Cinematic Techniques In Tim Burton's Movie, Big Fish

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The American director, Tim Burton has a way with manipulating lighting, camera angles, and music to highlight his quirky, yet dark style of movies. Tim uses camera angles to direct the viewers’ vision to a specific setting or character to expose something from a certain character’s point of view. For example, in Tim’s movie, Big Fish, he has a low angle of Karl the Giant. The use of this cinematic technique is to emphasize Karl’s height, especially compared to Edward Bloom’s. Another employment of camera angles is in Burton’s Edward Scissorhands, when Kim was in the window of the inventor’s mansion, they had a low angle of her, which was used to show here as the townspeople below saw her. Both of these scenes were used to point out a specific character, which is an all around common reoccurrence in Burton’s directing style. Lighting is not typically used by Burton to create a feeling of suspense as many other directors do. Instead, Tim uses …show more content…

During the introduction scene of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the composition is busy and in a rush, as is the imagery of the different machines working a outputting chocolate. Another memorable scene in terms of music was in Edwards Scissorhands, when Edward is cutting the ice sculpture as Kim dances in the ‘snow’ that comes from the pieces that he cuts off. The music gives off a dream-y feeling. Tim uses music and composition to add extra feeling to an exciting scene. As I stated, Tim uses cinematic techniques to specialize certain scenes of his films against the others. He uses lighting and camera angles to point out visual elements, and he uses composition to point out audial elements. Overall, Tim Burton has a very differentiated style compared to most modern American directors. He uses the cinematic tools given to him in unique ways and that is why so many people love his