Tim Burton uses his mysterious and creepy characteristics and expressed it through his film Edward Scissorhands Burton uses his unique style of editing that helps understand the main character’s, Edward’s, background. In comparison with the editing the sound helps understand the meaning of certain part such as the suspense of what would happen to Edward in the end. The costuming was a peculiar choice, it shows how in the town there was a lot of colors, but, Edward wore an all black steam punk like clothing showing how he was different. Therefore Tim Burton’s character, Edward, is a somewhat reflection of himself. Like Burton he has an imagination in order to create “art”, and the style of clothing is alike to that of Burton’s.
Tim Burton's Sets The Mood When listening to scary story commonly the lights are off and the only illumination is from a flashlight placed closely under the storytellers chin. Tim Burton uses uses stylistic techniques such as low key lighting and close up shots to convey a spooky tone in his films, such as Big Fish, Edward Scissorhands, and Charlie in The Chocolate Factory. In the film Big Fish Tim Burton uses low key lighting to convey a spooky mood.
Behind the Monster Music: Why Some Tunes Scare Us Music critic and host of sound opinions, Daniel Levitin and Jim DeRogatis, discuss why and how some music used in movies get our pulses racing. They explain how music connects with our emotions. When you hear screeching of violins, creaking noises, or footsteps, we automatically feel frightened. It’s not just the motion pictures of scary movies that scare us, but the music behind it. How would music scare us?
Burton uses sound to express something he has firsthand experience with being an outsider. For instance, in Edward Scissorhands, Edward starts walking towards Peg in the beginning there was eerie music. Once Peg saw the shadow of Edwards scissors she quickly turns away, and apologizes for intruding. Edward soon speaks up in a very soft voice teller her not to go. Edward is explaining what happened to his hands to Peg, and while he is talking choral music is playing the background.
Most, if not all, sound in the film could be categorized as diegetic meaning that it originates in the world of the film. I found this to be one of the most spectacular aspects of the film. The sounds of children playing, city sirens, and the reoccurring music coming from the composer’s apartment and other unseen sources all add a sense of environment and realness to the theatrical stage-like set. Also as Fawell described, much of the sound in the film is asynchronous and comes from off screen action, often either contrasting or complimenting what is being shown in frame. For instance, the sound coming from the composer’s apartment is used as “Lisa’s theme” and often plays during intimate or romantic sequences in the film, highlighting Lisa’s desires and romantic intuitions.
The unknown is often associated with danger because of society. Tim Burton would argue that the abnormal could often be the uttermost significant in life. Through color contrast and physically abnormal characters, Burton displays in his films that society wrongly teaches people to fear the unknown. Burton uses color contrast to show the isolation and the unknown of the outcast characters in his films. For instance, in Edward Scissorhands, Edward was introduced when Peg found him sitting in a corner all alone.
In Tim Burton’s film Edward Scissorhands he explores how global societies are losing the values, idioms, and imperfections that separate them, and instead, we are replacing them with globally accepted beliefs regarding perfection and normalities. In the film, Tim Burton creates a microcosm which allows us to safely view our own imperfections without bias. This problem has become so vast in all societies across the world to the point where it is influencing much of our pop-culture. There is however, a change coming, a change throughout the world calling upon people to embrace their individuality and their
Burtons use of sound supplies an effective tool to allow the audience to understand the mood of the setting. This technique can also be found a while earlier in the movie, when the grandmother sits with the granddaughter to tell a bedtime story. There are bits of audio between the two, describing Edward Scissorhands and produces an idea of the movie topic. The grandma is almost set up as the narrator for the first part of the movie so that the audience can understand (or get an idea of the movie) the plot of the film. This also connects the opening credits to transition through scenes and carry on with the
Tim Burton uses lighting, music and sound two of the many cinematic techniques to help create the general or central theme of his films. The theme don’t judge someone or something based on how it looks fits perfectly in “Edward Scissorhands.” For example, the town that Peg lives in is bright and cheerful looking but that’s because the lighting makes it seem that way.
Tim Burton has an amazing cinematic sound style that he uses in his film, “Edward Scissorhands”, to create an alluring and dramatic soundtrack and background sound selection. For instance, in the film, there was a scene where Peg hands Edward some clothes and sent him to her daughter’s room to go change. Edward then struggles to put the clothes on because of his fearful scissor hands so Peg ends up helping him out. In this scene, Burton uses very noticeable snipping sounds and the sound of rustling clothes to create a very comedic yet also stressing scene for Edward.
The final film technique Tim Burton uses is sounds he uses. The most popular type of sound techniques is the non-diegetic sounds. In the 1989 Batman film, Tim Burton uses a ton of non-diegetic music. In multiple scenes in the movie, often combat scenes, there is dramatic music playing in the background to enhance the tension in the audience. During the scene in Charlie and the chocolate Factory when Charlie won the last golden ticket and he was running home there was non-diegetic happy and exciting music playing in the background.
In conclusion, Tim Burton proceeds taking advantage of the cinematic techniques; lighting, sound, and camera movements creating a certain mood/tone. He uses each technique to reel in his audience. Tim Burton’s style is based on differences between things or people. However, Burton uses many more techniques than just these three, he uses all kinds to appeal to his
Take Jaws for example, Jaws creates a feeling of suspense with its increase in intense chords. It uses a very simple double bass which first starts out in long heavy notes, it then gradually gets faster and faster, implying an attack is going to occur very shortly. Besides setting the mood, sound can introduce important elements of the plot. When you see the girl swimming and the music beings and you hear the Duh-Duh-Duh-Duh, you know that the shark is coming. If there was no Duh-Duh-Duh music played, the audience would never know when the attack would occur, thus the music in Jaws plays a major role in the audiences understanding of the plot.
When the inventor died in Edward Scissorhands there was music that projected a sad mood. This helps the audience connect with the movie more and intrigues the audience more. As Edward and Kim were talking there was angelic, happy music that becomes louder as Edward and Kim hug. In Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, when Charlie finds the money on the ground, Burton uses happy music to project an exciting and magical feeling to the audience. In Big Fish, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Edward Scissorhands Burton uses camera movements, camera angles, and non-diegetic music to set a certain mood that the audience should feel.
Tim Burton uses many different cinematic techniques to achieve very specific effects in his movies. The most important cinematic techniques that he uses to create his unique style are Non-Diegetic sound, lighting, eye level, and zoom. These techniques that can be seen in the films Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Edward Scissorhands, and Corpse Bride, create the effects of sadness, dark moments, express the feeling of other without telling. He uses Non-Diegetic sound when he puts a song, he uses sad songs, happy songs, and more to show the feeling of the character, to give us like a hint of something that is going to happen, if it’s going to be bad or sad. He uses lighting to make the moment or scene sad or mysterious.
