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W ith inspiration from the musical stage play, Universal Pictures' Wicked had a strong debut when the feature film was released on Thanksgiving weekend. Directed by Jon M. Chu (Crazy Rich Asians, In the Heights), Wicked is the first chapter in a two-part tale, with the conclusion scheduled for release next November. The film tells the backstory of the witches of Oz: Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo), who is misunderstood because of her green skin, and Glinda (Ariana Grande), the popular and privileged young women who's yet to discover her true heart. The two meet as students at Shiz University in the fantastical Land of Oz, where they form an unlikely friendship. Michelle Yeoh stars as the university's headmistress, Madame Morrible, while Peter Dinklage voices Dr. Dillamond, a talking goat that heads the university's history depart- ment. Jonathan Bailey plays Fiyero, the carefree prince that attracts the witches' attention, and Jeff Goldblum stars as The Wizard himself. With more than $100M taken in at the box office its opening week, and strong performances by both Erivo and Grande, the film is well positioned for Oscar consideration. Here, cinematographer Alice Brooks; editor Myron Kerstein, ACE; visual effects supervisor Pablo Helman; and Company 3 colorist Jill Bogdanowicz take a break from their work on the sequel to share insight into the new film's production and post production. CINEMATOGRAPHY Cinematographer Alice Brooks has known director Jon Chu since their time at USC film school, where they developed a mutual respect and shared a passion for storytelling. She worked on the di- rector's 2021 feature In the Heights, and once again partnered with him on Wicked. "When Jon Chu, (production designer) Nathan Crowley, (VFX supervisor) Pablo Helman and I first started talking about this movie, the idea was that we were going to make an 'old-Hollywood' movie that would be contemporary and feel our own at the same time," recalls Brooks. "In making an old-Hollywood movie, we would try to do as much in-camera first as possible, so we shot on 17 stages, where the sets went from fire lane to fire lane, and from the floor to the ceiling." The film is loaded with visual effects, she ac- knowledges, but "it's different than your Marvel movies, or your Fast and Furious movies, where you're in a blue world." She points to the film's production design and its massive sets — some as large as football fields — which allowed her to find detail in all directions. "Jon's vision was, 'We're not just shooting this movie on blue screen. We are actually going to build the world of Oz,'" she explains. "So, one of the decisions we did make was not to shoot in Imax, but to shoot 2.40:1 aspect ratio, because we had the width of the sets. What we didn't have was the height, even though some of our sets were 70-feet tall. A lot of our set extension is up — not behind characters' heads." Brooks chose to shoot with the Arri Alexa 65 digital camera, which is similar in size and shape to a 65mm film frame. She also partnered with Panavision to develop a unique set of lenses specif- ically for this film. "They're a set of lenses no one has ever shot on before," she notes, "and they're in a closet at Panavision in London. When I knew I was going to do Wicked, Jon kept saying, 'I want this movie to look unlike any other movie that has existed.' And I said, 'Well, then we need lenses that no one else has shot on.'" Brooks describes the anamorphic lenses as romantic and soft, with a beautiful amber flare. She worked closely with Panavision consultant Dan Sasaki, who provided 35mm, 50mm and 85mm lenses for the 14-month shoot, which represents Wicked and its follow-up release. "We wanted a very shallow depth of field so that we would really be focused on our actors and the rest of the world would sort of be soft," Brooks notes. "You even see it in all the artwork," she says of the signature look. "The posters — that amber color exists everywhere, and marketing took it over." Brooks had a large team supporting her, includ- ing two camera operators that she would monitor from a tent on-set. "My monitors are usually set up right next to Jon Chu's monitors, so we can quickly collaborate in my tent," she explains. "I have the best of the monitors on-set…Pablo would be in there a lot of the time too." Most of the production used two camer- as, though on some of the larger sets, like Shiz University and the Emerald City, they would run a third camera. "We had so many extras and beautiful details that our C-camera would be able to grab little, teeny-tiny details," she explains. "I don't know how much of that ended up in the movie, but we ran three cameras on those days." Brooks points to two sequences in the film that she found both interesting and challenging from a cinematography standpoint, the first being the Ozdust Ballroom scene, where Elphaba shows up wearing her pointed hat for the first time, garner- ing a mixed reaction from the party goers, making her very uncomfortable. The sequence is long and involves a 360-degree camera move. "[Jon] wanted to do the close-up first," Brooks recalls, "so we pull her down the stairs on a 65mm lens and we do a ten-minute Steadicam shot that is circling her 360 degrees. He always presents me with huge challenges. She's wearing a huge hat. He wants the camera to go around her. He wants it sometimes to be super close, so we did it, and it ends in this single tear of hers dripping down at the end of the ten minutes. And Ariana, at that moment, just wipes the tear." Brooks credits the shot's success to an extensive rehearsal period, which included working closely with the film's choreographer, Christopher Scott. "Cynthia performed it in a dance rehearsal space that we had on one of our stages, and we found that 360-degree shot," she recalls. "We knew 360-degree shots were going to be part of our camera language. There's a connection that hap- pens between these two women and those shots create that connection." Brooks also points to the "Defying Gravity" sequence near the end of the film, where Elphaba embraces her powers and uniqueness. Shots of Elphaba feature a setting sun, while Glinda's direc- tion always had a sunrise. "The last 40 minutes of the movie is all one- long sunset that ends in 'Defying Gravity,'" Brooks explains. "I had this picture that I found on Week 2 of prep, and every time we talked about 'Defying Gravity,' I'm like, 'This is what the backdrop looks like! This is what the sunset looks like.' Pablo nailed it! It is exactly right out of my dreams." For Brooks, Wicked represents a perfect combi- nation of in-camera and post effects. She says she loves how the VFX department was able to take parts of the frame and add onto it, or make some- thing extra special, like the film's creatures. "The animals that Pablo created — each one has its own personality and character," she states. "I'm just so grateful I get to be part of making a movie that is inspirational and will inspire children…It's amazing to be part of a movie that entire genera- tions can enjoy together." EDITING Like Alice Brooks, editor Myron Kerstein, ACE, also worked with director Jon Chu on the musical In the Heights. Wicked, how- ever, was much more demanding. "It's one thing to go from In the Heights, which is like a $30M to $50M film or (Lin-Manuel Miranda's) Tick, Tick... Boom!, to something of this scale," states Kerstein. "But Jon and I said over and over again, 'We've been training for this moment all our lives!' I had not worked on anything as far as VFX of this scale. I didn't know previs from postvis. I hadn't worked with CGI animals or transformation scenes and WICKED www.postmagazine.com 17 POST NOV/DEC 2024 Alice Brooks Myron Kerstein