On Monday we had to do a presentation about a director who fits in with auteur theory. Auteur theory is the belief that the most successful films are successful due to the directors distinct style. I decided to do my presentation on Tim Burton because he is one of my favourite directors due to his style being so unique and interesting.
The first thing I spoke about was the actual style of his films. They're all very dark and gothic. You can see this through the way he dresses his characters in very elaborate gothic outfits- usually black or some other very dark colour. The locations where he sets his films are always very bleak, like in the film 'The Corpse Bride' where he uses the 'underworld' as one of his main locations, and then a very run down gothic town for another. However, it's not only physical things such as costume design, music and setting which give off the gloomy air of a Burton film, its the way he edits his films. He has the colours very unsaturated and contrasting. I think this is because he wants his films to be creepy in the same way that horror films are, and horror films are often very unsaturated (apart from the blood and gore parts).
Next, I spoke about the opening credits to his films. In most of his films the opening credits are often going through something or following something. Below I have added the video clips from YouTube that I showed during my presentation.
The first thing I spoke about was the actual style of his films. They're all very dark and gothic. You can see this through the way he dresses his characters in very elaborate gothic outfits- usually black or some other very dark colour. The locations where he sets his films are always very bleak, like in the film 'The Corpse Bride' where he uses the 'underworld' as one of his main locations, and then a very run down gothic town for another. However, it's not only physical things such as costume design, music and setting which give off the gloomy air of a Burton film, its the way he edits his films. He has the colours very unsaturated and contrasting. I think this is because he wants his films to be creepy in the same way that horror films are, and horror films are often very unsaturated (apart from the blood and gore parts).
Next, I spoke about the opening credits to his films. In most of his films the opening credits are often going through something or following something. Below I have added the video clips from YouTube that I showed during my presentation.
Tim Burton is an artist, so all of his ideas and characters start out as sketches which he either transfers into stop motion characters or onto a 'human canvas'. As he does all his own sketches all of his characters are very unique and have their own personalities which are reflected in the way they look. Below I have included some photos of his sketches and then the finished product.
The final thing that I spoke about was how recognizable his style is. It's not just his films where his style is very distinct, Burton directed two music videos for the band The Killers. The first one was for their song 'Bones' and while physical things in the video match his surreal style, such as the people in the video turning into skeletons; he also features the animation "Jason And The Argonauts" which is the same animation that inspired Tim Burton. The music video is also in black and white, and when it is paired with the strangeness of the couple turning into skeletons, you can instantly tell it's Tim Burton's.
The second video he did for The Killers was for their song "Here With Me" (which is actually my favourite Killers song). As soon as I saw the music video for this song, I knew it must have been directed by Tim Burton. The whole video is very eccentric- from the way the girl is selling the tickets at the ticket booth, to the relationship the main character is having with the wax figure. There's a very dreamlike gothic feel to the whole video, which I think is down to the location that it's filmed.
The second video he did for The Killers was for their song "Here With Me" (which is actually my favourite Killers song). As soon as I saw the music video for this song, I knew it must have been directed by Tim Burton. The whole video is very eccentric- from the way the girl is selling the tickets at the ticket booth, to the relationship the main character is having with the wax figure. There's a very dreamlike gothic feel to the whole video, which I think is down to the location that it's filmed.
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Death is also a major topic in most of his movies, for example in the corpse bride it is about a man getting married to a corpse. You could say that Tim Burton's style is actually quite morbid- but this is what makes him so unique compared to other directors.
I think that my presentation that I gave was fairly successful as I was making eye contact and speaking loudly so that I could be heard nice and clear. I think that if I did it again I would have created a power point which was just of stills from Tim Burton films, this would have made it more interesting for the audience instead of just having YouTube videos playing.
I think that my presentation that I gave was fairly successful as I was making eye contact and speaking loudly so that I could be heard nice and clear. I think that if I did it again I would have created a power point which was just of stills from Tim Burton films, this would have made it more interesting for the audience instead of just having YouTube videos playing.