Wicked | Interview: Director Jon M. Chu - video Dailymotion

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

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00:00Wicked is a really interesting one because it marries a piece of my childhood, The Wizard

00:09of Oz.

00:12Being immersed in a world of munchkins and Emerald City, so there's a beloved center

00:18to that.

00:22To then look at it in a totally new way with Wicked, a musical that I saw before I even

00:26met to Broadway and fell in love with it, with music that I've listened to for 20 years.

00:31Never thought I'd have the chance to put it on the big screen.

00:37Knowing how the technology of cinema has gotten to a place where we can really deliver an

00:41experience that isn't just watching a movie anymore, it's actually like being in the movie.

00:53Wicked is all about these girls and their relationships and how intimate can you be.

00:58So the fact that the dynamics of a cinematic experience can go from being in awe of the

01:04scope and the landscape to being two inches from a character's face and feeling their

01:09emotions, feeling their yearning, feeling their need to prove themselves, or their need

01:14to rebel against it and say, I don't need a wizard.

01:18Don't be afraid.

01:20I'm not afraid.

01:22It's the wizard who should be afraid of me.

01:26While I do feel like all my movies have led up to this movie, it brings back all the things

01:32from the dance and the movement to song and how powerful lyrics can be.

01:38I got to pour that all into visiting this place, Oz, that is a timeless image in our

01:45heads.

01:46But this Oz isn't going to be just matte paintings and CG.

01:51It's going to be a touchable, immersive world.

01:54So we planted nine million tulips and waited for them to blossom to shoot.

01:59We built a 100-foot-long train that actually worked and a giant wizard's head that actually

02:06talks in real time with the voice.

02:08I am Oz the Great.

02:12I'm terrible.

02:14So to have all of that together at our fingertips, I had to use every tool in my toolbox to figure

02:20this one out.

02:21And so I can't wait for people to experience that all.

02:26You're the one the wizard has been waiting for.

02:30Wicked is a giant canvas and sound is 60, 75% of that because it is also a musical.

02:39Part of a musical is not just the orchestrations of the music itself, but of the vocals of

02:44our leads, Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, who brought Elphaba and Glinda the Good to

02:51life in a way that seamlessly worked with the music.

02:56I just want people to feel what it felt like to sit right next to them, to hear those voices

03:03echo around you in Dolby Atmos.

03:06Bring her to me.

03:10This is now we get to immerse the audience in all these different places.

03:14I get to put something right on top of their heads.

03:16I can put it right in their lap or I can put it in the distance.

03:21All of that is in symphony with our picture.

03:27That travel of feeling like you're there is because we got the specificity of something

03:32like Dolby Atmos.

03:33It is a giant part of this.

03:37Absolutely remarkable.

03:41Well, the world of Oz is one of the most iconic worlds of color that has ever existed.

03:48But in order to have color, shadows and light are a huge part of that.

03:54You need to be able to play in the shadows and play in the light.

03:59Dolby Cinema's using Dolby Vision to have that dynamics.

04:03You can be in a dark room and be really dark.

04:07You can have a light pierce through and feel like there's a sun there.

04:14And of course, this is about a woman who's green.

04:17So green has such a significant part.

04:21You're green.

04:24I am.

04:29To cut out that color in every scene to know where she is.

04:33And then a woman who's pink.

04:35Our themes are built into these colors.

04:38Dolby Vision allows us to paint with those extra colors that others don't.

04:47To have a palace of light like Dolby Cinema's and put up a canvas that all these great craftsmen

04:56and women can work on.

04:59To know that the details that they put on that will show up on that screen.

05:04To take an audience to another place.

05:07To see the world through another person's eyes.

05:11It makes it all worth it.

05:12And we just hope that everyone gets to feel the love that we put into this.

Wicked | Interview: Director Jon M. Chu

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