Talk about a gargantuan task. The feature take on Broadway musical Wicked, which is split up into two theatrical releases, had a first cut that was close to four hours long. Part 1 of Jon M. Chu’s 10-times Oscar-nominated movie was whittled down to 2 hours and 40 minutes. How long Part 2 is still TBD.
“It was a long movie,” Oscar-nominated editor Myron Kerstein said at Deadline’s Contenders Film: The Nominees virtual panel. “And then of course, the second movie that was also assembled, so were able to watch both parts at the same time to inform us, the bigger story we’re telling and whether it should be one or two movies.”
Kerstein added, “That first cut didn’t have ‘Defying Gravity’ due to the strike.” That’s the big show-stopping climax number from Cynthia Erivo’s Elphaba.
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Given that situation, in post there was an animated Elphaba in place singing the hit song from the Stephen Schwartz stage musical. “It was not a mess but an unfinished foundation of what the movie wanted to be,” Kerstein said
When it comes to working with Chu, many of our panelists had collaborated with the filmmaker previously. That includes the Oscar-nominated sound team of Nancy Nugent Title (supervising sound editor and sound designer), John Marquis (supervising sound editor and sound designer, re-recording mixer) and Andy Nelson (re-recording mixer), the key remains getting into the director’s head and understanding the emotional arc of the movie.
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“Jon has a clear idea of what he wants to convey emotionally,” Title said.
“If you don’t at least get a handle on what your doing emotionally, then the rest of it is going to fall apart,” Kerstein added about the heart of Wicked.
The assumption with a musical is that it all needs to be big sound turned to 11, but it’s the quiet moments in between that prop up the bigger, bombastic ones. Such interludes were essential in propping up the quintessential “Defying Gravity” sequence. Kerstein loves having the sound team nearby when cutting, “whispering in your ear as it really informs how you edit something.”
The sound team also talks about the challenges in recording live vocals on set.
With more than $722M at the global box office, Wicked is the biggest feature take of a Broadway musical ever. The film also broke records at home with the biggest first-week ever on PVOD for Universal at north of $70M.
Check back Monday for the panel video.
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