Tim Burton: Film Analysis

The director I will be exploring is Tim Burton, who is famous for his creepy, unusual, gothic take on fantasy, animated and horror films. An auteur is a director who is identified by and associated with the way they have put together their film. All of Tim Burton’s films have similar aspects that prove that he is an auteur and these can be seen through character, costume, style of movie, soundtrack; and camera, editing and audio technique. The two aspects of film I will be focusing on are visual language techniques and sound techniques which I will be comparing in the movies Edward Scissorhands (1990) and Sleepy Hollow (1999) to prove that Tim Burton is an auteur. Themes in both films. Points on his views on society

Visual language features and sound techniques can be compared in both films to show similarities

I saw in the extract, especially at the neighbourhood barbeque after the flashback that mid shots to show from about waist up where used often. Instead of a close up of the face that is talking and cutting between just those faces, he uses mid shots that show both characters, who stand so that their bodies are partially facing the camera. Behind the two talking characters is the bustle of the neighbourhood party. There are people behind the characters in focus that can be seen but are not really thought about. There is another example where Edward is in the middle of about four other men who are talking to him. They all stand in a line as they talk facing outward, toward the camera instead of cutting between faces.

There are similar visual language feature techniques seen the extract I have chosen for the movie sleepy hollow directed by Tim Burton. This extract starts with a slow pan from behind a tree, behind the silhouette of branches to an opening showing full view of the characters. The characters are seen standing around a body.

Character