Wizard of Oz Cinema

Could you ever imagine if The Wonderful Wizard of Oz written by L. Frank Baum didn’t have a yellow brick road or an Emerald City? The colors chosen are significant and give the story a deeper meaning. Three colors that stand out in the beginning, middle and the end of the novel are gray, yellow and green. In the novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Baum’s use of color is symbolic by associating distinct colors with specific settings and characters.

Due to the success of The Wizard of Oz and other films in 1939 such as Jesse James and Dodge City, the Technicolor Corporation continued to grow. “Nineteen thirty-nine was a breakthrough year for the Technicolor Corporation. Confidence in the three-color process was such that Technicolor embarked on a $1,000,000 expansion program that included the opening of a new laboratory and office building” (Higgins, 2008). The company profit has also grow significantly since its creation. People started to realize how significant the innovation could

The second way why cinematography made the film is because the camera shots during the film were very close to one other. It did become kind of confusing many times during the film. Now you would see medium shots more than any other one during the film. There were also long shots that were shot alongside the medium shots so long shots would

The placement of a prop or altering the way the light shines on a scene, however insignificant they may seem, are ways that the director can select and control meaning in a film. Such is in The Wizard of Oz (Victor Fleming, 1939), specifically during the scene where Dorothy (Judy Galand) has been locked in the Wicked Witch of the West's (Margaret Hamilton) castle room by herself; many aspects of mise-en-scene are noticeable. Many of the elements of the scene she is in contribute to her state and other aspects of the movie. The setting and props of the film all seem to centralize to where she is and how she got there. The light focus' just on Dorothy but also amplifies the intensity of the situation she is in. The behavior of

The Wizard of Oz brought people entertainment but also had an impressing way of going from a sepia tone (dark reddish-brown tone) to a technicolor picture during the movie. But, during the time when it aired on television, many people did not have color T.V. which made it impossible for them to even notice the color change. Also, during the scene when Dorothy is looking into Munchkinland, within the picture is both a sepia tone and a technicolor shot. These frames in the film had to be painted to get the effect that there were two different worlds within the film. I find this impressive for the time. Today, mostly, you only see things in color but, having both a sepia color and actual color within the same shot seems not only very different,

This term refers to the overall look and feel of the film. Mise-en-scene compromises of what we see, hear, and experience while viewing it. Design and composition are the two major visual components. Design is the look of settings, props, lighting, and actors. Many elements play a role in shaping the overall design. The way setting, actors, and décor look can be the most powerful impression we take from viewing. A movie’s design should be appropriate to the narrative. In Selma, the design is very realistic due to using décor, costume, and makeup that resembles the original time and the choice of setting. The design in Selma provides the audience to see the actors, objects, and settings clearly within each setting. A movie set is not reality, but fragments of reality are created as the setting for a particular shot. Selma takes place in Alabama, which contributes to the reality of this film due to the fact that is where the evens that originally make up the story took place. The setting sets the mood and contributes to the cultural significance. This film takes place in a time where segregation was an issue, and Africans did not have equal voting rights as whites. Costume is another element of mise-en-scene that is present in this film. Costumes contribute to the setting and suggest specific character traits. The costume is similar to the way people dressed during the 1960’s, making the film seem

Firstly, the symbolism of colour plays a major role in expressing various emotions throughout the story. In the beginning, Dorothy sees “nothing but the great grey prairie on every side” (Baum 3); surround by grey Dorothy feels drained and unhappy. Kandinsky a Russian painter and art theorist sates “it is soundless and motionless… grey expresses a hopeless stillness” the greyness of her home life emphasizes how boring the real world can seem at times. In contrast, the Land of Oz is full of bright vivid colours and “beautiful sights” (Baum 7) representing a dream world full of adventure and excitement. As Dorothy arrives in Oz she is

