Tim Burton is not only a unique film maker but he is also an auteur. He not only directs but has written and produced most of the movies he has made. He originally went to school for animation and worked loosely with Disney. His first works of course where short animations. His first live action was a made for TV movie called Hansel and Gretel in 1982. His rise into Hollywood was not only out of luck but fueled by his creativity and talent. I will not be discussing his creativity and talent directly, however. I will be talking about his directing style, particularly a few evolved aspects of it. Three films will be discussed in this process: Edward Scissor Hands, Mars Attacks, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Not that they are Tim Burtons all time best films, but they best represent the aspect of his style that will be discussed.
Edward Scissorhands
Is one of my favorite films by Tim Burton. It was made in 1990. Its style is very Tim Burton. To describe his style in this movie, I could use one word Gothic. He has a very Gothic style. He also has great attention to composition. For example in the beginning of this movie he chooses several shots that have no reason in the movie but to be beautiful shots. Burton also chooses a lot of POV shots in this movie. Among that he uses shadows to his advantage. It is not unlikely that one would miss the silver stars on the wind chime reflecting moonlight in the room where Edward is sleeping on his second night at Peg's house, or the animated shadow of the fish tank on the wall in another house. Burton puts many of those little things in his films if one wants to see them. Another thing that is very noticeable is the mixture of saturated and de-saturated colors as well as his use of odd shaped de-saturated things. It seems he uses odd shapes to show uneasiness, in other words instead of showing a normal looking dark castle with a Dutch angle to show possible danger, Burton will show you an odd shaped twisted dark castle at a normal angle.
One thing Burton seems to express not just in this movie but in others as well is darkness is not always bad. As a matter of fact I think Burton did a perfect job in showing that beauty is only an exterior in this film. The town of Suburbia in this film is almost a Norman Rockwell painting. It is the perfect American town, well at least on the outside. But within the first ten minutes we see that every one of these perfect people are very dark, they are cut throat and only out for their own interests. This I think is shown perfectly when peg gets into her car and the side mirror is reflecting the pastel painting of a town and as she adjusts her mirror the town seems to visually change into this dark gloomy castle. I think that this was Tim burtons way of showing the reality of the town for its true nature. Once again that detail is there if you want to see it.
On the flip side Edward who looks very dark, scary even, is almost child like. He doesn't know harm, gossip, lies. He is the essence of innocence wrapped up in a very dark package. Burton also helps capture this child like appearance by a lot of the time shooting Edward at a slightly above normal angle not to diminish him completely but to make him appear more innocent. All in all this film could not have been as good as it was without the directing styles and creativity of Tim Burton.
Mars Attacks
It is very different than Edward Scissorhands. . It was cut similarly though. Unfortunately camera angle and cutting style is not were Burton differs from other camera/cutting styles. It is in the underlying content of the film as well as the design or look and feel of the film as well. And this film was not lacking Tim Burton's touch. As a matter of fact it is just as dark as his other films. Although aesthetically it was violent it was not dark looking. It was full of dark humor. No doubt you will find it in the comedy section, but it also like most Tim Burton's movies, makes a statement. And this movie is about showing the true nature of humans, once again the dark side of humanity. Yes the Martians were dark in this movie. But the humans are just as bad. Before the Martians landed the government was talking about whether kill them or talk to them. The president for example was being a politician to his dying minute. The president's wife was only interested in wealth and power.
