Random Film Ideas

• There is a house around the corner from my street that had bars to protect the front door and around the house that looks quite scary and mysterious. I could possibly use this as a set if I went through with the idea of an orphanage.
• Because Tim Burton's films are dark with accents of light, I had a cool shot idea of a person holding a candle and walking around the house in the dark.
• I want to achieve an 'underworld' sort of story but I can't really do that unless I want to prepare a 2 hours film. I must keep it short and simple so this is an obstacle that I must be weary of
• I can use the gold side of the reflector to create a warm light mood because Tim Burton manipulates the use of warm and cool lighting
• I had the thought of using my younger sister as an actress; however I don't know how that would turn out because she is only 6 years old and it would be difficult to control her maturely. I only thought of this because, like in Alice In Wonderland, Burton's films often start with the character at a young age and then goes forward in time. I could use the fact that I have a younger sister here at home, but again it's just an idea as an option

Brainstorming for Design Task

Today Mr Andrews gave us an overview for our next two tasks that also revolve around the auteur directors that we have chosen. I have copy and pasted that into a previous blog post.

• Underworld/Dream
• Girl waking up in her bed from a bad dream
• Before she goes to sleep she sees the characters in her dream around her and it becomes her reality
• Shadows following her and they step out to be not as scary
• Her dream world is mixed up with her reality
• Imaginary friend that no one else sees
• Tim Burton works a lot with children that don't have parents or don't have a connection with them
• Child can be in an orphanage
• Flashback?? Girl has the same dream as she did when she was a child
• She dreams about her parents that she doesn't know exists

DIY steadicam

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NDsEFy5Iww 

Auteur Theory – Design and Production Task Overviews

In order for us to start planning for our next tasks, Mr Andrews gave us an overview of our tasks. He hasn't been able to get us the actual task sheet as it is not finalised yet so this overview will be very helpful for us so we have the information to start our films.

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Task 12.5  - Design Task - Design Suite 

Due Dates: 

Draft Due – Monday 25 July Week 3B 

Final Due – Friday 5 August Week 4A

Key Concepts: Representations and Languages

Individually develop a treatment and shooting script/shot list for an auteur inspired film sequence. The film must be based on the work of the director studied in the previous task 12.4, and must pay homage and reference to the director’s signature style. This may include recurring themes, cinematic techniques, narrative and plot conventions, symbolic codes and motif

Treatment: Synopsis of 400 - 500 words

Shot List 2 - 4 minutes 

Individual design task

Summative

Task 12.6 – Production Task – individual Production

Due Dates: 

Rough Edit – Friday 19 August Week 6A

Final Edit – Monday 5 September Week 9B

Key Concepts: 

Using the design suite from the previous task, create a polished Auteur style film sequence production. A variety of production techniques should be used to manipulate the footage and recreate the Auteur’s style.

Individual Production Task 

2 - 4 minutes

Summative

Tim Burton Auteur Director Essay

Below is my speech for my Oral presentation, where I convinced my audience that Tim Burton is definitely an auteur director, and showed them visual evidence to back it up. I, personally, didn't enjoy this assignment because I was too excited to get into the practical part of this unit - actually filming in his style! But I figured that it's extremely important to analyse Burton's work in depth and have a very good understanding of his signature styles before I even attempt to create a few scenes/a short film the way he would.

Thursday 9th June 2016

Nicole Hoskins

Tim Burton Auteur Director Essay

Tim Burton is an American film director, producer, and animator. He is considered an auteur because his dark, gothic and quirky style is clearly portrayed through specific techniques throughout all of his films. He uses tools such as mise en scene, cinematography, characters and narratives in order to create and maintain his distinct style and consequently separate himself from other directors in the Hollywood institute. Tim Burton manipulates mise en scene to create a very specific dark, yet quirky visual style which makes his films recognisable as his work. He also very carefully uses lighting and cinematography as a motif for characters and the storyline. In addition, he incorporates creepy characters and uses common narrative conventions throughout his films. Through his certain ways of manipulating mise en scene, lighting combined with cinematography, as well as characters and narrative conventions, it is obvious that Tim Burton is considered an Auteur director for his gothic signature stamp.

