The Wizard of Oz starts in black and white and switches to color once Dorothy reaches Oz.

The 1939 film opens with its Kansas scenes shot in sepia-toned black and white, then shifts dramatically to vivid three-strip Technicolor the moment Dorothy opens the door into Munchkinland. The switch was a deliberate storytelling device, using the era’s expensive new color technology to visually separate the drab, ordinary farmhouse world from the fantastical land of Oz.

Technicolor filming was notoriously demanding at the time, requiring intense lighting and a bulky camera that shot three strips of film simultaneously to capture full color. The contrast paid off: the moment Dorothy steps into a Technicolor world remains one of the most famous transitions in film history, and it helped set a template that later films and shows would borrow to signal a shift into a different reality.