The Techniques of Tim Burton | Teen Ink

The Techniques of Tim Burton

May 18, 2018
By DominicaW BRONZE, Birmingham, Alabama
DominicaW BRONZE, Birmingham, Alabama
1 article 0 photos 0 comments

Tim Burton’s has shared his fascination of fairy tales in odd and unique ways.Burton makes dark and grim fantasy stories more lighthearted. This is portrayed in stories such as Alice In Wonderland which give the idea of fantasy and supernatural worlds. He also illustrates this skill in works such as The Nightmare Before Christmas where he takes a child’s story and makes it dark but innocent.Because Tim Burton was influenced by his love for children fairytale stories, his audience can see that he utilizes techniques such as imagery ,camera movement, and angles to express his style.


Tim Burton, an American writer and poet, wrote many fairytales that were inspired by his love of children stories and thrillers.One of the techniques he uses to portray this is imagery. An example of this can be portrayed in his 2012 film Frakenweenie. Burton’s Frakenweenie, produced by Walt Disney, is a stop motion black and white animated film.Frakenweenie is about a boy who loses his dog and resurrects him with electricity.The stop motion and black and white aspect of the makes the film distinct and special to the audience.Burton uses a tone of black and white imagery throughout the movie.This choice of imagery is especially useful is when the main character’s dog,Sparky, dies. During this scene, it shown that the day is very gloomy and sad. Moreover, Burton also includes a scene where he shows the grave of the deceased dog (Frakenweenie 2012). This type of hue appears to be more suspenseful than actual color.By using black and white imagery, Burton makes his audience more anxious. Black and white combined with stop-motion  mechanics would make the film more emotionally appealing. (Frakenweenie 2012). Lastly, as a way of impacting the emotions of the audience, Burton uses imagery to captivate his viewers to feel a certain mood.

 

Secondly, Burton utilizes various camera angles and movement to emphasize the situation that is taking place.In Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Burton uses these angles and positions to display the significance of the situation. For instance, the scene where the people are in a factory unwrapping thousand of candies to find the golden ticket. The camera is positioned some where higher than eye level and it is pointing down. This emphasizes the entire factory and their employees that are working for the girl’s father.Not to mention this illustrates how anxious and selfish his daughter is.Additionally, this technique is also used when introducing the characters. Take Agustus for example.When he is introduced a close up camera angle is used, which emphasizes his expression,characteristics, and the chocolate that is on his face. This shows that he is very covetous or greedy (Charlie and The Chocolate Factory 2005).To conclude, Tim Burton utilizes the positioning of the camera in order introduce the situation and characteristics of the personas.


Alternatively, not only are camera angles used in his works, but Burton also uses various types of shots. This includes close ups,long, and medium shots.As an illustration, in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory the boy meets Willy Wonka and shakes hands with him after tellig him that he was the last child. In this scene, a close up is used to emphasize them shaking hands. Willy Wonka then congratulates him and leads him to an glass elevator.After entering the elevator they go up. The camera angle here is very long as they blast out of the roof to where they can see the entire city. Moreover, when the four golden ticket winners are introduced various shots are used to display what the character’s personlity is like. For instance, Agostus is introduced with a chocolate covered face revealed through close up shot while he is eating chocolate. Knowing this, the viewers can infer that Agostus is greedy and gluttonous (Charlieand the Chocolate Factory 2005). Additionally, the audience can see that closer,long shots reveal that the particular situation is of importance. To illustrate, in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory you can see that the buisnessman is looking over his workers. With the camera angle that is used in this scene, it is clear that he is more superior and dominate (Charlie and The Chocolate Factory 2005). As a final point, Tim Burton uses many cinematic camera techniques in order to display the personality of the characters and ranking of the characters.

 

As a final point, Tim Burton has created and produced many stories and films. In his works he captivates his audience through his unique style and filmic techniques. These projects include Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,which uses many camera angles and shots, and Frakenweenie, which uses imagery.Burton’s grotesque style will influence the film and story industry greatly and will change the feature of film and literature.


The author's comments:

I wrote this essay my final grade for my writing and literature 7th grade class. I hope that peoplr will appreciate the hard work I put into it.


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