Tim Burton’S Use Of Cinematic Techniques To Influence The Audience
Tim Burton, a creator of gothic fiction, can make an audience feel discomfort, suspense or happiness. Most times it’s all in one. He can exaggerate lighting and music to create a tone, of either fantasy or gothic. He uses different techniques to reach a certain effect to make the audience feel unsettled. To start off, in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Tim Burton uses lighting to make the world around Charlie Bucket seem sad and depressing, to reflect off of how he feels. When Charlie’s grandpa recalls a memory, Tim Burton makes it seem cheery and happy with lighting and music to make it seem like everything before was a very happy time. But before the flashback ended, it showed us that Willy Wonka had closed his factory, which changed the lighting into a dull, depressing tone.
In Edward Scissorhands, when Edward got caught breaking into the house, he walks towards the police officers while they have their lights on. Tim Burton makes the light seem very bright in Edward's perspective to show that Edward can’t see what he’s walking to. So, as he’s walking over to the police officers, all of the police officers think he has weapons, because all they can see is the silhouette of Edward caused by their bright lights. In the very beginning of Edward Scissorhands, the child’s Grandma is talking to her granddaughter, who is in a bed of all white, which Tim Burton uses to show that she is angelic and pure. Tim Burton also uses music in the background. There is a choir that sounds as if it’s angelic, to also show purity. More as the movie goes on, When Peg is going up to Edwards house, Tim shifts the camera angle to where you can see the entire house. He puts it at a low angle to make it seem like the house is tall and scary. And as she enters the house, Tim changes the camera angle to where it’s far away to make the house look intimidating and large.
During different flashbacks, Tim Burton makes them look as if they are just memories, grey and dim. But he also uses different things like lighting, sound, camera angles, etc. But the flashback that I am mentioning is when his creator passes away. Before the flashback starts, the lighting is bright and cheery, but as it starts, the lighting changes from light to dim and gloomy. They do this to make it known that it is a flashback, and that Edward is reliving it. But it’s also dim because it shows loneliness and sadness from Edward because his creator died and he’s all alone. Another cinematic element that Tim Burton uses are camera angles. Alike Edward ScissorHands, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Tim Burton uses many different camera angles in Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. When Jacob wanders to the abandoned children's house, Tim Burton creates an atmosphere around Jacob and the house. When the camera focuses on the house, the lights start to dim, to make the house seem old, and sort of scary to give the audience sort of an uncomfortable feeling. And when the movie movies on, Tim makes the monsters seem terrifying and gothic to give a scary and uncomfortable feeling. He makes the camera angle low, to give the monsters the high advantage, to make them look taller. And at some points he would make the camera angle seem far away to make the house of the children seem smaller.
Finally, Tim Burton uses music and sounds as a way to help set the mood better. The music helps either create suspense, or a joyish, cheery mood. In Edward Scissorhands, when Kim is dancing in the snow, a romantic melody was playing, but when Jim comes, and Edward accidentally cuts Kim, the song changes and it becomes an ominous tone. Throughout all of Tim Burton’s films, he finds different ways to capture audiences emotions. He uses sounds and music to build suspense and camera angles to exaggerate different things. He also uses flashbacks to show the audience what happened before so they understand what’s happening in the present. He pays attention to even the littlest details, adding on to them to make them seem like they have an even bigger part in the movie. Every one of his films has their own unique style to it, even though he uses some of the same techniques.
