says are incredible touchpoints.
So we needed to really feel the heat.
And two, shes transporting us to her memory, to the past.
You know [Claudias] dream of going to New York?
Well, you have the sign in the subway that lights up.
And you have the old signage from the period she wouldve been in.
Because its a dream, how do you represent the city being super-packed?
We found each of those elements and then started connecting them.
The framing rig of the movie is this narration, where Usnavi is speaking to children on the beach.
It sort of fades at the end until you realize that its actually been the bodega all along.
I love the visual hints at that twist in the beach iteration of the bar.
Can you talk a little bit about that and where that was shot?
The same source had bookcases in the shape of boats, so we filled it with that.
Then through the visual effects, they put in the palm trees around it.
I had pictures of Usnavis father, and those were under the glass in the counter.
The lighting was made from cans I believe coffee cans.
And those were in the bodega.
So all the things that were evidence in the fantasy portion of it were from the actual bodega.
It was a play back and forth between reality and this fantasy we were creating.
