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The Wizard of Oz 13
Next comes Munchkinland. It is the most colorful sequence, I believe, that has ever been screened. In the colorful background appear the 120 midgets playing Munchkins. We combed the country to find these perfect little people, and I can only describe them as "cute." The amazing results with them, especially their musical numbers, are something not soon forgotten.
Then, there is the magic. Every one of those tricks was a pleasure to see perfected. We even had magicians to help. Baum told us that all the straw was taken out of the Scarecrow and he lay flat on the ground, that the Witch melted away after being doused with water, that this Witch appeared and disappeared in a ball of fire, but there were monkeys which could fly and thousands of other things. Our technicians didn't bat an eye ; they did what Baum described. Each success was another thrill.
Particularly outstanding in my judgment are the musical numbers and the songs. The songs are tuneful and kept up a nice spirit on the set. The lyrics are so amusing that it was difficult not to chuckle in the middle of a scene.
Lastly, I want to say that the sounds in the picture form a feature of distinct interest. The lads who went out and got those amazing sound effects from the terrific cyclone down to the most minute calls of birds gave the picture a splendid background.
(3) Harold Rosson . . . photographer: Naturally, color was the chief problem of photographers from beginning to end during The Wizard of Oz. We found it best to stick to true colors. For example, the first suggestion was to give the yellow brick road a buff tint since yellow is a hard color to manage. But buff photographed buff. We tried true yellow and got exactly what was wanted.
Chief problems were in the characters themselves, especially when there were many of them in one scene. Margaret Hamilton, as the Wicked Witch, wore black, with hands and face a bright green. We usually kept her before a dark grey background and lighted her black costume brilliantly. Jack Haley as the Tin Woodman, in shining metallic costume, had a tendency to go toward the blue, as light reflected from his outfit. We carefully straw-yellow filtered his lighting. Judy Garland's ruby slippers, with their red sequins, tended to give off sparks of reflection, hence we had to avoid any light shining on them from any angle which would project it into the camera. Billie Burke's brilliant headdress as the Good Witch presented a similar problem. And Frank Morgan's accentuated make-up as the Wizard sometimes gave us shiny cheek bones to battle with. Putting all these characters together involved much time and care in working out our angles.
Probably the most difficult set to photograph was Munchkinland, a two-acre set of tiny villages, with more than a hundred tiny homes for the midgets. It contained dozens of shades of the primary colors. We found it best to try no novel colors but to get variety in shades. The huge set used much light, in fact enough to light 550 five-room homes.