Statement of intent – Lucy Wood “One person's craziness is another person's reality.” -‐ Tim Burton Introduction
Tim Burton is a filmmaker who was born August 25, 1958 and is an American film director, film producer, writer and artist. Tim Burton has inspired me the most out of any other filmmaker as he is known worldwide for his dark and twisted style, the main aspect of his creations that inspires me the most, is how in every film he has created, even if it is set in the real world, he makes it seem surreal and as far away from life as we know as possible, but still making his films believable, making them unique and unusual. Cinematography
Tim Burtonʼs visual style is very dark and eerie, and so to create this feel, he often uses low lighting and dark surroundings, he also uses a lot of low or eye level shots, along with fast and slow pans to introduce characters and drama giving the viewer a feeling of looking up to the subject of the shot or being forced towards a moment of drama/suspense creating a more helpless feel from the viewer, leading back into the dark style of Burtons films that makes them so unusual but gripping to watch. This will influence my production by giving me an idea of what sort of angles lighting and shots will give me the eerie and surreal feel to my film that I wish to achieve.
Genre
Tim Burton operates with a usual genre in which, the filmʼs have an eerie and dark look to them, but could range from a simple childrenʼs film, to a horror. For example, his film “The Nightmare Before Christmas” was a childrenʼs film about a Halloween character and his love of Christmas, in comparison to some of his other films such as “Sweeny Todd” which is about a man in London who killʼs people in a barber shop and his companion puts them into pies to sell. In general, Burton works with a dark Genre. This genre was born around the time of original horror films, such as “The Golem” and “Nosferatu” which were made in the early 1900ʼs and a lot of aspects seen in these films are used in Burtons work, such as poor lighting and un realistic characters, which Burton uses to his advantage to achieve such an unusual and strange feel.
Influence 1
Guillermo del Toro is a filmmaker that shows similarities between his work and Tim Burtons. Guillermo del Toroʼs main work is “Pans Labyrinth” which is a story based on the imagination of a young child, much like Burtons work which he says are inspired by his childhood imagination. Del Toroʼs characters also show similarities to Burtons, in the fact that they are characters that have been twisted into out of this world characters, such as Pale man from Pans Labyrinth. Guillermo del Toro also uses a similar filming style shots wise, for example, both uses low lighting to create a much more eerie effect and often film from below eye level to create the image of a tall and scary character. Pale Man – Pans Labyrinth
Influence 2 Jan
Svankmajer is a famous surrealist famous for his surreal animations; Burton shows aspects of Svankmajerʼs work in his projects today such as the style and behavior of the characters and how the film is generally made. For example, in many of his animations, Svankmajerʼs uses little lighting and his characters are usually made from either clay or from childrenʼs toys, which shows an aspect of a childʼs imagination, much like the other filmmakers I have researched, Svankmajer also made his unique version to the classic “Alice in Wonderland” much like Tim Burton, however Svankmajer makes the film much more relevant to the idea of the film, such as, the idea of the story, is a little girls imagination, and so Svankmajer uses dollʼs in his recreation of the classic. The main aspect of Svankmajerʼs work that is demonstrated in Burtons work today, is the characters and the style of the film, however Burton uses up to date technology to turn his work in to a more realistic feel which enhances the surreal aspect to his creations.
Example of characters from Svankmakers Alice
Proposal
For my final film, I propose to make my own version of a short clip from Alice in wonderland, the clip I will attempt to create is a simpler version of when Alice takes her first steps in wonderland. I intend to achieve this by collecting some actors to wear animal masks, and create a few unusual props to create the image of wonderland. I shall try to take on board Burtonʼs style also to the film, by making the actors act in a strange and surreal manor and use after effects to give the idea of a
much more eerie forest.
For the experiments, I will be taking my camera to the forest to test different lighting and also take some actors with me to see where the best positions for them to be are without them being hidden completely by shadows of trees. I will also have to test sound as there are many inconveniences regarding sound in a forest such as leafs, wind and birds in the surrounding.