As sometimes happens in classroom discussions, not everyone gets heard from. To allow everyone a chance to participate, I'd like to hear/read your thoughts on the reading and the questions I asked you to think about. Don't be shy and please let's get the ball rolling so this blog can be a place where we can discuss topics we may not have time to get to in class, and where people who have not had a chance yet to speak up can do so.
Over to you.
Wizard of Oz, While I was watching it, I tried to piece together how they used color to make it more 3 dimentional. Especially since the backgrounds used in the movie is all matted. There are definitly a lot of blue in the background, and all the warm colors like the red smoke from the witch or dorothy's shoes help punctuated themselved from the rest of the set. What are some of your thoughts?
ReplyDeleteBTW why a yellow brick road? does the yellow help breach the background to strong reds that appear later on?
I myself wondering about the use of red. It was mostly associated with the witch, as her crystal ball would turn red sometimes, and she would disappear in a cloud of red. The red poppies were also a spell placed by the witch. So I was thinking about red being associated with evil, but then I wondered a bit about why the ruby slippers were also red. I know they once came from an evil witch, but they were really beautiful. So did the goodness of Dorothy make the ruby slippers a symbol of good? or just magic?
ReplyDeleteIt could probably just be a symbol of magic as the wizard's color scheme is green. The wizard turned out not to have any magical powers at all, and green is the opposite of red on the sectrum of the color chart. But then again, the wicked witch is completely green.
ReplyDeleteSo how much of the colors were meant to symbolize something and how much of it was just used because of people's general acceptance of a color, such as green is related to monsters and dragons?
That's a point that I had considered Chinh Le. Those who study film know that nothing really happens by accident. There was a conscious choice to make the emerald city emerald green, but was there an intentional link between the color of the city and the witch's skin? I'm not so sure. We must also consider that color in film was still in its infancy when The Wizard of Oz was made. Granted, artists have been using color for representing emotions and ideas for centuries, but this medium was still very young.
ReplyDeleteI don't know why my name isn't displayed in the above comment, but this is Garrett
ReplyDeleteSome interesting questions raised here. I also wonder why a yellow brick road. The only cultural association I know of is the quaint expression "gold bricking" which means wasting time on the job in a lazy fashion. It may indeed be the simple reason that yellow is eye-catching and so is in keeping with the general saturated primary color scheme.
ReplyDeleteI also think the connection between the witch's green skin and the Emerald city is one worth pondering. Perhaps one point to be made is to acknowledge that the color symbolism is ambiguous or arbitrary. But also the wizard and witch are magical characters (though both dealing on some level with falsehood and illusion). Also, green is a color that symbolizes some very opposing concepts. It is life, and decay. Poison and illness, as well as youth and vitality. Some literary scholars have suggested that the Emerald City is a symbol of capitalism and greed, partly due to green's association with money (in the USA), partly due to its' being made of a precious gemstone, and the relative wealth and comfort portrayed there..