A Cinematic Analysis on Musicals from Differing Eras

Over the decades musicals have changed dramatically, from the classical legit style of
musical theatre to the very modern, current contemporary style of musicals being released
in the 21st century. Similarly, the production of musical films has improved massively in
every technical aspect, from lighting, sound, set design, camera quality and usage and so on.
Two very well-known musicals from the earliest movie musicals to the very recent ones are
‘The Wizard of Oz’ – released in 1939 – and ‘Dear Evan Hansen’, which was released this
year. ‘The Wizard of Oz’ is so important due to it being one of the earliest movie musicals
and setting the bar for some new technical aspects of the time. Also, ‘Dear Evan Hansen’,
being one of the newest movie musicals, demonstrates how far technology and production
has come. ‘The Wizard of Oz’ is about a young girl, named ‘Dorothy Gale and her dog are
swept away by a tornado from their Kansas farm to the magical Land of Oz, and
embark on a quest with three new friends to see the Wizard, who can return her to
her home and fulfil the others' wishes.’ 1 ‘Dear Evan Hansen’ is about ‘a high school
senior with Social Anxiety disorder and his journey of self-discovery and acceptance
following the suicide of a fellow classmate.’ 2
One major technical aspect of cinema is undeniably colour. Colour plays a massive
place in film, as it helps to set the ambience of a scene, as well as discretely
explaining the happenings of a scene and emotion of the characters within it. In ‘The
Wizard of Oz’ – a movie well known for being one of the first movies to feature and
incorporate colour into films (it is often mistaken as the first one) – begins in Kansas
in black and white. This immediately explains to the audience that Kansas is dreary,
hopeless and sombre. After being knocked unconscious, the audience sees Dorothy
wake up and walk through her door into the bright, characterful and vivid Munchkin
Land. This was absolutely astonishing at the time as this had rarely been done before
and to see it being used in such a large-scale concept and production was truly
incredible at the time of release. The filmmakers effectively juxtapose the black and
white film with brilliant technicolour to showcase the grandeur between Kansas and
the magical Oz. Though Oz is bright, colourful, and whimsical compared to the harsh grey
of Kansas, Dorothy realizes that her home in Kansas is where she belongs and is happy. The
juxtaposition of such contrasting places highlights the inevitable decision that Dorothy must
make about returning to home and reality. Different zones in Oz have colour-orientations
which represent the characteristics of the area. As expected, the area surrounding Emerald
City is green. Similarly, the witch’s green complexion represents her jealousy of Dorothy and
her red shoes. The inclusion of all the somewhat unnatural colours portrays the idea of
happiness within the land but also Dorothy’s new discovery. On the other hand, a rare
occurrence of dark colouring in Oz is around the witch’s castle – predominantly grey, other
than the hellish red of the fire near it. This directly contrasts the beauty and magnificence of
the majority of Oz from bright and colourful to dark and tenebrous. In ‘Dear Evan Hansen’,
1
(IMDb, n.d.)
2
(IMDb, n.d.)
there is commonly a dim, unsaturated colouring to represent the saddening, gloomy story
and the suicide of Connor Murphy. In the end scenes however, some of the protagonists are
walking through Connor’s Memorial Orchard, with luscious, rolling green hills, set amongst a
sky of bluest blue. The array of colours in this scene gives a subtle nod that Connor is finally
happy and also that there’s hope for everyone in the world thanks to the Connor Project.
When Evan has flashbacks of the day when he broke his arm, he is running through an over-
saturated, white forest with the blazing sun shining through the treetops, which is almost
blinding. This whiteness represents the hopefulness Evan holds about him potentially
committing suicide. Furthermore, the white light has connotations with what people see
moments before the light – Evan is chasing the white light, hence climbing the tree, so that
he can be dead and rid of all his troubles. In some scenes with Zoe, there is a dimmed,
warm, glowy atmosphere in the scene, caused by colour. This aids the audience in
understanding that the scene will be quite personal and intimate, and the low colouring
indicates the goings-on in the scene was mean for their ears and eyes only. Alternatively, in
Evan’s house, whether he be alone or with his mother, there is still a dim colouring. This
could, in turn, resemble Evan’s eternal isolation and solitariness. We often see a greyish hue
to many scenes over the span of film. This transparently emulates a sorrowful, dismal
ambience and regularly foreshadows what is to come. It appears that ‘The Wizard of Oz’ and
‘Dear Evan Hansen’ both use colour gradients in similar ways. They both, to resemble
something good or happy, use vibrant colours. Also, they both use darkish tints to cast a
melancholy, forlorn atmosphere.
It would be practically impossible to produce a musical film without the use of sound.
Sound, almost indisputably, is the biggest part of a musical. Included in the dialogue and
