WICKED: FOR GOOD PRODUCTION
created these beautiful, symmetrical shots. In the second movie, Glinda’s world is refined and elegant and very much like an old MGM musical. Round images encompass her.” Meanwhile, for Elphaba, “we shot her handheld so she’s raw and real and textured. We do these extreme close-ups on her that we didn’t do in the first movie. The dichotomy of their two worlds quickly became part of our Sticking to their roots as stage musicals, Wicked and Wicked: For Good were both primarily filmed practically. “All our sets were real, built and tangible. We had very little blue screen,” Brooks details. “When Elphaba is flying we used blue screen, but on our biggest stage she’s on wires and tuning forks and our Technocrane is spinning around her. We captured all those movements in camera.” In both films, animals play an essential role. Many are professors at Shiz University, where Elphaba, Glinda and Fiyero attend school. And, like in The camera language.” PRACTICAL MAGIC
Wizard of Oz , flying monkeys accompany Elphaba in For Good . “With the animals,” begins Brooks, “we had people in grey suits on-set. I lit them, then VFX would make sure the lighting matched exactly. It was a seamless relationship between cinematography and visual effects.” TWO AT A TIME Wicked and Wicked: For Good each correspond with acts one and two from the original stage musical. In Brooks’ words, “together, the two films form a continuous visual story, but they each occupy their own world.” During production, however, “we treated it as if we were shooting one movie.” It’s rare for a studio to greenlight multiple movies without any indication of box office performance – but it does happen (the Lord of the Rings trilogy being an example of when it’s worked out). While likely financially motivated, filming the two films back-to-back also encouraged creative continuity. “I don’t think we would have got the same look, feel – even emotional reaction we got to
PAYING ITS RESPECTS All the sets were built in the same vein as musical stage sets
the first movie – had we not made those choices,” says Brooks. “I’m glad we did. I’m so proud of both movies.” While Wicked: For Good is tonally different from Wicked , according to Brooks, “there is a visual heartbeat that intricately weaves the two movies into one. When you step back and look at both films as a whole, every intention is clear, vibrant and beautiful.”
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DEFINITIONMAGS
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