Though “Wicked” exists in a fantastical world, Nathan Crowley wished to make each set as actual as potential. The manufacturing designer, who was nominated for an Oscar in 2021 for “Tenet,” prefers a sensible method — an thought he took to an excessive when creating the magical world of Oz.
“I’m not interested in standing in front of a blue screen with a digital design,” Crowley says, talking over Zoom from London’s Pinewood Studios, the place he’s prepping “Avengers: Doomsday.” “I want to make things. I knew doing it all practically was going to be a big, big task. But that being said, I wouldn’t have missed a minute of it.”
“I knew doing it all practically was going to be a big, big task. But that being said, I wouldn’t have missed a minute of it,” Nathan Crowley says of the “Wicked” manufacturing design.
(Giles Keyte/NBCUniversal)
Crowley beforehand designed units for “The Greatest Showman” and “Wonka,” though his background is extra in motion and sci-fi than musicals. However he says he enjoys the “world-building fantasy” of the style and likes the problem of working with filmmakers to create units which can be optimized for choreography and huge musical numbers. Whereas Crowley watched the stage manufacturing of “Wicked” a number of occasions in preparation, he took extra of his visible inspiration from the 1939 traditional “The Wizard of Oz.”
“It’s two totally different formats,” Crowley says. “We are telling this alternative story to ‘The Wizard of Oz,’ and we have to be cinematic. I have to get the audience to fall into the world of Oz and not question it. The stage show is really about story, story, story, rather than design elements. I have to tell you that you’re in Oz, and you must never question it, and you must focus on Galinda and Elphaba and not the set. But you also have to allow the audience to be nostalgic, so I had to put in those memories from the stage show and ‘The Wizard of Oz.’”
The dorm room shared by Elphaba and Galinda has curved partitions with romantic home windows, and painted by hand flowers adorn the woodwork and cupboards all through the college.
(Giles Keyte/NBCUniversal)
Crowley and his staff had 5 months to prep the movie, which shot its two components on the identical time. The entire units, lots of which concerned huge backlot builds, have been constructed concurrently utilizing almost 1,000 development employees. There have been separate backlots for Munchkinland, Shiz College and Emerald Metropolis, in addition to quite a few inside set builds on soundstages. Because the movie opens on Munchkinland, the digital camera follows good rows of colourful tulips. These might have been inserted digitally, however as a substitute Crowley enlisted Mark Eves, a farmer in Norfolk, Va., to plant 9 million tulip bulbs.
“I planted 500 acres of corn for ‘Interstellar,’” Crowley says. “So I knew we could do it because I’ve done it before. And before VFX, that’s what you’d go and do. So why wouldn’t you do it for real if you could?”
Ariana Grande as Galinda and her stacks of baggage arrive at Shiz College by boat. The manufacturing staff constructed an arrival dock, a water tank and entrance courtyard for the Shiz College set.
(Giles Keyte/NBCUniversal)
Shiz College was probably the most difficult set, partly as a result of it was constructed towards a water tank that was deep sufficient to wade in. Within the movie, college students and guests arrive to the college by boat, evoking the canals of Venice. The look of the college is an amalgam of Italian, Moorish and American architectural types, with a mixing of supplies akin to plaster, cooper and wooden.
“It’s a mixing of every culture,” Crowley says. “Architects would hate me. It’s comforting, and it had to feel beautiful. The water did a lot of the work. It became very complex. By the time you hit the courtyard, which is up the stairs from the water entrance, you’re 12 or 13 feet up before you can start building the actual university. It ended up going 55 feet high with a wind-resistant structure.”
We’re telling this different story to “The Wizard of Oz,” and now we have to be cinematic. I’ve to get the viewers to fall into the world of Ouncesand not query it. … It’s essential to deal with Galinda and Elphaba and never the set. However you even have to permit the viewers to be nostalgic, so I needed to put in these reminiscences from the stage present and “The Wizard of Oz.”
— Nathan Crowley
Inside Shiz, viewers get to glimpse the dorm rooms, a number of school rooms and a really whimsical library. It was necessary to Crowley that every thing was an in depth as potential. The dorm room shared by Elphaba and Galinda has curved partitions with romantic home windows, and painted by hand flowers adorn the woodwork and cupboards all through the college. The library set, used to introduce Fiyero in “Dancing Through Life,” exemplifies Crowley’s sensible method. The manufacturing designer collaborated with particular results supervisor Paul Corbould to design and assemble three round, motorized bookcases with inner ladders that might spin whereas the actors danced inside.
“For me, it was about the introduction of Fiyero [Jonathan Bailey]. He has to be the coolest guy in town, so the fact that he gets the coolest automated set was important,” Nathan Crowley says of the rotating bookshelves Bailey and different solid danced in.
(Giles Keyte/NBCUniversal)
“It was very tough to figure out a dance number with them,” Crowley says. “But for me, it was about the introduction of Fiyero. He has to be the coolest guy in town, so the fact that he gets the coolest automated set was important. It was actually one of the first sets we built, but we didn’t shoot it until midschedule, so it was sitting there getting tested and getting worked on and getting practiced on for weeks.”
At 52 ft excessive, Emerald Metropolis was in-built an expansive backlot and was one of many few locations CGI was used to some extent.
(Giles Keyte/NBCUniversal)
One other difficult set was Emerald Metropolis, an expansive backlot construct that stood 52 ft excessive and used CGI extension to finish its glowing grandeur. For Crowley, it was one of the troublesome to design, largely as a result of filmgoing audiences are so acquainted with its silhouette.
“You always see it from afar, and I wanted to bridge the line between the distance shot and then moving into it,” he notes. “I wanted to finally connect the audience from the 1939 film, which had [the city] as a painted backdrop. It had to be the most incredible place you could ever go to. It’s like what the White City [World’s Fair] must have been in Chicago, this dream. Shiz is founded in our reality; Munchkinland is slightly less but it’s something you’re familiar with, but Emerald City had to be something new.”
Inside Emerald Metropolis, one of the spectacular particulars is the Wizard’s puppeteered mechanical head, which he makes use of to talk to his topics from behind the scenes. The staff constructed a working head for the Wizard’s throne room that was fully sensible.
The Emerald Metropolis Specific was constructed at 106 ft lengthy, 16 ft excessive and weighing 58 tons.
(NBCUniversal)
“I’m most proud of the Wizard and the Emerald City Express train,” Crowley says. “I loved being on set and seeing this giant head open and talk to you. All of the movement was done by one puppeteer, and there were hydraulics controlled by special effects because it had to be able to tilt. It was so much fun. [This film] was really about the joy of making stuff.”
