OZ THE GREAT AND POWERFUL Production ... - Visual Hollywood

OZ THE GREAT AND POWERFUL (2013)
PRODUCTION NOTES
Kunis spent countless hours on days off with stunt coordinator Scott Rogers, who reunited with
Raimi after designing the computerized cable rigs that allowed actor Tobey Maguire to soar as Spider-Man
in the second and third installments of the filmmaker's popular trilogy.
"She's really tough," observes Rogers about Kunis' fearless approach to the required stunt work (all
of which she did herself without the safety net of a professional double). "I don't think we actually
could fly her fast enough. Everything we did, she's like 'let's go faster!' She really enjoyed it and
was a pleasure to work with. I'm trying to think of the right word to describe Mila. You know, just
'game.' She was game for whatever we did. And that instantly made our job easier."
With all four main cast members, "We first had to see if they were willing to leave the ground,"
Rogers admits. "You know, a lot of people can be adverse to being very high in the air. We were
real fortunate that everybody from James to Mila to Michelle to Rachel were all okay with us taking
them 30 feet in the air."
To perfect his high-wire act, so-to-speak, Rogers says that "we developed an apparatus that would
allow us to lift Mila, to pick up one end of the broom, or to let it out so she could pick it up, put it
under her, and take off, then rotate and fly around in a 3D space. These were technologies and theories
that had all been built upon since 'Spider-Man 2.'"
"The apparatus is called a foy," he continues in further clarifying a trick of his trade. "This foy system
has been part of filmmaking and live stage shows for probably decades. Now, this system we
used has never existed before, as far as I know. To be able to fly somebody in a 3D space back-andforth,
up-and-down, side-to-side. Also, to puppeteer the lead actress, allowing her to get on-and-off
a broom all in one open shot. It was quite an accomplishment, of which I'm very proud."
Working in 3d
"When I came on the film, the first draft of the screenplay already existed and I heard that producer
Joe Roth and the Walt Disney Studios wanted to make the film in 3D," Sam Raimi explains about
his very first foray in the digital 3D realm. "I thought it was a good idea. I think that for this project,
the fact that it introduces the audience to Baum's fantastical world and can give them a sense of dimensionality,
a sense of space, is very exciting."
Not only did the project mark Raimi's first in digital 3D, but also that for his cinematographer, another
longtime ally, Peter Deming ("Drag Me to Hell," "Evil Dead II"), who remarks that "3D is
definitely a different animal. You're working at different light levels. Your choice of lenses is much
different than for a 2D film. You're always looking for new ways to cover your scenes or maximize
the 3D in the blocking and the staging, as opposed to a 2D movie.
"In taking on the project, Sam was faced with two new ventures, 3D and digital," Deming continues.
"We talked a lot about that, about what cameras to use, about shooting in 2D and converting in
post-production, a practice called dimensionalization. Shooting on film and converting to digital.
We probably spent a month prepping and shooting tests in Los Angeles on two different 3D systems,
two different cameras, and film. And then posting all that through 2D or 3D imaging and
comparing them all.
"The camera we ultimately settled on was the Red Epic because in 3D, much like your eyesight,
you need two images to make a three-dimensional fact," the veteran cinematographer explains
about the 3D camera process. "Our eyes are fairly close together and there's no way to get two cam-
© 2013 Walt Disney Pictures
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