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From: urban@spp2.UUCP (Mike Urban)
Newsgroups: net.movies
Subject: Re: First Color Films (Oz)
Message-ID: <561@spp2.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 25-Apr-85 18:50:25 EDT
Article-I.D.: spp2.561
Posted: Thu Apr 25 18:50:25 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 28-Apr-85 06:47:14 EDT
References: <4882@ucla-cs.ARPA> <1117@hou5e.UUCP> <1823@zehntel.UUCP>
Reply-To: urban@spp2.UUCP (Mike Urban)
Organization: TRW, Redondo Beach  CA
Lines: 24

In article <1823@zehntel.UUCP> jackh@zehntel.UUCP (jack hagerty) writes:
>
>TWoO was shot that way because that's the way Frank Baum (sp?) wrote
>the story. He described Kansas as being "gray, gray, gray. The towns
>were gray, the houses were gray and the people were gray." Now I ask
>you, is that a perfect setup for a b&w segue into color or what!
>
Well, that's not a literal quote, but "gray" occurs something like eight
times in the first two paragraphs of the book.  On the other hand,
the Kansas scenes weren't made to be shown in black and white (gray),
but were originally shown tinted in a brownish gray called "sepia".
Nowadays (on TV or in re-release) they don't bother tinting these scenes,
so they look gray.  In the first few editions of the book (and in 
more recent facsimile editions) the illustrations in the Kansas
chapters are black and white and gray, while the illos for the Oz
sections are in the appropriate colors for the Oz geography (blue
for the Munchkin Country, etc.) so the way they did it in the MGM
film was particularly appropriate.
-- 

   Mike Urban
	{ucbvax|decvax}!trwrb!trwspp!spp2!urban 

"You're in a maze of twisty UUCP connections, all alike"