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ADAMSTAR PICTURES
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The making of THE WIZARD OF OZ: Dorothy in Kansas
The following are excerpts from Mark’s book TRULY INDEPENDENT FILMMAKING; The Spring Musical at
Barton County Community College took place the first week of March, and we were
not able to begin shooting until after the cast was chosen in December. Because
we were filming in January and February, many of the Kansas scenes had to be
shot as interiors of a barn since we were in the middle of winter. We wanted the
authenticity of shooting on a real farm, rather than building a ‘farm set’,
plus Barton Drama Instructor Bob Loss and his crew of student set builders
couldn’t build a farm on stage in time to shoot, plus build the complicated
sets needed for the Oz sequences. We used two locations for Dorothy’s farm;
the house belonged to my boss, Dick Wade, on the north end of Great Bend, and
the concrete barn belonged to Steve and Glenna Gaunt south of town. By clever
shooting and editing, I could make them look like one location. Ultimately, the
first two days of shooting in the barn were colder than expected. We chose a
barn with the floors and walls made entirely out of concrete for several
reasons. It had electricity, which was needed for the lighting equipment. It was
relatively close to town, as oppose to some barns we were told about that were a
lot farther away. Most barns in the area were made out of metal, and this was a
period piece, circa 1939. Those barns that were made out of wood were either
falling apart, or had no electricity. And the concrete barn (which was
originally horse stables built in 1909) looked good, in terms of the right
period, and had nice open spaces and lofts in which to work. The first day of
shooting in January, however, we discovered that the concrete stayed cold, even
as the temperature rose outside. Bob Loss brought a propane heater, and the cast
huddled around the blower drinking hot chocolate, as I worked with the camera
and lighting. We would rehearse the scenes with everyone wearing coats and
blankets, and record takes after the actors shed their warm clothing. Even Toto
(Mitzi) showed up the first day wearing a sweater.
Sam Wright remembered the
weather troubles, ”The really COLD part (is what I remember). (Laughs) You
could see our breath in the barn. Yeah, the coldness was bad. We had to scrape
snow off the floor and off the wagon. (Laughs and shakes his head) Standing next
to the big space heater, it was like a jet engine, and it still wouldn’t do
anything but warm up your feet.” Randy Allen also commented on the cold
weather, “(I remember) Freezing. Really, really cold, particularly when we
were shooting inside the barn that one day. That was really quite uncomfortable.
It was nice doing the shooting. I would have liked it if it would have taken
longer so we would have rehearsed each scene more. But I just remember it being
cold. And I remember it being fun, because most people who were the main cast
were really funny to listen to and they were making all sorts of bizarre,
strange, weird comments – they know who they are! (Laughs) That was fun, it
was kind of wild at times.”
We were lucky the first
day when the weather improved to a warm 40 degrees and sunny by the afternoon,
and we could shoot some exterior scenes with the barn. The second shooting day
we were not so lucky, however. A winter storm earlier in the week left 4 inches
of snow on the ground, and temperatures never rose above freezing. Everybody was
cold, but Dorothy (Kim Broaderway) was absolutely miserable. Her dress, just
like Judy Garland’s in the 1939 film, was not made for cold weather, and her
feet especially stayed frozen because of the concrete floor. Although she was
suppose to look unhappy in the scene, concerned about Miss Gultch (Melanie
Calcara) taking Toto, she had to hold back the actual pain she was suffering
from her frozen extremities. Randy Allen recalled, “Kim (Broaderway, who
played Dorothy) and Amber (Martin, who played Aunt Em) were really quite
uncomfortable (because of the cold), maybe more so than everyone knows. I
don’t know how much of that really transferred onto the film, that people
could see they were that uncomfortable.” Our biggest problem visually was the
fact that you could see everyone’s breath, as if they were standing in a meat
locker. But we were on a tight production schedule, and we couldn’t afford to
loose any days of shooting because of the weather. But just as the snow would
melt, another storm would dump another couple of inches, or bring freezing
temperatures, right before shooting.
The scene with Dorothy in
her bedroom during the twister was the most complicated to shoot, requiring
special effects of people and objects flying in the tornado to be shot ahead of
time, and edited together for rear projection in the bedroom window. Bob Loss
and I converted the Fine Arts Auditorium Stage into a special effects studio,
placing everything from a model car to Miss Gultch on her bike in front of a
white screen. Later I replaced everything white with the background footage of
the twister, in a method called “keying”, for playback for the rear
projection. A week later, on the auditorium stage, Bob built the bedroom set and
I set up the lighting. During the filming, I would rock the camera on the tripod
back and forth, to give the illusion that the entire room was flying through the
air. I think the audience watching the film during the musical was surprised buy
how well done the twister scene was made, and helped to make the over-all
experience of the show a positive one.
The busiest weekend was
the final one involving three days of shooting, including the twister scene in
Dorothy’s bedroom Friday night, and the final scene where Dorothy wakes up in
her room, with everyone present, on Saturday morning. We had good weather as
well, so we scrambled to finish shooting the remaining exterior shots at the
farmhouse Saturday afternoon and Monday afternoon. Monday was the one and only
time that I had complete control over the filming, because Bob Loss had to stay
and finish building and painting the sets. (Final week of tech and dress
rehearsals was only 7 days away at that point.) Normally Bob would work with the
actors, while I concentrated on the cameras, lighting and blocking. I filmed the
scene of Miss Gultch arriving on her bike to the farmhouse, and talking with
Uncle Henry and Aunt Em about Dorothy. It was the one time I had control over
the acting, as well as the cinematography duties, and I really wanted to
highlight Melanie Calcara’s performance as Miss Gultch. Her facial expressions
were perfect for the character, and she really drew the audience into the film
with her portrayal. Melanie and Randy both had a wonderful sparing of words and
expressions in that scene, and the audience seemed to pick up on their uneasy,
yet funny, relationship. (Randy described the character’s relationship as a
cobra staring down a mongoose, and one saying, “I hate you” and the other
replying, “I hate you more.”)
