Wednesday, November 27, 2024
Shiz University: How 'Wicked's Epic Oz School Was Built
variety.com: Production designer Nathan Crowley has been waiting his entire career for a film in which he could build an entire fantasy world. He found that with “Wicked.”
When director Jon M. Chu called on him to work on “Wicked” for the film adaption of the Broadway musical, Crowley’s dream came true. “Jon wanted it to be fantastical. He wanted it to be joyous.
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4 comments:
This production design is absolutely crazy. Nathan Crowley focused on the fantastical in this and brought a new life to a well-dreamed location. He stayed loyal to the foundation of the story. I found it particularly interesting with the water being used as the transportation to the university - because of course it can’t be any other method, it just wouldn’t fit into the world of Oz in the same fashion. The magic continues with every interior location. I really enjoyed Elphaba’s and Glinda’s dorm room - every detail just made sense to the characters at the moment the audience sees them, and to whatever depth. I think the best part of it all was the library with the moving circular bookcases in the Dancing Through Life number. I’d love to see the mechanics behind that! I liked the fact that he built a model first with special effects to demonstrate his ideas, like how theatrical scenic designers might build a model to show to a director.
When I saw the movie, I wondered how they did the water at Shiz University. I had remembered reading earlier about how Nathan Crowley and Jon M. Chu had wanted to rely on reality more than CGI, so I wondered if the water was real. I’m happy it was! I wonder if the boats were rigged up under the water to be controlled by automation or if they were being sailed and moved freely and live. I like that they chose water as a solution that made sense for the method of transportation, logically ruling out trains, balloons, and cars. I would have thought that water was chosen because it looked magical and gave a whimsical feel to the world, not because it was logically the only thing that made sense. I was also was impressed when I learned, in this article, about the complexities of Galinda and Elphaba’s dorm room. It really does look like the most straightforward and simple set, so it was surprising for me to learn that it was actually one of the most complicated, with mountains of automation rigged under it for all of Galinda’s cases and closets. I also liked how they worked American architecture (as well as a mix of all different cultures, which is really the essence of America) into it instead of making it look European. The final thing that I love and have paid attention to in Wicked was the accessibility on the set. It is something visible in the movie, seen alongside tons of stairs. The fact that accessibility was carefully thought out and incorporated into the sets is amazing for disabled actors and shows the commitment that Wicked had in making Marissa Bode feel comfortable. While it is not touched on in these articles and most viewers would not even notice it, it is a huge step in accessibility and acceptance in the world of film and theatre.
I love love love physical and practical sets and effects in film and TV. You can really tell the difference and the amount of charm a tactile space has. The interiors of shiz are beautiful and rich and detailed and the amount of work crowley put in has really payed off. Sets such as these in tv also help the actors connect with the space and get a good grasp on where they are and how whimsical their world is. Id love to see crowley’s mini model he built to plan everything out, and it must have been so much fun to make. Its very important in instances like these, (that being adaptions of musicals) to have physical sets. The original wicked productions were physical because they occurred with live theater. I also love how crowley took inspiration from so many places and previous architectural works. This overall production is money well spent and i think the majority of fictional movies should have physical sets.
When I saw the movie the first thought was that traveling by water channels reminded me of Venice and the school reminded me of a blend of Russian and Indian architecture. To read that the school was supposed to mimic an ivy league or school like Cambridge that was an elite educational institution with Jon saying “The big arch is there because it’s an American fairytale. I used the ‘White City of Chicago’ as inspiration.” Like that did not come through to me when watching the movie. That being said, overall I really like their sets and the grand, real nature of them. I think that must’ve been an intimidating but also really fun world-building project. Especially for a franchise as large as Wicked there are a lot of fans and judges riding on the world created for the movie and personally I found it very intricate and beautiful.
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