Something Wicked this way came last month, bringing joy to audiences and, in turn, the box office. The film has resonated with critics and viewers alike thanks to that elusive alchemy of tangible and intangible elements that contribute to a hit of this magnitude. Those elements include acting, a stirring story and soundtrack, the magic of musicals accentuated by live vocals, inspired choreography, and other world-class lively arts ranging from cinematography to editing, production design, costume design and more.
But perhaps most essential to the film’s success is the friendship that develops at Shiz University between the two lead characters–Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) and Glinda (Ariana Grande)–as they grow into their respective roles as the infamous “Wicked Witch” and the beloved “Good Witch.”
And in some respects, that strong bond between protagonists, which makes Wicked work, is akin to and perhaps facilitated by the friendship among the filmmakers who teamed to tell the story. Cinematographer Alice Brooks, ASC said she’s “incredibly grateful” for her deep friendship and working relationship with director Jon M. Chu, which dates back some 23 years when she shot his thesis film, the musical short When the Kids Are Away, at USC cinema school. Brooks and Chu developed a creative rapport, a mutual trust, and laid the foundation for what would become an enduring friendship. In a 2020 SHOOT Chat Room interview, Chu called Brooks “one of my favorite people in the world.” From the outset, they also shared a love of musicals, though studios weren’t making them at the time. Still, they harbored the hope that some day they could come together on a musical in the real world. And after a stretch apart after film school, Chu and Brooks reunited for The Legion of Extraordinary Dancers, a breakthrough web reality series in which dance became a battleground between good and evil.
Brooks’ next project with Chu also had a rich undercurrent of music as they adapted the 1980s’ animated series Jem and the Holograms for the big screen. The live-action feature centered on a small-town singer/songwriter who makes it big but at a personal cost. She and her three sisters are made over, coached and managed into stardom as a band. Their real identities remain secret as the strain of celebrity sets in and adversely impacts family ties.
After a departure from music and dance which saw Brooks and Chu team on the Apple TV+ series Home Before Dark, the two colleagues returned to their musical roots by taking on In the Heights, a feature based on the stage musical of the same name by Quiara Alegria Hudes and Lin-Manuel Miranda. In the Heights featured 17 musical numbers.
Based on their positive experience together on In the Heights, Miranda then selected Brooks to shoot his feature directorial debut, tick, tick…Boom!–a musical about a musical, paying tribute to the late, great “Rent” creator Jonathan Larson.
Then another Broadway hit, “Wicked,” had to be translated from stage to screen–a golden opportunity which Chu afforded his trusted colleague, Brooks. And while that adaptation entails music, cinematography, a mesh of art and technology, the emphasis during extensive prep time, affirmed Brooks, was “emotion.” That’s what she and Chu are constantly discussing–”yearning,” “loneliness,” “passion,” “power” and “friendship.” Those one-word descriptions, continued Brooks, became “my road map,” a navigation that is all the more essential when shooting two films simultaneously–a scene from Part 1 of Wicked followed by a scene from Part 2, for example. Knowing where she is supposed to be emotionally for each scene, said Brooks, has proven invaluable. “From that emotion I can create anything.” It’s as if Brooks is an actor. She observed that Chu talks to her as if the camera were an actor. He gives the camera an intention which she in turn shares with her crew, helping to put them on the same storytelling page.
Emotion, continued Brooks, drives the technical decisions. “My goal is that this [Wicked] will be the greatest, most beautiful love story ever told between these two women.” That objective is what propels her camera movement, lack of camera movement, lighting for intimate moments as well as for doing justice to massive sets, the product of ambitious world building on 17 sound stages and exterior backlots.
Chu and Brooks went with the ARRI Alexa 65 to capture the scale and scope of the worlds created while retaining the personal intimacy needed. Dan Sasaki of Panavision developed a set of lenses referred to as the “Unlimited” due to the unlimited possibilities they would open up for the movie. (The lenses ultimately evolved into what became known as Ultra Panatar 2s.)