The colors change as the story evolves and defines turns in the story such as when her dress turns white when she searches for the wicked witch and helps psychologically associate Dorothy as being good, protected and pure for her conflict against the wicked, good vs evil. Her dress is blue in the beginning which communicates loyalty and purpose. Once she reaches Oz its a pretty silk green dress. Green signifies growth. Additionally the closer to Oz Dorothy and her friends get- the more dark and dreary & scary their environment becomes. The forest before they reach Oz represents obstacles, fear, uncertainty and boundaries. The goggles required to enter Oz represent visual trickery and the color green represents growth. The color usage is essential for The Wizard of Oz to create it's appearance verses reality and good verses evil essence and essential to the ability to relate to evolution of Dorothy's experiences and lesson to learn. The color usage in significant symbolism is the driving force of the story in terms of interpretation of details, how they relate together and the relateability the story offers the

Soon after during the early 1930’s, the Technicolor Motion Picture Corporation released their three-color Technicolor technology. This color process needed a unique camera that split the image into three different strips of film. Then red, blue, and green filters were used to station the light to the corresponding filter, once the recording was done the strips were then developed and combined into a single color strip which was played through a projector. Technicolor introduced a whole new aspect in filmmaking. The filmmaker could provide more information to the viewer about the setting and establish a scene with the use of color. A film, that shows a great example of the use of Technicolor, was The Wizard of Oz that was released in 1939 (The

Most people are more familiar with the movie rather than the series of Baum's books. As a film, we must remember that color cinematography was in its infancy in Hollywood. In fact, Hal Rosson won an award for cinematography. Taken in context, the lushness and color saturated feel he gave to the film enhances the idea that "we're not in Kansas anymore." Some of the props and glitter may look at tad campy to a modern audience, but looking at the film in historical context allows one to be transported into Oz, a magical place of new colors, shapes, and textures done in such a realistic manner that it cannot help but improve the imaginative experience for the audience.

The image is brighter and sharper in the film. The contrast of the film really affects the mood. Since the contrast is so bright the viewer is bound to stay focused and aware because everything is so catchy and noticeable. Also, the exposure changes throughout the film. At the very beginning the film starts in black and white and changed to color as the story progressed. The filmmaker uses a lot of Long Takes, each shot of Dorothy meeting someone new is pretty lengthy.

There always seems to be some discrepancy when a film is adapted into a movie. Often times, crucial scenes, or even characters, can be left out in order to satisfy the directors’ and screen writers’ visions. Unfortunately, such changes can clearly be seen in the film adaptation of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum. The movie leaves out characters such as the Witch of the North and the queen of the field mice, but adds characters such as Professor Marvel and Miss Gulch. However, while many changes were made, there are still a few instances where this “fairy tale” novel almost directly translates into the film. One scene in particular that is closely mirrored to the novel is when Dorothy first meets the scarecrow. This scene is nearly an exact word for word adaptation including dialogue, vivid visual images for the viewer, and how point of view directs the attention of the audience.

Everything was green, thanks to the green glasses from his jokes about how to get a horse to eat sawdust. It featured me, a Kansas girl and my little dog, Toto. We were in a strange place, on a yellow brick road, to an Emerald City. "I marveled at a non-scary scarecrow, a man made out of tin parts, a cowardly lion, a wizard who is fake, and women who are all-powerful." One evening Frank was asked where they lived. He liked to say his gaze happened to fall on a file cabinet labeled A-N and O-Z. 'Oz!' was his answer. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz first appeared in 1900. Even though his book was a success he still had financial problems, which ended when he went to his publisher's office and got a check for several thousand dollars (Krull, 31). The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was and still is very popular although the book has never won any awards. The movie won eight awards including best original song for "Over the Rainbow" and best youth DVD (Corliss, "Oz

Editor Robert Wise was said to have “blended 127 different clips of film into the newsreel, some of which were actual news footage while the others were staged shots of the actors.” Later Welles was said to have “aged” these by dragging the negatives across a concrete floor.

Movies have been made ever since the 1890’s. However, there can only be one, true, best movie of all time. Everyone has their own opinion on it. I believe that The Wizard of Oz, of course the one made in 1939, is the best movie of all time because of ratings, the message it sent to people of all ages, and how well it was put together for a movie made in the early 1940’s.