Tim Burton Film Techniques

The filmmaker Tim Burton was influenced by his fascination with fairytales and children’s stories. He’s made at least 37 films. In class we conducted a close viewing of three of his films entitled “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”, “Edward Scissorhands”, and the “Corpse Bride”. In his films, Tim Burton uses cinematic techniques, which are the methods a director uses to communicate meaning, to evoke emotional responses from the viewer. His use of lighting, music, and camera movements helps change the mood and develop characters emotions in different scenes as well as set the tone of the film.

To begin with, Tim Burton uses lighting to help give the audience am understanding on how the mood switches up in different scenes of the film. For

For instance, in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, excited/thrilled music is played when superior things occur. Such as when Charlie found the golden ticket. There were only five golden tickets throughout the whole world, and Charlie was lucky to receive one of them. After all, this shows that the music used aligns with the characters emotions. Additionally, in Edward Scissorhands, different music played when different events occurred. Such as, when Peg first stood in front of Edward's home. Soft, imaginative music played to have the audience understand how fascinated she was with a beautiful garden surrounding a dark home. Also when Edward was trapped inside of Jim's home. Suspenseful, horrific music played to show that Edward was scared and worried at that moment. This shows that the music played gives the audience an understanding on how the mood has shifted. Then, in the Corpse Bride, different music used when Victor entered different surroundings. For instance, when Victor entered the "Land of the Dead" horrific music played to show that he was very scared of the difference in the two lands. His main focus was to find a way back to the "Land of the living". This implies that the music aligns with how the characters feelings change. Overall, the music used in these films gives the audience a better understanding on how the characters are