Tim Burton
Working Investigation Title: 'How Tim Burton portrays Gothic in his animated films
'
'The Corpse Bride
1.
Focus Film: The Corpse Bride: 21st October 2005
Director: Tim Burton
Produced: Tim Burton
Studios: Warner Brother
I have decided to look at 'The Corpse Bride' as my main focus film as this film best portrays Tim Burton style of gothic in an animation.
The main way to show that Burton has captured gothic in this animations is the characters types and appearances, Tim Burton designed these characters as frail, pale, awkwardly face shaped characters. their complexation, blanched and they have black outer rings around their bright, dark eyes.
There are also supernatural beings in the corpse bride including ghosts, corpses and skeletons which shows us that the main idea behind this movie is gothic and doom.
Sound was also a main convention of the gothic genre, Tim Burton uses over the top, dramatic music in the backgrounds, the music used in this film at times was random, it was usually added to give a sense of suspense.
In this film the Land of the Dead is shown as a colourful, bright place to live where as the Land of the Living is shown as dark and looks as though it should be the land of the dead rather then the living. The film shows Victor being stuck in the middle of two worlds, land of the living and land of the dead, whilst he is in the Land of the Living the characters are shown as 'close to tim' types and paint them as gray, this shows that th
e land of the living is actually more like the land of the dead and the land of the dead are more living, the Land of the Living
was said to give the feel of remote. 6.
This film also comes under the Melo-Dramatic genre which adds effect to the dramatic feel and gothic style of the film, in this film there is a lot of low violin's playing which adds effect and makes the feeling of some of the scene especially in the grave yard much more tense and eerie. The sudden change of music once victor turns around into the Corpse Bride also gives the film a gothic feel to it as it is fast and tense and makes the Corpse Bride seem more scary and dramatic. 4.
The story of the Corpse Bride has some predictable and devilish twists that are associated with Tim Burton's Gothic films there is also moments of wicked humor that pop up in some unexpected times such as the maggot that lives in the Corpse Bride's head whom he referees to himself as 'Emily's conscience'
The film is shot in amazing camera angles that are sometimes shows as tilted which makes the characters look off balance and more realistic which adds effect to the corpse Bride who is dead, the scenes are played out in dynamic fashion that makes the action of the film come alive, this makes the film more vivid and three dimensional. 5.
Sources:
Internet:
Interview:
6. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Uu70Ur0k7c
The Nightmare Before Christmas
2.
Related Films:The Nightmare Before Christmas: 25th November 1994
Director: Henry Selick
Produced by: Tim Burton
Studios: Touchstone Pictures
I have decided to look at the film The Nightmare Before Christmas as one of my related films to The Corpse Bride as this film is also stop motion and best fits into the gothic style that I am looking at.
The Nightmare Before Christmas is a 1993 Musical stop motion film directed by Henry Selick and co-writted by Tim Burton.
The main character is Jack Skellingtion who is a skeleton living in 'Halloween Town', it shows Jack as being an undead also maybe immortal character who gets bored of doing the same thing every year for Halloween. He has the ability to remove bones from his body and also to set himself on fire without serious injury.
In an interview with Tim burton he said that the crew on the set of The nightmare Before Christmas they used over 30 different lights on one set to get the dramatic feel and eerie atmosphere for the scene. 9.
In Halloween town, everything is seen as dark and eerie, also in an interview with Tim Burton he said that the feel of Halloween town was to create a black and white type of film for Halloween. The characters are all Tin colored and look like one of the undead. 9.
Once Jack visits the real world, it is seen as simple, regular with pastel colours, however in Christmas Town that Jack stumbles upon is bright and vivd, there are also fast camera moves to get the feel of excitement in this scene, this also makes Halloween town look more dead and lifeless which is one of Tim Burtons gothic styles that he uses.
Tim Burton said that he wanted to give the characters a look that resembles to pen and ink illustrations, this also gives the characters of Halloween Town a more gothic feel to it as the characters look oddly shaped and off balance. 7.
Likewise the character Sally is shown as a rag-doll and is shown to be off balance by slants of the camera angles which appears that she is uneven, this adds a gothic feel to the film as it is something that you don't normally see in other films, Sally is also shown as being able to repair herself with a needle and thread, this is quite a gothic style.
