Wicked | Featurette: Cinematographer Alice Brooks - video Dailymotion

At university, the awkward Elphaba befriends the popular Galinda and practices sorcery in the hopes of meeting her idol, the Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

Transcript

00:00I've been attracted to light since I can remember.

00:07Light to me is everything.

00:09In Wicked, the light is actually the darkness, and the darkness is the light.

00:14All through movie one, the pink sun rises for Glinda, and the sun is always setting

00:21for Elphaba.

00:24Every lighting choice, every camera choice, lens choice, was all about how does it feel

00:30to find your best friend in the world and then be pulled apart.

00:38Every scene has a feeling that I need the audience to get.

00:42That relationship between what's in the frame and movement is such a huge part of the language.

00:47And not just movement of what's in front of the camera, it's movement of the camera itself.

00:53What I love about our anamorphic lenses was that we were able to burst out into the colorful

00:59world of Oz, be in these huge, beautiful landscapes, also making it feel completely organic.

01:07At the same time, be able to do these intimate, intimate close-ups with Glinda and Elphaba.

01:14We could be so close to them, and they could look right in the lens, and you could feel

01:18their connection.

01:21Whatever way to get there, for us to feel anything for these characters, that's where

01:24we should be going.

01:25So we had some big shots in there that really allow you to sit into the set, because it's

01:30a giant set.

01:31I've never seen a set bigger than this.

01:34Great dance numbers and beautifully orchestrated choreographed scenes where the camera just

01:41has these lyrical, huge, sweeping crane moves.

01:47I think we all were allowed to dream bigger than any of us had ever dreamed before, and

01:54we were invited to do that and asked to push our imagination to the absolute maximum.