ARTICLES AND INTERVIEWS: 1. SYNOPSIS In 1960s Detroit, a good night onstage can get you noticed but it won't get your song played on the radio. Here, a new kind of music is on the cusp of being born – a sound with roots buried deep in the soul of Detroit itself, where songs are about more than what's on the surface, and everyone is bound together by a shared dream. 2. ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS DREAM: BRINGING THE LEGEND TO LIFE "Dreamgirls" was an anomaly when it came to life on the Broadway stage in the early 1980s directed by Michael Bennett. While visually the play was unlike anything ever attempted on Broadway, it was the intense human drama and moving, show-stopping songs that redefined musical theater for the era. 3. LISTEN: WRITER-DIRECTOR BILL CONDON ADAPTS THE BOOK The original Broadway production of Dreamgirls was 'one of those experiences you never forget,' Bill Condon remembers. 'The story of the crossover success of African-American music during the 1960s resonates more than ever today, when African-American culture almost defines the mainstream.' 4. WHEN I FIRST SAW YOU: SINGING AND DANCING IN DREAMGIRLS Despite the enormous effect the original Broadway production had on Condon, for the film, he wanted to both honor the R&B sound of the '60s and '70s while infusing the music itself with contemporary flavor. 5. CADILLAC CAR: PRODUCTION DESIGNER JOHN MYHRE CRAFTS A 'DREAMGIRLS' UNIVERSE From the beginning, Condon's vision for Dreamgirls was a fully realized, grittily real world in which the fable – so infused with the stuff of dreams – could unfold. 6. I AM CHANGING: THE LIGHT AND COLOR OF AN ERA THROUGH TOBIAS SCHLIESSLER'S LENS Bil Condon wanted to tell the story of Dreamgirls through a palpably real lens, with all the imperfections intact. Therefore, director of photography Tobias Schliessler's cinéma vérité-infused style carried over from the football epic "Friday Night Lights" brought precisely the kind of grit he wanted. 7. LOVE YOU I DO: THEATRICAL LIGHTING BY JULES FISHER & PEGGY EISENHAUER As a counterpoint to the realistic approach taken with live action sequences for the musical numbers, Condon wanted to bring back all the glamour and fireworks that galvanized the original production. 8. JIMMY'S RAP: COSTUMES, MAKEUP AND HAIR Oscar-nominated costumer Sharen Davis's challenge was to produce clothes that would evoke a sense of period but not exist merely as reproductions of the clothing of the '60s and '70s eras. 9. AND I AM TELLING YOU I'M NOT GOING: THE LEGACY OF "DREAMGIRLS" The music of the '60s and early '70s gave voice to a society in the throes of a revolution. When the sound of Motown began its saturation of the airwaves, it became the soundtrack for the Civil Rights movement breaking its way through the sheen of superficial Americana.

I AM CHANGING: THE LIGHT AND COLOR OF AN ERA THROUGH TOBIAS SCHLIESSLER'S LENS

"I am changing.
Seeing everything so clear.
I am changing.
I'm gonna start right now right here."

Bil Condon wanted to tell the story of "Dreamgirls" through a palpably real lens, with all the imperfections intact. Therefore, director of photography Tobias Schliessler's cinéma vérité-infused style carried over from the football epic "Friday Night Lights" brought precisely the kind of grit he wanted. "We were going for an urban, gritty look," describes producer Mark. "Everything in this film, in a way, is choreographed. A musical, particularly this one, is about movement – not just of bodies, but of cameras, lights, sets, even storylines and character trajectories. The camera has its own moves, Tobias' cinematography has its own music."

"I was excited by the visual possibilities of this film," says Schliessler. "The realism leapt out at me when I first read the script. I hadn't even thought of it as a musical during that first read. I saw indications that the characters were singing, but it read to me that it was just dialog between characters. So, we wanted to keep it as real as possible, but still include the magic of a musical."

The department heads all collaborated closely with Condon on representing the arc of fame, and the level of success attained by the core group of people in the film, for his part, Schliessler set out to let the raw feeling in the beginning of the film to give way to more stylization as the story progresses. When the group transforms – as Effie is cast out, replaced by Michelle – a schism occurs in the look of the film between the two parallel stories. "The break between Effie and The Dreams breaks the photographic style as well," explains Schliessler. "In general, earthy colors for Detroit in the '60s and '70s, and pastel colors for '70s California."

There was also the added challenge of creating naturalistic bridges between the gritty real world cinematography and the stylized musical sequences. "The camera should move naturally without being too obvious, but you have to let the audience know, through camera work and elsewhere, that they are also in a different world," Schliessler explains.

To map out the camerawork for the musical numbers in particular, Condon and Schliessler took advantage of the breakthrough previsualization ("pre-viz") process commonly used in films with heavy visual effects components. They executed rehearsal runs with three video cameras to predict how a number would play out with motion picture cameras rolling and fine-tuned the results. Storyboards were then incorporated into the live-action foortage, along with sections of dialog in voiceover , giving Condon and his team a head start in not only shooting but editing complete sequences.

"This pre-production exercise provided all of us with a better understanding how to transition in and out of musical numbers," says Editor Virginia Katz. "We were able to see where the greatest challenges are and were also inspired to see how a given sequence would ultimately manifest itself."