obviously the songs, sound and audio are quintessential to making musical theatre and
musical films what we know them to be in the present day. The three main audio categories
are sound dialogue (when characters talk to each other); sound effects (which are used to
make objects sound real) and music (which helps indicate to the audience the mood of the
scene). Through the improvement of technology and filming equipment between the
release of the two movies, it is quite clear to see there is an astronomical difference
between the audio quality. ‘Dear Evan Hansen’ possesses a crisp, clear-cut audio quality
throughout, as what would be expected from any other movie released now. Opposingly, in
1939, when ‘The Wizard of Oz’ came out everything was still somewhat new in terms of
filming technology. The microphones and recording equipment make any dialogue,
instruments or singing sound quite tinny and rattly. This just goes to show how rapidly
engineers and technology has advanced in the matter of approximately 80 years. Judy
Garland, who played Dorothy in the film, has a very warm, sweet singing resonance, which is
usually at quite a high pitch. This could be used to resemble how Dorothy is just a young girl
and could also subtly indicate her naivety and vulnerability. ‘One could not watch ‘The
Wizard of Oz’ and not be moved by its orchestral accompaniment. The orchestra filters in
gently and increases in volume to create a sense of unpredictability and fantasy. The non-
diegetic sounds play an extreme role in drawing the viewer into the fantasy of Oz. When
Dorothy lands in Oz, there are no diegetic sounds. As the scene begins where she walks out to
explore, the orchestra slowly begins quietly, slowly getting louder, adding instrument by
instrument. The fantasy increases through the emphasis on the non-diegetic sounds, and lack
of diegetic.’3 As ‘The Wizard of Oz’ is a fantasy musical movie, many sound effects which
occur during the entirety of the film would represent those of many other fantasy films.
Some examples of sound effects used in ‘The Wizard of Oz’ would include twinkles, sizzling,
whooshing, along with many others. ‘The sound in the film brings many moods and many
cues to the audience. The audience can hear the animals on the farm and can relate to that
environment, the song Dorothy sings prior to being dropped in Oz is one of daydreaming
and wishful thinking which happens to many people. We all dream and wonder and wish for
things and Dorothy is wishing to fly to unknown places or ‘Over the Rainbow’, and the
tornado that will carry Dorothy away on her adventure, are all realistic things that the
audience can relate to in real life. The familiar sounds of those events or environments are
things a person can recognise and associate immediately to a visual. Obviously, a tornado
blows and destroys things so it is loud, howling and whistling. The mood of the scenes
before Dorothy goes to Oz, can easily be determined from these familiar sounds because we
can or have experience these sounds ourselves. We know the dangers from tornadoes and it
brings us fear and helplessness.’4 In ‘Dear Evan Hansen’, sound is typically used in a similar
way. Often, songs from the musical are used as background songs as well as featuring as
solos or ensemble numbers. ‘Waving Through a Window’ occurs several times in the film
after its initial appearance, typically when Evan has flashbacks to the day he fell out of a tree
and broke his arm. The music, co-written by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, is often very
personal to the characters. Examples like, ‘Words Fail’, ‘The Anonymous Ones’ and ‘So
Big/So Small’ are big feelers for the characters in the scene due to them being quite deep,
personal and soulful. The emotions that these characters experience are translated and
transferred directly to the audience as they grow an intimate connection with the character,
therefore, frequently the audience feels these same emotions. The music in the movie is
used to help guide the storyline along and can be a cryptic, as well as definite, explanation
of how a character or characters are feeling. A lot of dialogue used is quite soft and low-key.
This gives the impression that their conversations are private and not meant for other
people’s ears. Evan, towards the latter end of the movie, is quietly questioned and
confronted by Alana, who has begun to wonder if Evan truly was Connor’s best friend. This
provides the audience with the information that Alana, although having suspicions, still
respects Evan and doesn’t want to expose him of his potential lies. Often, when Evan
interacts with Zoe – especially during their romantic scenes – they speak at a lower volume
to enhance the intimacy of the scene. However, when there is scenes of anger or immense
sadness, the volume of the dialogue is increased as what would naturally be expected. Both
films use sounds correspondingly, however, due to being a more serious, sincere movie,
‘Dear Evan Hansen’ is lacking in terms of sound effects.
Much like the other technical aspects mentioned, cinematography has improved remarkably
in the years between each movie’s issue. Cinematography is the ‘usage of camera, how one
captures the frame is what cinematography is all about. It is all about composing, framing,
focusing and continuity in the film. Good camera usage will work wonders for [a] film.  The

