Feature Film Sequence
Wicked: Defying Gravity
In Wicked’s climactic “Defying Gravity” sequence, Elphaba and Glinda ascend to the Emerald Palace’s attic, where Elphaba escapes the Wizard’s guards, gains her broom, and soars into the sky.
To achieve this, ILM extended the practical sets with CG extensions, and built a full 360° Ozian skyline with modular towers that could be moved for shot composition. Time-of-day changes were carefully managed throughout the final act, ending in a dramatic sunset.
Elphaba’s cape was a particular challenge —while on wire rigs Cynthia Erivo was unable to wear a full cape for safety reasons, so ILM digitally replaced it and often her body and hat. The cape dynamics had to be physically plausible in many different situations, while also having a directable performance, as if it was a character in its own right. Large cloudscapes were generated with green lightning timing controlled in the final composite.
Editorial constraints with the song meant that the animation of Elphaba often had to be carefully tied to the music, and digital doubles helped stitch together multiple live-action takes. Lighting teams developed dual lighting setups—one matching on-set photography and one for the digital environment—to allow the compositors to seamlessly blend real and CG elements.
The cape, key to the finale, was ultimately revealed to be an enormous 6m by 15m, paying homage to the stage show and requiring a completely separate simulation set up of its own.
CREW
Waldemar Bartkowiak, Aaron Burton, Prachi K Nagwekar, Giorgio Pennisi, Deepali Negi, Miguel Sanchez, Federico Guzzardo, Timothy Jarick, Gauri Thakur, Shidhyesh Bhogle, Emmanuele Diotti, Conny Fauser, Jonathon Sumner, Aodhan Trusselle, Alex Coble