Wizard of Oz tornado

[Ed Mahmoud]

Just watched it again on TNT


How, in 1938, when I doubt many people had motion picture footage of a real tornado, did they get a tornado that looked so real.

I'm always blown away by how good some very old, pre-green screen and CGI era special effects were, or how bad the green screen effects in movies like the 1970s remake of "King Kong" was.

[TMT]

Here is an explanation for how the spfx people did it:

http://www.stormtrack.org/library/fringe/oz.htm

And here, a slightly different explanation of events:

http://www.cimms.ou.edu/~doswell/Confer ... 6/WoO.html

[Jason Foster]

Yes, it is amazing how real it was. I thought there was a lack of knowledge about how the Wizard of Oz tornado was produced. Something about the originators dying before the knowledge was passed on or recorded.

I think that movies like Twister, Day After Tomorrow, and other remakes have done such a poor job of making realistic tornadoes. I thought the S-10 commercial with Gene Rhoden about a decade back actually did a convincing job of producing a faux tornado.

[BaytownSam]

I found some uncut footage of the "OZ" tornado

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTjFFTmxOIQ

[Stephanie]

You're right. The tornado scenes of the modern era can't touch that tornado. It looks so real to me.

[HurricaneBill]

When I was little, my older brother always told me and my sister crazy stories just to mess with us. He once told us that a real tornado had formed behind the fake tornado. (Looking at the picture posted, it does look kind of like a wedge tornado is behind the Oz tornado.)

Anyway, he said everyone had to get in the storm cellar and film the rest of the movie there.

[Jason Foster]

When I was little, my older brother always told me and my sister crazy stories just to mess with us. He once told us that a real tornado had formed behind the fake tornado. (Looking at the picture posted, it does look kind of like a wedge tornado is behind the Oz tornado.)...

You right....perhaps the Oz tornado shown is actually a Satellite tornado of a larger wedge. I wish they would pan up, so we could see the vault, and meso, and the inflow tail, etc.....

[Cyclenall]

On http://www.Howstuffworks.com a year ago, the fun fact stated that the Wizard of Oz tornado was made from a stocking of some sort. I never noticed that double tornado that looks like a wedge behind the main one.