Analysis Of Tim Burton’S Style Of Filming

“I like weird people… The black sheep, the odd ducks, the rejects, eccentrics, the loners, lost and forgotten. More often than not, these people have the most beautiful souls. ” - Unknown Author. The famed Tim Burton is a movie director who has made significant contributions to the cinematic world, and who is certainly an odd character himself. In his movies, Tim Burton uses contrasting colors and nondiegetic sound in order to provide more emphasis on the odd or the outcasts in the movies; he shows his audience that the abnormal or pariahs are extraordinary and can be accepted. One important technique that Tim Burton uses in his movies is nondiegetic sound. In the opening credits and opening scene of his movie Edward Scissorhands, Burton uses music that is mysterious and sometimes forlorn while showing an image of Edward’s mansion. He does this to specifically pinpoint Edward as an outcast from the start of the movie, and it also influences a bias that viewers might have of run-down, isolated houses and the kind of people that live there. The stereotype is that these people are strange, and are excluded from society because of that. Burton reinforces this with his initial presentation of Edward’s living environment, and the music he provides.

In Corpse Bride, Burton employs nondiegetic sound in his vast contrast from the human world to the underworld. In the land of the dead, there is constantly upbeat, merry music in the background, giving the impression that the underworld is indeed strange, but is nothing to be afraid of and is really entertaining. A specific example would be when Victor first wakes up in the underworld after being taken there by his new bride, the first thing heard by the audience is fast-paced and bright jazz music. Tim Burton did this on purpose so that as soon as the underworld is brought up, instead of negative or frightened feelings being produced, there is a warm and joyful environment produced. The underworld is normally portrayed as frightening or menacing, but Burton chose to shed new light on what the spirit realm could be defined as. He reversed stereotypical perspectives on life and death and made the afterlife a party and mortal life harsh and dreary. Another great example of Tim Burton’s use of nondiegetic sound in movies is Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

In this film, Willy Wonka and his factory are seen as outsiders. In the intro to the movie when the factory is making chocolate bars and Wonka is placing golden tickets on them, Burton engages whimsical and suspenseful music and sounds, setting up the audience’s emotions for what is to come. The music is so prominent in the opening that when the focus moves from inside the factory to the town, the shift in the music is noticeable enough that one can infer that the factory does not fit quite right with the rest of the town. Burton uses so much emphasis on the oddness of the factory with the music to provoke biases as well, influencing the audience to think things such as: “This Wonka character is weird” or “This is going to be an ‘interesting’ movie. ” This sets the audience up to be surprised with the outcomes of scenarios in the movie, and ultimately produce more love for the characters as the audience realizes that they really are not that bad. Throughout the three movies listed, Burton utilizes nondiegetic sound to toy with the audience’s emotions and to provoke biases or stereotypes to later be proved wrong or changed in the duration of the film. A second major technique that Tim Burton utilizes in his movies is contrasting color, which he uses to provide emphasis on the strange people, places, or things in his films.