The Wizard of Oz

 

The Wizard of Oz

One memorable aspect of The Wizard of Oz is its use of color. Although the film was not the first to use color, its bright production design and saturated palette made it stand out. They used color in a very unique way. When she is in Kansas the film is not in color but when she is in Oz the film is in color. 

The movie was filmed with a Sepia tone film which is why the Kansas scenes are more of a brownish tint and not black and white. They chose not to add color to the Kansas scenes because it is described as colorless and filled with “the great gray prairie” in the book. There was so much attention to detail when it came to the colors they chose that it took days to pick out a shade for the color of the yellow brick road. 

In my opinion, the most interesting use of color in the film was roughly twenty minutes into the film when Dorthy opens the door to Oz. It is the first time we see the bright vibrant colors and they show the house still colorless in the background. When she opens the door, she is still colorless but as she steps out and into Oz she is now in color. There was no trick photography used to create this scene, the whole scene is actually shot in color. The inside of Dorothy’s house was painted in sepia tones, since you can’t see Dorothy’s face here, Judy Garland’s body double is used for the first half of the shot, wearing sepia makeup and clothes. As “double” Dorothy opens the door and backs out of frame, Judy Garland walks into the shot, entering the radiant, full-color set.

Different colors mean different things and symbolism with color is shown a lot through this movie. Brown is more of a depressive color which is seen in the house in Kansas. It represents the feelings of the people in Kansas who are struggling from a poor economy and a tornado. Then when she arrives in Oz Its all bright and vibrant colors, representing happiness. One color that is worth noting is the yellow brick road. Yellow symbolizes happiness and joy, so as they follow the yellow brick road, it is them on their way to happiness. There is something that each of them feels they need to be happy, so they believe at the end of the yellow brick road, they will find their happiness. 

Their use of colors was not the only interesting thing about The Wizard of Oz though. Being involved in the filming process of the movie was actually very stressful and dangerous at times. The costumes themselves were an issue. Under the hot studio lights, temperatures rose up to 100 degrees at times and the lion was forced to be in the costume during filming, making it even hotter inside his costume. Another costume that had its issues is the scarecrow. When Ray Bolger, who played the scarecrow, removed his rubber mask on the last day of filming, he had burlap scars around his mouth and chin. This was nothing compared to what Buddy Ebsen, the tin man, had to go through. According to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, he woke up screaming from violent cramping in his hands, arms, and legs. This was caused by his makeup that had aluminum powder in it, which got in his lungs. 

There was a lot of interesting things happening behind the scenes of The Wizard of Oz and it is really cool to see the amount of detail and thought that went into things like picking the colors of different things. 

Palace, Steve,“The behind the Scenes Nightmare of Making 'The Wizard of Oz'.” Thevintagenews, 31 Jan. 2023, https://www.thevintagenews.com/2023/01/27/nightmare-making-the-wizard-of-oz/.

“The Wizard of Oz and The Amazing Technicolor Process: Critics Rant.” Critics Rant | Ranting on Pop Culture, Product Reviews, Tech and More, 10 June 2021, https://criticsrant.com/the-wizard-of-oz-and-the-amazing-technicolor-process/.