3
(Anon., n.d.)
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(J, n.d.)
imaginative and creative camerawork will increase the connection between the audience
and your story. Sometimes wacky camera angles give a displeasure feeling as well. Hence
the camera is the view point of the audience. So, it is very important that it should show
what an audience wants to see in sync with what a director wants to show. Anything which
is one side/one way will not satisfy neither audience nor film maker. The cinematography is
an aesthetic, which speaks by itself through visuals.’5 ‘The Wizard of Oz’ was strongly
improved through the use of the camera and special effects. During the tornado scene, after
Dorothy is hit by the window, she goes into a dream. ‘The special effect of using smoke
swirling around her head tells the audience that she is going into a dream state.  Lighting is
sourced as a low-key light focused on the forehead of Dorothy.  Its position is located above
her at an angle from the right side of the frame.  This serves two purposes; it helps capture
the smoke in the air around her head and focuses the light on her forehead to set up the
plot of her dreaming.’6 This movie makes use of traditional three-point lighting to help
establish a scene or theme. Three-point lighting is accomplished using ‘three primary
sources of light to create a three-dimensional appearance with soft shadows, and a back
light placed behind the subject and aimed at its back to create a rim of light that separates it
from the background’7. This use of lighting was best fit for this scene as it separates Dorothy
away from the background, which, in turn, makes her the focus and subject of the scene.
‘The use of various lighting techniques in the Wizard of Oz made the happy scenes happier,
the scary scenes scarier and helped the audience connect with the main characters. If any
single lighting technique would have been used for the entirety of the film, much would
have been lost from the audience’s experience. The use of multiple lighting techniques is
well suited for fantasy films like ‘The Wizard of Oz’, because it helps emphasise the unreal
and imaginative elements that are typical of this genre.’8 On the other hand, ‘Dear Evan
Hansen’ almost revokes and refuses to involve any sort of ideas of fantasy or absurdity in
terms of the camerawork and cinematography. This is majorly due to the nature of the film
and the subjects it talks about – very serious, with suicide being a recurring theme. Where
‘The Wizard of Oz’ has a masterful cinematography, the cinematography within ‘Dear Evan
Hansen’ has been called ‘uninspired cinematography’ 9. This lack of enthusiastic
cinematography works for the movie because of the movie’s nature, however would not
work in ‘The Wizard of Oz’ due to the nature of it being fantasy and typically having quite a
‘fun’ feel surrounding it.
Taking everything into account, it must be acknowledged how adequately the technological
aspect within cinema has enhanced across the interval of these films. Subsequently, it must
also be mentioned that movies and the musical film genre would not be feasibly possible
without all these technical aspects. Myself, I simply can not wait to see how far the
development of technology in films can stretch over the forthcoming decades. Movies and
musical films need all of these technical aspects, alongside many others, to truly be the best
production it can possibly be. Both films are very different in terms of age, storyline and
5
(Akshintala, 2013)
6
(TeachInc, 2014)
7
(JTanner727, 2015)
8
(JTanner727, 2015)
9
(Puchko, 2021)
themes, however are not too dissimilar when it comes to the cinematic aspects and their
respective application of them. Overall, I think these movies really demonstrate the
necessity of these facets, ‘The Wizard of Oz’ more so than ‘Dear Evan Hansen’, nonetheless,
nothing should be taken away from ‘Dear Evan Hansen’.

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Bibliography
Akshintala, S., 2013. Top 10 Elements of Film Making, s.l.: List Dose.

Anon., n.d. Camera Techniques in Wizard of Oz, s.l.: Cram.

IMDb, n.d. Dear Evan Hansen, s.l.: IMDb.

IMDb, n.d. The Wizard of Oz, s.l.: IMDb.

J, L., n.d. The Sounds of Oz, s.l.: Sounds of Oz.

JTanner727, 2015. Wizard of Oz Cinematography, s.l.: WordPress.

Puchko, K., 2021. Dear Evan Hansen Review, s.l.: IGN.

TeachInc, 2014. Cinematography in the Wizard of Oz, s.l.: TeachInc.