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Oz Lyricist E. Y. “Yip” Harburg (left) with Oz composer Harold Arlen. Courtesy of thesoundofozmovie.com


The principal cast of the Wizard of Oz. Courtesy of The John Fricke Collection


focus on good literature and how to tell a good story, as well as psychology in creating characters and communicating to your audience.” His psychology professors recognized his aptitude for science and encouraged him to make a career of it, but there was no swaying him. Harburg wanted to make movies. “Film was always the through-line,” he insists. “What drew


Official documentary poster. Courtesy of thesoundofozmovie.com


Harburg, who began shooting his own films in the fourth grade. He purchased his first professional editing software in high school, with money earned from a job at Wendy’s and a paper route. Harburg continued his cinematic pursuits at EMU. What


he wasn’t expecting was how beneficial a psychology minor would be to his current endeavors as a video producer and digital strategist. “Being able to understand people from different frameworks, especially uniting different concepts, gave me a huge leg up when dealing with communicating,” he says. “A lot of filmmaking people focus on the technique of it, and really you need to


me to it was that sense of awe and magic. I really love movies that inspire me to look at the world differently and to do things with purpose.” Harburg hopes his film will help preserve his great-


grandfather’s legacy. Without him, part of the sound track of our lives would be missing. “When I hear ‘Over the Rainbow,’ it’s not just ‘dreams that


you dare to dream,’ which is a huge part of how that song still touches me,” Harburg says, “but also just remembering this song almost got cut (from the final film), and that Yip originally hated the melody. ‘Over the Rainbow’ not only inspired me to pursue my dreams, but also to keep in mind that the catalyst for them coming true will not always be apparent in the moment.” After all, Dorothy didn’t get to Oz without a dream, did she? 3 —Chris Azzopardi


Eastern | SUMMER 2015 35


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