When director Jon M. Chu requested his go-to cinematographer Alice Brooks what her objective was for “Depraved” whereas they had been prepping in London, she replied: “To make the best love story ever informed about these two associates, Elphaba and Glinda.” Each lighting alternative was to make sure that intent was fulfilled. It’s a grand, epic musical, however their conflicted relationship was key: It was all within the performances of Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba and Ariana Grande as Glinda, who turns into the Depraved Witch of the West and the Good Witch. Brooks even assigned them their very own flattering lenses: 65mm for Erivo and 75mm for Grande.
“Jon needed this film to appear to be our personal model of Oz,” Brooks informed IndieWire. “It was actually vital to him that we made our personal world that nobody had ever seen earlier than. And so we determined we’d make our personal model of what Technicolor was, being very selective about colours. Whereas we had been speaking about totally different concepts, one concept I had was all through the film I might use particular colours of the rainbow to gentle every scene, whether or not it was pink or yellow or inexperienced or purple or pink. That got here from studying the unique L. Frank Baum ‘Wizard of Oz’ books. Each single paragraph has this wealthy, stunning, poetic coloration description and coloration means one thing in Oz.”
Brooks spent almost 18 weeks testing for coloration, lighting, digital camera, and lenses. One rule that got here out of the testing confirmed that Glinda be accompanied by sunrises and Elphaba by sunsets. The primary coloration they landed on was pink for Glinda due to her bubble motif (utilizing tungsten models with gel). That is most outstanding throughout the “Well-liked” musical quantity. For the Ozdust ballroom scene, by which Elphaba and Glinda dance collectively and solidify their bond, the cinematographer seized on blue gentle, which made Elphaba’s inexperienced actually pop. This was impressed by a chunk of blue material that costume designer Paul Tazewell examined in opposition to the white resin background.
For cameras, Brooks initially selected the ALEXA Mini, however switched to the ALEXA 65. That got here from testing an experimental anamorphic lens from Panavision, which threw off an amber flare that she favored for Emerald Metropolis. In assessments, although, it seemed finest with the 65. Nevertheless, at first, there was an issue: Dan Sasaki, Panavision’s vice chairman of optical engineering, didn’t have sufficient time to make the lens (now referred to as the Extremely Panatar II) match over the 65 sensors. However then manufacturing acquired delayed six months when it moved from Atlanta to London. “I might describe it as delicate, romantic, magical, and effervescent,” Brooks stated.
The opposite vital testing concerned the inexperienced make-up for Erivo with make-up supervisor Frances Hannon. Initially, it was determined to digitize the make-up as a result of inexperienced solely labored with cool gentle. However Erivo insisted on utilizing make-up as a result of she needed to really feel the inexperienced. Then, Hannon found a neon base that will enable the cinematographer to gentle any shade of inexperienced extra favorably.
Filming largely occurred on the new Sky Studios Elstree, exterior of London, the place large backlot units had been constructed. However three of the units wanted extra room (they had been every the dimensions of 4 soccer fields), so that they constructed on a turf farm north of London. “Depraved” begins in Munchkinland, highlighted by 9 million rainbow-colored tulips, then flashes again to the exotic-looking Shiz College, the place Elphaba and Glinda (as Galinda) first meet, and winds up within the Emerald Metropolis to fulfill the Wizard (Jeff Goldblum).
“Jon actually needed it to be touchable, tangible, actual, uncooked,” added Brooks. “On the similar time, have large spectacle. The primary 40 minutes of the film is all day exterior…the brightest of vivid. And, because the stakes get increased, the darker the film will get.”
The emotional excessive factors are the Ozdust ballroom scene and the climactic “Defying Gravity” musical quantity. Within the former, Elphaba lastly will get the approval of her classmates with the assistance of Glinda in a second of redemption. Within the latter, Elphaba finds liberation in her escape from Emerald Metropolis because the Depraved Witch, tapping into her interior little one.
“Throughout the Ozdust ballroom scene, she comes down the steps and does this dance, and it’s her first reference to Glinda, and Jon needed to shoot her close-up first with none rehearsal,” Brooks stated. “And it was roughly 10 minutes [shot as a oner]: her entrance, her dance. And it finally ends up being this 360-degree shot round Elphaba. We knew they had been going to chop it up, it’s important to. It’s worthwhile to see the folks laughing at her, you want to see Glinda, in any other case you don’t have the connection. However Jon needed Cynthia to stroll down the celebrities as Elphaba and really feel everybody watching her and laughing at her.”
Then Glinda joins Elphaba within the dance to repay her kindness and sudden approval erupts all through the room. “And it ends on this second the place Elphaba has a tear drip down her face, and Glinda touches it, which isn’t scripted, and we had by no means seen them try this earlier than,” Brooks continued. “Fortunately, our digital camera operator, Karsten Jacobsen, is so good with dance. And our focus puller, Lewis Hume, pulls proper subsequent to the digital camera. It was fairly loopy.”
For the thrilling 20-minute “Defying Gravity” finale, which ends with Elphaba escaping from Emerald Metropolis on her broom, Brooks needed it to span from sundown to sunset. That meant shifting the sundown earlier to the Wizamania stage spectacle, which glows at night time. As soon as Brooks discovered the correct reference for the sundown, she started working with Pablo Helman (the manufacturing VFX supervisor from ILM) on lighting the arc of the sky, making her lamps change into the digital solar.
“When Elphaba and Glinda come up the steps, it’s simply because the solar is setting, after which she jumps off the constructing,” Brooks stated. “And, as she falls down from the very high tower of Emerald Metropolis, the place the solar’s nonetheless setting, to the underside, it will get darker and darker and darker….And that is the one sundown that falls on Glinda.
“For me, ‘Defying Gravity’ is definitely just like the end result of each single division,” added Brooks. “All of us had such ardour for telling the story and each single element is there and it needed to all work collectively.”
“Depraved” is now in theaters.