The atmospheric that is used in The Nightmare Before Christmas has a big impact on the feeling of gothic, there are characters shown as ghosts there are also Bolts of lightning, smoke, shadows and fire, which gives a gothic feel to the film. 9. 10.
The film is set as a dark town and gives the feeling of death and coldness which adds a gothic feel to the film. 8.
This film is also Melo-dramatic as it constantly plays music in the background which adds suspense and tension, this also adds to the gothic feel of the film, an example of this is the oogie boogie man's layer were dark jazz music is played giving a casino feel to the film, as each time we see the Oogie Boogie man Jazz is always playing. Another example is the beginning of the film were dark music is playing as we see the camera move through the graveyard, this adds an eerie atmosphere to the film and makes the feeling of the film more gothic and interesting. 9.
This film is also Melo-dramatic as it constantly plays music in the background which adds suspense and tension, this also adds to the gothic feel of the film, an example of this is the oogie boogie man's layer were dark jazz music is played giving a casino feel to the film, as each time we see the Oogie Boogie man Jazz is always playing. Another example is the beginning of the film were dark music is playing as we see the camera move through the graveyard, this adds an eerie atmosphere to the film and makes the feeling of the film more gothic and interesting. 9.
Sources:
Internet:
Interview:
9. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoarTDxz9zw
10 .http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qrB9I3DM80
10 .http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qrB9I3DM80
James and the Giant Peach
3.
Related film: James and the Giant Peach: 2nd August 1996
Director: Henry SelickProducer: Tim Burton
Studios: Walt Disney Pictures
11.
I have decided to look at James and the Giant Peach as one of my related films to the Corpse Bride, like the other too films, James and the giant peach is also stop motion, this adds a Gothic feel to the film as most stop motion films shows characters being off balance and eerie.
Like in The Corpse Bride, when James is in the real work everything is dark. This adds a gothic effect as it shows the real world as being dead and ugly. When James is living in the real world which is shown as real actors, he is with his two aunties who are named Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker who are portrayed as the horrible ants who make James do all the chores and make him sleep in a cold dark room. In the real world it is shown as dead, like in the corpse Bride the characters wear dark clothing and have pale faces with big black rings around their eyes, this gives a sense of gothic almost vampire-ish. 12.
Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker are the main villains in James
and the Giant Peach, the two aunts and James live in a poor rundown house ontop of a rocky hill, both the aunts want to be rich and once James is in possession of the Peach the Aunts take over and claim it is theirs. However once James enters the Peach it becomes loose, both aunts are furious and head to New York. Once they are in New York they either try to harm James or even murder him, this gives a feel of Gothic as we are back in the real world were James is a real Actor and things become very real, also in this scene it is raining heavily and both aunts look terrifying, this makes it more scarier for the viewers who are watching. 13. 14.
Once James enters the Giant peach he turns into a stop motion character and is surrounded by light and happy characters, this can give a sense of gothic as it is going from one dark scene where James is living in the real world, to a happy calm place were large insects hide.14.
Jack Skellinton from 'The nightmare Before christmas' makes a cameo appearance in James and the Giant Peach
Sources:
Trailer/Interviews:
11. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73ax6ZrcUx4
Internet:
12. http://www.timburtoncollective.com/james.html
13. http://hubpages.com/hub/Tim-Burton-movies-From-Bizzare-to-Bewitching
14. http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/2978/jamesandthegiantpeach
Tim Burton Short Biography
Tim Burton was born on 25th August 1958 in Burbank, california, he spent most of his childhood drawing and watching old movies. Tim Burtons first job was working as an animator for Disney and worked on films such as 'The fox and hound' and 'The Black Cauldron' after Disney recognized his talents they allowed him to start work on 'Vincent'
James and the Giant Peach was released in 1996 directed by Henry Selick and was produced by Tim Burton. 15, 16
In 1993 he produced 'The Nightmare Before Christmas' which was directed by Disney's Animator Henry Selick. 17.
In 2005 came the release of the stop motion animation film 'Corpse Bride' which was nominated for an Oscar for Best Animated Feature. 18.
Sources:
Internet:
15. http://www.timburtoncollective.com/bio.html
16. http://www.biography.com/articles/tim-burton-9542431
17. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NB-OIJdMfHY&feature=related
18. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mANsedYvsBs
