On Tuesday, 24 hours before one of SCAD Savannah Film Festival’s most anticipated panels, “Wicked: A First Look,” someone approached to inform that they would be in line at least an hour before. The anticipation was palpable. When “Wicked” cinematographer Alice Brooks, editor Myron Kerstein and costume designer and honoree Paul Tazewell stepped onto the stage Wednesday, they were welcomed like rock stars, with fans screaming at a deafening decibel.
Based on the crowd’s enthusiasm, Kerstein wanted to see who was Team Glinda and who was Team Elphaba. Applause wasn’t enough to distinguish the two, but a show of hands suggested the audience skewed towards Glinda. The artisans didn’t pick sides (they love them both equally), but that friction-turned-friendship between the two young witches was the filmmaker’s north star while developing the movie.
Brooks recalled her first conversations with director Jon M. Chu, who approached her as they wrapped up on 2021’s “In the Heights” to say he’d be tackling “Wicked” next. As they discussed the film’s themes, visual style and language, Chu asked what her goal for the film was.
“I said, ‘That it would be the most beautiful love story between these two women, these two best friends,” Brooks said. Set before “The Wizard of Oz,” “Wicked” follows the story of Glinda (Ariana Grande) and Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) and how the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, the Cowardly Lion and all those Ozians who Dorothy meet.
