In the film Wicked, the character Elphaba, played by Cynthia Erivo, finds herself singled out among the citizens of Oz due to her green complexion and magical abilities. However, in a big-budget Hollywood production that’s more reliant on visual effects than real magic, she faces another green adversary: the technology of green-screen.
In today’s visual effects landscape, those vivid green backdrops, often called “chroma green” by digital artists, are ideal due to their stark contrast with human skin tones. This allows visual effects artists to easily isolate the green and replace it with alternative backgrounds, effectively editing out the actors and situating them in new scenes. But for Elphaba, standing in front of a green-screen backdrop could spell digital disaster, as it might just mistakenly erase her, leaving only her hat, eyes, dress, and cape to portray the iconic Wicked Witch.
As Pablo Helman, a visual effects supervisor with Industrial Light & Magic, explained in an interview with Polygon prior to the film’s release, Elphaba’s distinct coloration posed unique challenges, necessitating the use of an older method of digital replacement.
“Right from the start, it became a blue-screen project,” Helman remarks. “When you’re prepping for this, you need to gather all these screens, and we knew blue screens were the way to go.”
Helman, whose impressive VFX portfolio includes work on films like Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones and the subtle effects seen in Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman, aims to minimize reliance on these screens. “I’m not fond of using them,” he admits, “because they alter the lighting by casting a hue across the set.” This could potentially dilute the vibrancy of one of Wicked’s intricate musical scenes, where prince Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey) energetically leads Galinda/Glinda (Ariana Grande) and others in a catchy tune about the carefree life of the mindless.
“For scenes like ‘Dancing Through Life’ inside the library, a blue-screen set seemed logical since all backgrounds were inserted later,” Helman explains. “However, collaborating with Alice Brooks, the director of photography, we decided to light the scene white. This allowed us to better integrate the actors with the backgrounds while capturing what it truly feels like to be on this set.”
The desire for a bright white illumination from Brooks and Helman clashed with the blue glow that digital backdrops would have diffused throughout the sequence. This juxtaposition highlights the challenges Helman frequently encounters on movie sets, where different shot requirements can juxtapose.
“Historically, the use of green or blue screens stems from our love in visual effects for isolating elements and maintaining control,” he reflects. “But the director and production designer each want control too.”
Despite all the pre-production efforts by Helman, director Jon M. Chu (known for Crazy Rich Asians and In the Heights), and the entire filmmaking team, an unexpected issue arose on set in their quest to avoid the Elphaba-green screen conundrum.
“It wasn’t until we started filming at Shiz University in Oz that we noticed another hiccup,” Helman chuckles, “everyone happened to be wearing blue.”
