If you love digging into the craft of lensing musical storytelling, this is a beautiful deep dive. DP Alice Brooks walks through the cinematography of Wicked and Wicked: For Good, explaining how she and Jon M. Chu built a visual language centered on touch, color, and emotional contrast, and why she developed custom 1.3x anamorphic lenses specifically for the film.
Watch the breakdown here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Itlc6zwP7Ik
She breaks down how she kept Ariana Grande’s Glinda and Cynthia Erivo’s Elphaba on 65mm and 75mm “hero lenses” to subtly anchor their identities, and how the story’s major tonal shift, from the daylight optimism of film one to the shadowed, hidden world of film two, shaped framing, blocking, and color temperature throughout.
One of the most fascinating parts is her explanation of shooting “For Good” entirely with real flame as a key light. Brooks shares how their torches created a Renaissance-like warmth, the technical challenges of low-light capture (especially with reflective fabrics and Elphaba’s textured wardrobe), and how they redesigned the lighting plan over a weekend to re-shoot the climactic 360° shot after realizing the original crane move didn’t carry the emotion.
She also walks through:
• Shooting both films simultaneously and navigating massive tonal shifts
• Developing prototype anamorphics with Dan Sasaki over two years
• How color theory shaped character arcs — blue for love, orange for transformation
• Balancing moonlight, flame, and reflective costume textures
• Creating a true emotional goodbye by filming both actresses together for the final split screen
It’s a masterclass in how cinematography supports character, theme, and musical storytelling, especially when working at the scale of an Alexa 65 production.
If you’ve watched the breakdown, I’d love to hear your thoughts: What stood out to you the most, the lens philosophy, the color symbolism, or the real-flame lighting approach?
Thanks for sharing the video, . The color symbolism stood out the most. I haven't seen the movie, and I didn't know color is important in it. I used to pick random colors for things in my scripts, but I started using color symbolism a while back. I also use objects, weather, etc. to symbolize things. And I thought of something while watching the video. I can use the size of an object/setting to symbolize something.