Tim Burton: A Director of Many Techniques

A great, original movie is the best such as Tim Burton’s classics such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Alice in Wonderland, and many more. Burton is a very unique director who incorporates a childlike innocence mixed in with darkness influenced through the works of Dr.

Seuss, Edgar Allan Poe, and classic fairy tales. Using this incorporated with various cinematic elements, he is able to leave the audience on the edge of their seats and control their emotions. Throughout his many productions, Burton uses shots and framing, camera angles, and imagery to help control and elevate the levels of suspense and control the moods for his audience. First off, Tim Burton uses the element of shots and framing to illustrate a feeling of uncertainty and surprise and to control the mood.He did this by using different shots including really close up shots, far away shots, and medium shots.

A key example would be in the trailer of his movie Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. For example, Burton uses a short shot on the girl who eats chicken with the back of her head (Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children). This helps to create a feeling of uncertainty because when the shot comes close, the audience knows that something will happen but they do not know what will happen and are left in a moment of suspense. It also creates a sense of a surprised mood because that is not what the audience expected to happen causing them to be surprised. In addition to this, another example would be in his movie Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

He does this when Charlie is the only one left and he uses a short shot of the words, Up and Out, and a long shot of them going Up and Out (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) . This helps to create suspense because when he does a short shot of the words Up and Out, it makes the reader question what is about to happen and creates an eerie mood. The same is true for the long shot because when the movie shows the glass elevator, the audience is in suspense questioning what will happen also creating a very eerie mood. As the audience can see, Tim Burton’s use of shots and framing really allows him to create his movies more suspenseful while also giving him control of the mood. Furthermore, Burton also uses the element of camera angles to create different feeling and moods.

For example, in Batman, Burton uses a combination of different camera angles to capture Batman throughout the movie (Batman). This creates suspense and a mood of darkness because in one scene you will see a low angle shot of Batman swooping in and another of a high angle looking down at Batman or one that is straight at his eye level. These different angles make the audience uncertain about what will happen next in the movie. This element is also present in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory when they are showing the Up and Out scene to also create suspense and create a mood (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory). When they use eye levels of Willy Wonka, Charlie, and his grandfather it creates a suspense of what will happen next and creates a mood of mystery because the audience does not know what Willy Wonka will do now that Charlie is the last one left.

Also, when they give a low shot of Up and Out it creates the same suspense and mood because the audience does not know what the outcome will be and it gives us a mood of mystery because it is mysterious to why they are launching in the air at that time. As the audience can see, Burton also uses the element of camera angles to control theshort-term feelings and suspense in his movies. Additionally, Burton also uses imagery to help control the suspense and the mood in his productions. For example, he uses different dark lighting in his 1989 film Batman throughout different scenes of the movie (Batman). This lighting helps to build up suspense as the dark image of the could hide Batman in the darkness making the audience unaware of where he is and making them wait and wonder where he could be when he suddenly emerges.

They could also use this dark lighting method to tell the audience that alert the audience building suspense and creating an eerie mood. The same is also true when they use different sounds and music in Batman throughout the movie (Batman.) This music helps build up suspense because combined with the dark lighting, the music and sounds creates an extra layer of suspense and mood. These eerie sounds could also make the audience more curious about what is about to happen because it could include elements as a soft noise immediately followed by the sounds of unconscious criminals. The freaky music could also play a role in this because it could make the audience more aware of what is going on building suspense and helping to develop the mood. As the audience can see throughout his movies, Burton also uses imagery to help develop his mood and build suspense in his films.

In conclusion, Tim Burton manages the mood and the suspense in his films using the elements of imagery, camera angles, and shots and framing. Using these different elements make such a huge difference in Burton’s movies and without these things, the movies would not be very good as it would be missing key aspects. All in all, Burton excels at the top of the directing industry using these techniques coming out with great movies for everyone including Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, Batman, and many more. Works Cited Batman. Directed by Tim Burton, Warner Bros., 1989 Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children.

Directed by Tim Burton, 20th Century Fox, 2016 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Directed by Tim Burton, Warner Bros, 2005