Tim Burton's Cinematic Techniques

Films such as Edward Scissorhands, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Big Fish have a whimsical style like Walt Disney, and dark mood like Edgar Allan Poe’s pieces of literature. This is because Tim Burton, the director of these film, was inspired by these people and he creates their type of style using cinematic techniques. Some examples of film techniques that all these films share are flashback, low-key lighting, and non-diegetic sound. Flashback is when a scene goes in to the past to show previous events. Low key lighting is when a scene is flooded with shadows and nondiegetic sound is when there are sounds and music that are only meant for the viewer to hear. FIlm techniques can use many different types of effects and ways to create

An example of low key lighting in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is when Willy is with her father as a child and they are discussing the cons of candy by the low light fire. This example creates a sad and depressive mood because of how dark the place is and how Willy lives in a strict household and style. This also helps the viewer understand how Willy feels sometimes when he is with his father. An example of low key lighting in Edward Scissorhands is when we first see Edward hiding in the corner of the attic in the mansion. This example creates a suspenseful and eerie tone because we don’t know what Edward looks like and how creepy and mysterious he might be based on what experiences he might have been through. This provides some suspense for the viewer. An example of low key lighting in Big Fish is when Edward is observing the dark and quiet forest that lays in front of him. This example creates a mysterious and creepy mood because the darkness of the forest establishes a mysterious feel of what might be in the forest beyond what the eye can see. This creates a scary and chilling feel in the viewer. Burton’s use of low key lighting provides an effective tool to help the audience feel like a part of the film and create many different types of moods/tones such as creepy, and mysterious to the

An example of flashback in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is when we see and oompa loompa and then it shows how Willy Wonka meet then in a remote jungle. This example creates a whimsical backstory to the oompa loompas because it shows how they lived very weird lives and worshiped the coco bean and this gives a whimsical feel to the whole flashback. An example of flashback in Edward Scissorhands is when Edward and Peg are in the kitchen. This example provides a creepy and mysterious mood to the inventor because it shows what type of inventions the inventor would make and how he got the idea to make Edward from a cutting robot and this provides a mysterious mood to what the inventor was like before he created Edward. An example of flashback in Big Fish is when the father is telling the story about him and his friends that are scared of the old lady who they call a witch. This example provides a eerie and scary mood to the old lady because it shows how she is very creepy and lives by herself in a dark part of town, but she is actually nice and regular old lady. Burton’s use of flashback provides an effective tool to help the audience feel like a part of the film and to create mood/tone to help improve the film by providing background information to create creepy, eerie, and mysterious mood for the