At the time Gone With the Wind was being
filmed, Technicolor was not widely used and carried several inherent
disadvantages. The Technicolor corporation owned the heavy, cumbersome
cameras required for shooting, all seven of which were rented to
Selznick. Each picture was required to have a color consultant who
had the power to veto any color scheme she felt was incompatible
with color cinematography. In addition, technical advisors were
required to assist cinematographers who had only worked with black-and-white
film. Technicolor, for example, required twice as much lighting
for proper illumination of a scene. Selznick had previous experience
with Technicolor filming and knew that it would be vital to giving Gone
With the Wind the visual richness necessary for an epic drama.
In fact, Selznick was so determined that the film’s color have as
much impact as the characters’ emotions that he fired the original cinematographer
Lee Garmes for favoring a color scheme Selznick deemed too subdued.
His replacement, Ernest Haller, succeeded in obtaining more vivid
effects.
Selznick knew that using shadows was an important part
of a scene’s visual impact and persuaded his color consultant to
shoot Scarlett and her father in silhouette on the hill at Tara.
With the plantation glowing brilliantly in the distance, the resulting
framing effect powerfully underscores Gerald’s feelings about the
importance of the land. Selznick uses this silhouetting to the same
effect in the film’s final scene, when Scarlett stands on the same
hill as she comes home to Tara. Selznick also uses shadows to emphasize moments
that focus on the relationship between characters in Gone With
the Wind, first seen in the form of the looming shadows
Scarlett and Melanie cast on the walls of the makeshift hospital.
Later, the delivery of Melanie’s baby is lit only with slivers of
light that appear between the window slats, the darkness making
the scene more intimate and giving it a powerful simplicity.
Another technique that Selznick brought from black-and-white film
to Technicolor was the use of matte painting. While a shot was filmed,
the area to be painted in later was masked with black matte paint
on a glass screen placed in front of the camera. Later, a full-color
scale illustration of the missing portion was shot onto the rewound
negatives to cover the blacked-out area with calibrated precision.
Previously used only for background shots, Gone With the
Wind’sspecial effects cinematographer
Clarence Slifer adapted the technique to complete a number of sets
that were only partially finished. Tara’s side views, outhouses,
and background vegetation were all matte paintings, as were portions
of the Twelve Oaks plantation, the train station roof, the decorations
in the Old Armory, an entire street of burning houses, and even
some of the wounded soldiers lying on the ground in long shots.
