A Technical Review of WICKED! (Directing, Color & Art Direction)

[@arbyswitch5580]

What's up with all these people clicking on a video entitled "a technical review of wicked! Directing, color, art direction" and then being upset when you like...review the directing, color and art direction using technical language as the analytical framework for your video... I really appreciate the conciseness with which you presented your review. I'm watching a lot of folks' responses to the film so i can manage my expectations and have the best experience i can. Knowing that the color grading is drab before i park my ass in a movie theatre seat for nearly three hours will help avert the disappointed i would inevitably feel when the wizard of oz prequel movie looks like washed out doodoo

[@SashaFierceBadass]

I did really enjoy all of it, but I might be biased since The Wizard of Oz and Wicked was a very big part of my childhood so I did not really care about color theory or composition (as I usually do with other movies)… either way I really liked your video!! Your analysis of everything is so good

[@AlyxaHellman]

I get you. If you just enjoy it for what it is, it’s a fun and well casted film (that’s how I felt with Challengers)! Happy you liked it 😊 And thank you!

[@madhuvjk]

Really interesting notes on the art style and direction here, but notching it down to 3.5 seems heavy handed imo! I did notice the lack of visual contrast in the film, but I think one of the biggest problems was that compared to the original play, Glinda was portrayed very heavy handedly on screen to a point where it didn’t even seem like the focus was on Elphaba, only for them to forcibly drag it back to Elphie because of the plot. There was a lot of camera time for Ariana and Cynthia’s didn’t command the camera.

[@AlyxaHellman]

@@madhuvjk That’s a really great point! I do agree with that, though I do think Cynthia did the best she could with the dialogue she had.

[@lightingisfun]

Interesting comments on the blocking. I haven’t seen it yet but caught some trailer on Twitter and was trying to figure out why the musical shots felt so off. It’s like too much floor space or an odd feeling of distance to the background characters in the shots. Also feels like a bit of a perspective challenge or maybe some subtly bad color grading choices between the real and virtual set elements in the shots.

[@josephgarner94]

Wow color and cinematography have a huge weight on your overall view of film. In fact, I was genuinely surprised at the end when you said we should definitely see it after you complained about it for 11 minutes 😅. You have every right to your opinions but if this movie wasn’t colorful enough for you, I’m curious what is? As far as color goes does it need to be the Greatest Showman, La La Land, or Willy Wonka otherwise it’s a bust? I just saw it in 3D and I was blown away by the vivid greens, pinks, saturated iridescent purples and blues, not to mention the literally rainbow feilds of flowers they actually planted and grew for munchkin land. I guess I’m just surprised this is a critique anyone had for this film.

[@AlyxaHellman]

@@josephgarner94 Yes, visual elements like color & the cinematography should have a huge weight on any film that’s adapted because the story is already guaranteed to be good. The only reason you’re changing the mediums is to now make it as visually best as you can, given the limitation of a Broadway stage. I think given the comparisons, it’s safe to say the film is objectively bleak-er, and not well directed for such a hyped about musical. But yes, I did say go see it because while it may be visually lackluster (in my opinion), it was funny, fun and obviously had amazing songs :-)

[@Career_Concepts]

Loved the movie all in all! Only thing I agree was the filter or bleak look sometimes. It has to do with something to do with cgi?

[@TheAdventurerFinn]

It was amazing. Enjoy your clicks

[@arbyswitch5580]

A really cool thing about being a person is that we're all individuals and are permitted to have differing opinions.

[@jojococoa]

Disagree completely on your critiques of story. you haven't seen the musical. but I agree the colors were pastelified and muted and he didn't fill the screen properly.

[@arbyswitch5580]

Hey, if a film's narrative cannot be analyzed without context provided by other materials, the film has done a bad job of conveying its story and message 😊

[@gjford1951]

I enjoyed this review.

[@Pjbfrrr]

Really cool video

[@MM-bw1lo]

Weird review who wants hot pink all over the whole movie. It's like you want a LaLa Land in a movie that's a movie that has been around for ages. Wicked was colorful af but you're tearing it apart on personal bias alone due to older content you saw in other musicals. As someone who's never seen the play, I enjoyed it because we've all seen the original movie and this isn't the original, it's an origin story to get you to towards the original. I can't wait for part 2 because that's when it really goes down. How about you make your own version, we'd all like to sit around eating popcorn and nitpicking it as well.

[@AlyxaHellman]

@@MM-bw1lo La La Land and the Greatest Showman are barely 8 years old and perfectly colored. West Side Story also came out 3 years ago. I wouldn’t consider those older, but to your point: yes old technicolor films - including the Wizard of Oz - are infinitely more colorful than Wicked. To my point, it’s not all about the color but it *is* all about the visuals, and they are objectively lackluster. I agree though, I’m excited for Part 2. It’s a fun story and as I said, I like the music!

[@arbyswitch5580]

​@@AlyxaHellman yeah how weird of you to want a film that pays homage to a famously technicolor film/world to maybe like...have vivid colors (im joking, i actually agree with you. I think it's fuckin weird that these people dont understand that its weird on a design level to set your movie in a technicolor land and then turn up the grays...)

[@isaiahdesmond]

great review! loved your mise en scene analysis 👏🏾

[@AlyxaHellman]

Thank you so much! :-)

[@celiner7400]

I thought it was just alright. The rotten tomato score is too high lol not a big fan of the cinematography, lighting, and the singing. Couldn’t feel any emotion from the songs with how they sang them, especially defying gravity.

[@AlyxaHellman]

I totally agree!

[@elizabethastage]

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[@elizabethastage]

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