Unlike previous narrative films of mine, THE WIZARD OF OZ was the first to be edited on the new non-linear digital editing system we acquired at the college. Not only did the non-linear editing system help in the fact that I had greater control over the editing and quality, but I was able to edit the scene right after shooting. I could add shots or scenes anywhere in the film after another shooting day, and I could go back and change anything as needed. This saved time in the end, where I didn’t have to wait until production was completed to begin editing. The experience in editing THE WIZARD OF OZ helped me to not only edit SOMETHING, but also in it’s production. I began using more two-camera shoots (two camcorders recording on separate tapes) for scenes when I returned to making SOMETHING, knowing what worked and what didn’t from shooting and editing THE WIZARD OF OZ. The non-linear editor also created the black & white film effect, which took a couple of days to render. The film portion of the musical was completed the week before the final performances. Sam Wright compared the
making of THE WIZARD OF OZ with the earlier film SIDETRACKED, “(THE WIZARD OF
OZ), we started earlier and had more regular shooting times. (Laughs) I don’t
think we’ve ever spliced so many different locations together to try to make
it look the same as in THE WIZARD OF OZ. I noticed the multiple angles (shooting
with two cameras at the same time) in THE WIZARD OF OZ. And I definitely agree
with that. One – because it was so cold. Two – we didn’t have much time to
get extra angles. And three – we had newer people involved with the
(production), and so we couldn’t get them to do the same thing twice, as
readily. I think it’s a good practice, though. It’ll help continuity for the
actor’s sake.” “I was amazed at how everything just
seemed to run together so well. The editing was wonderful. You couldn’t tell
that it was so many different days (of shooting). And because we were involved
in so many different takes of the same scenes - over and over again -
some of the (takes of one shot) lasted half an hour trying to get the scenes
right. It was so strange to see it and think, ‘wow, it’s so short!’
(Laughs) ‘There’s all of those weeks (of shooting) compiled into 20
minutes’. Six weeks into 20 minutes, that was probably the most remarkable
thing. I also thought that the editing of some of the special effects were
really quite convincing. Like imposing the tornado behind the barn. I remember
the barn, I remember being there, and I don’t remember seeing any tornado
there. But seeing it (in the film) was really quite realistic. Or the Dorothy
bedroom shots (with the rear projection of the tornado footage), that was
amazing. That came off really, really well. A great job.” – Randy Allen
The problems I
encountered with the finished movie involved some basic differences between live
stage and filmmaking. I had no involvement in casting the parts, and they were
chosen for the live stage version. Aunt Em was a high school student wearing a
wig and makeup, rather than played by a real middle aged woman. For a live stage
production, the audience can accept this kind of casting as opposed to the more
realistic approach in films. While we were shooting, Bob Loss was working with
the actors on their dialogue, and there were some things I would have changed in
their performances. A couple of times I did jump in with suggestions, but they
dealt with blocking and making sure they hit their marks for the camera. The few
times when I tried to have Kim Broaderway make Dorothy physically portray her
nervousness more about Miss Gultch, she would give me a dirty look because she
was physically feeling so miserable in the cold. And most of the cast didn’t
seem very happy with shooting multiple takes, rather than running to put on
their coats. But to be honest, Bob was trying to match their performances on
screen with the live performance, and how the audience would see the overall
production. This was a film that would only be seen with the live performance,
and thus seen only once (and not subject to close scrutiny from multiple
viewings). He wasn’t as worried about subtlety in their acting performances as
much as getting the scenes done in a very short amount of time. Bob Allford as
Professor Marvel and Melanie Calcara as Miss Gultch were perfectly cast, and
Melanie especially stole the show with her portrayal of the wicked woman after
Toto. Sam Wright was also perfectly cast, but more so as the scarecrow in the
live performance than seen as a farm hand in the film.
“It was funny when we were doing some
of the shots out at the barn, because we were doing something with Amber (Aunt
Em) and you would say one thing ‘do it like this’, and we would come out and
do it like that. And then Bob (Loss) would say ‘I don’t like that’ and
‘do this’. That was very strange to have two directors at the same time.”
– Randy Allen I enjoyed making THE WIZARD OF OZ, it was a unique opportunity to ‘remake’ a movie I’ve loved since my childhood. I’ve never wanted to remake a previous film, especially one that was popular or considered a classic. I’ve never understood the desire to remake such films as A CHRISTMAS CAROL, PSYCHO or THE PLANET OF THE APES; the originals were so good and timeless. With THE WIZARD OF OZ, I wasn’t trying to remake such a beloved classic to be judged on it’s own; I was shooting the Kansas sequences to be a companion piece with the live performance. I purposely did not watch the 1939 version before shooting my version, because I didn’t want to be influenced by the original film. It had been several years since I really sat down and watched the old film, and I wanted to approach the making of my film with my particular vision, and not be directly influenced by – or trying to avoid to look of – the MGM classic. In the end I think it worked, and help make the college’s spring musical a great success.
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