Friendship and years of creative collaboration were not confined to the relationship between Brooks and Chu. Both the director and DP enjoy a longstanding bond with such artisans as choreographer Christopher Scott and editor Myron Kerstein, ACE. Brooks, Chu and Scott have been working colleagues for some 15 years since The Legion of Extraordinary Dancers. For Wicked, Chu, Brooks and Scott shot dance rehearsals on iPhones, experimenting visually and laying the groundwork for inspiring music and dance sequences.
The friendship and shared sensibilities further extend to Kerstein who edited In the Heights as well as Crazy Rich Asians for Chu. Kerstein also worked on the aforementioned Home Before Dark with director Chu who also served as an exec producer on the series. Additionally Chu gave Kerstein the chance to direct an episode of Home Before Dark. Meanwhile, the editor’s collaborations with Brooks include Home Before Dark, In the Heights, and Miranda’s tick, tick…Boom!
Kerstein expressed a heartfelt affinity for Chu and Brooks. The editor said his “whole life has changed” for the better thanks to Chu with whom he enjoys “a bromance, a beautiful friendship.” Kerstein added that Chu took a leap of faith when he gave him the editing gig on Crazy Rich Asians. A mutual colleague connected Kerstein with Chu who had seen the editor’s work, perhaps most notably on Garden State.
Kerstein said that he found in Chu “a kindred spirit” as the two are simpatico “in how we approach footage, how we like to make things, and in the messages we like to put out to the world.”
The editor’s experience with Chu has been an ongoing education. Home Before Dark honed Kerstein’s TV skillset as he adapted to the accelerated pace of the series format. And Kerstein valued the learning curve on his first musical with Chu, In the Heights. The scope of that film put Kerstein in good stead when it came to taking on Wicked, which was of a considerably larger scale, deploying major visual effects and world building.
Like Brooks, Kerstein observed that Chu is expert on giving collaborators an emotional handle on a project. Kerstein recalled that Chu gave him a couple of such handles for Wicked, describing it as The Wizard of Oz meets Lord of the Rings and “a great love story” between Elphaba and Glinda. Having those descriptions in his mind, said Kerstein, served “ultimately like a compass” as he worked on Wicked.
And while Chu has a strong vision for the films he directs, Kerstein noted that as an editor he is given the freedom to make his own discoveries that otherwise he couldn’t find if the director were dictating how to construct something. Kerstein added that Chu embraces those discoveries which only come about due to the director trusting his editor’s sensibilities and allowing him the freedom to explore and to have “my own voice as an artist.”
Kerstein feels that same rapport with Brooks whom he’s worked with on not only Wicked but also In the Heights, Home Before Dark and tick, tick…Boom! For the latter he and fellow editor Andrew Weisblum earned a Best Editing Oscar nomination. Kerstein regards Brooks as his “sister” and Chu as his “brother.” Kerstein values input and feedback from both on the editing, noting that they serve as “each other’s cheerleaders” but at the same time are always “honest about the footage.” He added that the conversation about how things could be made better continued all the way throughout the process of making Wicked. Kerstein observed that it can be “lonely” and you can feel “isolated” in the edit room. Thus, he affirmed, it’s precious to have Chu and Brooks make you feel throughout the process that you are on “a journey” together.
Kerstein noted that he came to appreciate how much the Wicked story means to people, how deeply connected they are to the characters. “I got a sense of this,” he said, “when I saw ‘Wicked’ on the Broadway stage,” which was when Broadway reopened after the pandemic. Kerstein said that was among the most “incredible” and “visceral” experiences he had ever had in the theater. The experience also reinforced for him a sense of purpose to do justice to the narrative in the feature film adaptation–to make sure that “the joy and wonder” of Wicked were conveyed for all to share.
This is the sixth installment of our weekly 16-part The Road To Oscar Series of feature stories. Nominations for the 97th Academy Awards will be announced on Friday, January 17, 2025. The 97th Oscars will be held on Sunday, March 2, 2025.
