Buffy the Vampire Slayer: “Flooded” (2001) Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith (2005) Doctor Who: “The Poison Sky” (2008) Black Panther (2018) Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)
One of my favorite stunts ever executed in a movie is so simple yet incredibly groundbreaking and it’s in The Wizard of Oz when Dorothy opens the door to reveal a full-color world.
The Wizard of Oz starts out in black & white — standard of the time and what people were used to.
But then after Dorothy lands and opens the door, she reveals not only the magical land of Munchkinland but also the magic of technicolor in one single shot.
Since technicolor was not very widely available prior to the Wizard of Oz’s release, for many people it would be the first time they were ever seeing a moving picture in color. What better way to pull it off than in a big reveal like that? Fantastic! I know by today’s standards this doesn’t seem like a lot for a movie, but this was a great trick given the technology they had. What a special way to bring some magic to audiences, especially in a time when things were really down in America during the Great Depression.
ALSO
ALSO
This is the greatest special effect you never knew you were looking at.
The celluloid used as film at the time was thick and brittle. Splicing it was basically impossible. How to go from sepia Kansas to technicolor Oz? This was a problem that nearly sank that amazing reveal shot.
Until some crewmember said “why not just film it all in color and paint Kansas brown?”
That’s right. THAT WHOLE THING IS COLOR. ALL OF IT. Bobbi Koshay (Judy Garland’s body double) has been put in brown makeup to hide the pink of her skin. That dress isn’t blue and filmed in sepia, it’s an identical brown dress. The furniture? All painted brown. The walls and door were painted to match their color on the Kansas film rolls....a daunting task, because film at the time came out so incredibly dark that those lush Ruby Slippers were almost orange in real life, just to get that deep red color. (Early tests with actually-red shoes came out black rather than red!)
And it was done so well and so expertly that the only way to tell it’s even there is to get one of the 1970s or TNT prints where Kansas is black and white instead of sepia-tone (since the painted “sepia” will be out of place).
Today we could do this with a click of a button. Back then they had to invent a whole new set.
Drink your “respect the SFX crew” juice today!
That’s so cool to know!
My mom likes to tell the story of when they first got a color TV in the late 50s or early 60s, and Wizard of Oz came on, and they were so excited to see it in color. They were so disappointed when the beginning was in B&W... and then the reveal happened, and they were totally delighted.
This effect also echoes a significant theme of the first Wizard of Oz book. These are the second, third, and fourth paragraphs of the first chapter:
When Dorothy stood in the doorway and looked around, she could see nothing but the great gray prairie on every side. Not a tree nor a house broke the broad sweep of flat country that reached to the edge of the sky in all directions. The sun had baked the plowed land into a gray mass, with little cracks running through it. Even the grass was not green, for the sun had burned the tops of the long blades until they were the same gray color to be seen everywhere. Once the house had been painted, but the sun blistered the paint and the rains washed it away, and now the house was as dull and gray as everything else.
When Aunt Em came there to live she was a young, pretty wife. The sun and wind had changed her, too. They had taken the sparkle from her eyes and left them a sober gray; they had taken the red from her cheeks and lips, and they were gray also. She was thin and gaunt, and never smiled now. When Dorothy, who was an orphan, first came to her, Aunt Em had been so startled by the child’s laughter that she would scream and press her hand upon her heart whenever Dorothy’s merry voice reached her ears; and she still looked at the little girl with wonder that she could find anything to laugh at.
Uncle Henry never laughed. He worked hard from morning till night and did not know what joy was. He was gray also, from his long beard to his rough boots, and he looked stern and solemn, and rarely spoke.
And then the third paragraph of chapter 2:
The cyclone had set the house down very gently—for a cyclone—in the midst of a country of marvelous beauty. There were lovely patches of greensward all about, with stately trees bearing rich and luscious fruits. Banks of gorgeous flowers were on every hand, and birds with rare and brilliant plumage sang and fluttered in the trees and bushes. A little way off was a small brook, rushing and sparkling along between green banks, and murmuring in a voice very grateful to a little girl who had lived so long on the dry, gray prairies.
The movie found the best possible way to capture that sense, in the book, of escaping a vast, oppressive monochrome landscape into a world of brilliant color.
unpopular opinion: sometimes... fandom isn't that important. sometimes fandom isn't "that deep" to someone. sometimes people don't interact within the fandom and like to watch from afar. sometimes people just want to look at cool art or read cool fanfics, and that's it.
let's normalize fandom being a hobby or an interest and not a lifestyle. normalize taking a step back, taking time off and disconnecting from fandom without feeling bad. it's okay and healthy to prioritize yourself over media instead of consuming it 24/7. it's okay to set boundaries and enjoy something the way you need.
thinking about this exchange
OH MY GOD
YA books: There are 2 boys, the protagonist girl HAS to date one, but how can she choose? They are so incredibly different in every way!
The boys:
Still blows my mind how quickly capitalism self-destructed streaming tv
Like netflix rejuvenated a dying market and made it way more afforadable and accessible, and then... everyone needed a slice of the pie and fucked the whole thing up
Incredible
An actual genius: What if we made television convenient and inexpensive again?
Corporations: What if we milked this money cow until it fucking DIED
aint this the fucken truth
Myth: Trans rights are not human rights
Status: BUSTED
That picture of Elliot Page looking up at Lavern Cox at the GLAAD awards is so much better now
Two trans icons
i’m glad several other people also were like “who is elliot page? idk good for him though on adopting he/they pronouns” and then like googled him and went “OH!!!! I LOVE ELLIOT!!!!!! SO HAPPY FOR HIM!!!!!!!!” like glad that was universal
you better watch out. you better watch out. you better watch out. YOU BETTER WATCH OUT.
new tumblr users:
old tumblr users:
i have never seen a more accurate photos set
Roberts Wohnung aus Verwünscht!
Das nächste Grundstück für mein Savefile: Disneyworld!
Hier geht’s zum Video: https://youtu.be/_AtYP64loVw
Das Grundstück könnt ihr in der Gallerie unter dem Hashtag #simplayhannah downloaden. (CC free)
And now, for no reason whatsoever, a theory none of you needed:
Giselle (Enchanted) ran away from/was thrown out of her family.
My proof:
- We never see anyone else living in her small cottage.
- The cottage is in the woods and is visited by woodland animals, just like in Snow White, who only ended up in her cottage because she was forced to flee her home.
- I mean, she’s a pastiche of the Disney princesses, most of whom have less-than-ideal relationships with their parents (if their parents aren’t outright dead).
- It gives more depth to her motivation. She doesn’t want to marry Edward just for romance; she wants to marry him because she’ll have a true family and experience true love.
- Out of all of the things that she romanticizes in the movie, when Robert admits that Morgan’s mother left, Giselle gets serious and genuinely says, “I am very sorry for you both.”
- “So is this what it’s like?” “What, sweetie?” “Going shopping with your mother?” “Oh, I don’t know. I’ve never been shopping with my mother.” “Me either.” “But I like it.” “Me too.”
- On that note, it makes it much more poetic and beautiful if all three of these characters had been hurt by their family in the past and came together to be a new family and live happily ever after and god this movie is severely underrated: