When making “Evil,” the filmmakers want to make sure that the audience sees and hears the wonders of the Wizard of Oz.
The word “pleasant” by acclaimed director Jon Chu (“crazy Asian”) is most commonly mentioned in the feature film “Wicked” that worked with the editorial team, which became a major contender for the Oscar competition even before it even debuted in November last year. The film is based on a generation-defining musical stage play of the same name, which includes music and lyrics by Grammy and Oscar-winning composer/lysist Stephen Schwartz.
Absent in Kansas: Director John Chu plays with Erivo, Ariana Grande and the crew.
“Use original touchstone [L. Frank] Baum’s Baum’Oz’ book helps us expand the world building of the Wizard of Oz in the movie,” said image editor Myron Kerstein, who has worked with Chu to produce five other films, including “tick, tick…tick…prosper! “For this, he was nominated for the Academy Award in 2022.” “At any time, the delightful meaning of the Wizard of Oz is mentioned, and we’ll try to stuff it into every frame of the movie, which will inform my choices.” ”
Myron Kerstein.
Kirsten said he worked closely with the visual effects, production design, music and sound teams to capture the darkness and comedy in the origin story of Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) and Galinda (Ariana Grande), based on the “evil” book written by Winnie Holzman, in Winnie Holzman the Winnie Holzman the Winnie Holzman the Winnie Holzman trownie Holzman trownie by Bestselling by Gregory by Gregory, he added: “It’s not a ‘Disney’ retelling’ [the stage musical] ‘evil. ‘It’s a completely immersive, emotional sublimity of experience. ”
Cinemontage had the chance to meet Kerstein and supervise voice editors Nancy Nugent Title and John Marquis as they made the final touch in the first of both films. (The second time is expected to be released in November 2025.) The team shared their favorite music sequences (they all agreed to “dance throughout life”) and discussed how they worked to bring their beloved stories to the screen. They want to know when there is no music and still get stuck. They share what they hope the audience will take away from the movie.
Cinemontage: Apart from a large scale, how does this project compare to other projects you work with Jon Chu?
Kirstan: On “Crazy Rich Asians”, I think we probably have four visual effects shots. On “evil” we have thousands of people, so the learning curve of the movie is very big. It wasn’t until I started this show that I knew about the “front vision” of “vis”. I remember visiting Wyatt Smith’s “Little Mermaid” in his editorial room and I said, “In F***, how do you do these things? I know how to cut musicals. But that…” His advice was, “Nothing changed. You’re cutting. You’re an editor, you’re building a story.” Then, I have the luxury of having two of the best visual effects vendors in the world, ILM and Framestore. Pablo Helman is my visual effects supervisor and Ed W. Marsh is my visual effects editor who guided me and taught me.
Of course, the musical aspect is another important part. I’m happy to work on films like “High Altitude” and “tick, tick… boom!”, but here I’m editing the music number, “Defying Gravity”, where Elphaba sings while flying on a broom. I’m doing a different scale. I have two incredible performers who can sing live, and I have an excellent sound mixer at Simon Hayes and they did “Les Misérables” to capture live sounds.
Marquis: This is my tenth project with Jon. I made six films, including his directed Justin Bieber “Believe” live concert tour and film documentaries about the trip, as well as a few commercials. I’ve worked with him for over 10 years and it’s amazing. I forgot that we spent a lot of time together and completed many various projects. This is one of my best experiences in the movie. So far, this is Jon’s peak. This is his storytelling type in the area, which shows all the different crafts.
Nugent Title: I think Jon made a conscious decision to develop important projects to put good things into the world, which makes the work so satisfying. Everyone in the movie puts everything in it. You can see it every day. Everyone works at the top of the game and feels strongly about it.
I started last September so we will sort out all the mastery and deliverables and it will be over a year. We’ve started on the movie First for about a year, which is a little longer than the typical one. Obviously, the strike issue will expand our timeline. I had my first conversation with Simon Hayes during pre-production, and Myron talked to us about the film before filming, so it’s been a while now.
John Marquis
Movie: Can you talk about the unique ways of working with the heads of various departments of this particular project
Kirstan: Apart from the visual work, we also need to figure out how the temperature mix of the music editor works between songs and between songs, as Jon likes to start and stop songs. He likes to build scores – John Williams meets “Harry Potter”, meets “Les Mis”, meets “Sound of Music”, and meets “Disappearance with the Wind”. I needed a team of music editors to help me find the tone, so I brought them into the movie early on to be completely temporary before Jon saw it. I wish he had a full movie before he started.
We need to avoid anything that could ruin the rhythm of the scene and take the audience away because of lyric choices or how we mix something. At the same time, we need to discover how to make the audience happy or sad. These complex connections between music and editorial are more important than any other project I have worked on.
Marquis: Even if that’s a lot of work, it flows smoothly from the page and how it shoots. From a sound standpoint, the way Myron and Jon work makes everything blend seamlessly. So, I’ve been very happy. This is not what we are trying to nail the square into the round hole. From the beginning, everything fits, it’s all about making the story better.
Nancy Nugent Title
I played some post-production roles in this movie. I and a supervisory voice editor. I was in charge of the sound design of the movie and was re-recording the effect of the blender, while Nancy handled all the conversations and ADRs. We work with Andy Nelson, who handles conversations and music when it comes to mixing.
Jon wants to be surrounded by talented people and those with vision, but the connection is much deeper than that. We are all friends; it feels almost like a family. Myron insisted on our presence in the picture department, so we set up the room there. We’ll mix there. We will have all the sound meetings inside and outside the room there. I could talk to Jack (music editor Dolman) about music tips next door, or I could bounce in Myron’s room and say, “Hey, do you mean when you talk about this?” in contrast to sending endless emails and texts and something like that. Face-to-face communication is very important.
Not every director and/or picture editor fights for it and makes sure it happens, but it’s definitely part of the agenda: it’s a team, a family, and we’re all together.
Nugent Title: We resisted this at first because we had these amazing studios at Warner Brothers, but we built remote systems there so we could go back and forth and ended up being great. I worked closely with the music department where the music editor was there. We were in the same building, so we could walk along the hall and ask, “Hey, what are we doing here? How do we get over here?”
Emerald City: Ariana Grande, the actor is “evil”.
You’ve been in conversation, and traditionally, the sound is exiled to our own position, and we accidentally get information like “Oh, a new reel appears in our inbox.” This constant conversation makes the team cohesive and useful for the film.
Cinemontage: What do you want audiences to bring to movies?
Kirstan: “Evil” is a very special movie. It’s not just a musical fantasy, [a] Skip the park. This is a movie that re-engages with the audience. Jon and I love growing up and going to movies: it’s a fulfilling, immersive experience.
Ultimately, the movie is about a relationship, it’s about the greatest love story ever. The powerful emotions that swept us made us fall in love with the movie. I think we’re capturing something in “crazy rich Asians” and I think we’re capturing some of that in “height”, but I think we do have “evil” commodities here.
Nugent Title: It’s a film about women’s power, sisterhood and the ability to be friendly and these women can accomplish together. I like that. I have two daughters. I hope when it comes out, people will walk away with a big smile.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