Tim Burton manipulates mise en scene to create a very specific dark, yet quirky visual style which makes his films recognisable enough to know it is his work. Burton sets the creepy mood by creating dark gothic settings as a signature style throughout many of his films. This is evident in the movies Batman, Sleepy Hollow, Sweeney Todd and Dark Shadows where there is a very similar colour palette and the overall spine-chilling vibe that the sets portray. To add some quirkiness to his gothic films, he often uses odd props that accentuate the peculiar situations and add to his signature style. He commonly juxtaposes vivid and bright colours, to dark and mysterious colours throughout the costumes and sets. Often the contrast symbolises characters or are relevant to the plot. For example Batman and the Joker. The hero is dressed in predominantly black, with his face covered in a mask, but the villain is colourful and has a rather wacky costume. This colour juxtaposition is also seen in Edward Scissorhands’ grey creepy mansion and jet-black leathery physical appearance when it is put into contrast with everyone else in the town, whose houses are bright pastel block colours and they wear vivid coloured clothing. As well as the dark settings, quirky props and the costume colour contrasts, another recurring aspect in a lot of Burton’s films is that the characters have a physically pale, skinny, and sleep-deprived appearance. This can be seen in the characters Edward Scissorhands, Victor Van Dort, Betelgeuse, Jack Skellington and Barnabas Collins. Burton also likes to either exaggerate or underemphasise physical character traits which add to the quirkiness in his visual style. For example, the Mad Hatter’s widened eyes, the Queen of Heart’s enormous-sized head, the huge creepy smile of the Cheshire cat. In Corpse Bride, Victor’s body is extremely skinny and long, but his head and eyes are big. These disproportionate and non-human physicality's are seen through many of Burton’s films further proving why he is considered an auteur. Auteur directors also often use the same actors throughout their films as their specific acting style is a huge contribution to the mise en scene, which is a very prominent part of the film in regards to maintaining the same signature styles throughout his films. Burton has worked repeatedly with, actor, Johnny Depp in countless numbers of his movies. As well as actress Helena Bonham Carter. Because Burton worked with Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter for a countless number of times, it is clear that he has trust in these particular actors to have the same vision as he does for his films and successfully convey the characters and storyline according to his signature visual style. Tim Burton is an auteur because he purposely uses mise en scene to construct his signature visual stamp, through gothic sets, quirky props, dark costumes contrasted with bright costumes, similar characters and the use of the same actors.

Tim Burton is critical with his lighting and cinematography choices in very specific ways that add to his signature style. He often uses warm and cool colours in his lighting to set moods, and act as a colour motif to distinguish between specific characters. This is seen in movies such as Edward Scissorhands, where Edward is revealed with very cool lighting as a representation of his character, as opposed to the rest of the set. Similarly, in Alice In Wonderland, he represents the white queen with a full wash of lights with a warm undertone, making the audience feel comfortable with her character. Whereas, with the queen of hearts, Burton works with minimal lighting and a very cool undertone, to set a cold and unsettling mood around her character. Throughout many of Burton’s films, he manipulates the use of warm and cool lighting to set moods and add to characterisation. Burton captures these lighting techniques through his signature cinematography techniques, such as his use of establishing shots and point of view shots. He is able to establish the scene with his use of common use of long shots of the set, and this is a technique that Burton uses very often and before almost every scene. Also, he often uses point-of-view shots that reveal what the characters are seeing in front of them. (VIDEO OF EDWARD SCISSORHANDS) Tim Burton manipulates warm and cool colours in his lighting as well as using similar cinematography techniques, and this adds to his particular visual style and therefore proving him as an auteur.

In many of Tim Burton’s films, the twisted and creepy, yet likeable characters combined with similar narrative conventions add to his gothic film style. The characters in his films are often creepy but audiences can still relate and sympathise with their human characteristics. Take, for example, Edward Scissorhands: he has quite a scary appearance with his black leather suit and scissor hands, but, Burton creates him to have this shy, timid and socially awkward nature, and because of this people grow to like his character. Another example is The Mad Hatter and the Corpse Bride who are creepy in appearance but as the story progresses their character and emotions becomes apparent to the audience and then they’re able to feel connected to these creepy and twisted characters. This is definitely something that occurs a lot in Tim Burton’s films. Characters are often creepy or have dark, gothic personalities, but ultimately the audience often builds an genuine appeal to the character and their nonhuman characteristics. Additionally, many of the storylines Burton’s films involve average human characters who delve into an underworld, fantasy world or a dream, where they encounter strange, mostly non-human characters. This is exactly what happens when Alice goes into Wonderland, and when James goes on the wild adventure in that giant peach. Victor in The Corpse Bride is constantly travelling between the two worlds of reality and the underworld. It is obvious that Burton loves to incorporate parallel universes within his films. Through the creepy characters and similar narrative conventions, it is clear that Burton uses many of the same techniques throughout his films proving his reputation as an auteur director.

Therefore, it is entirely evident that director Tim Burton is an auteur because of his distinct gothic and quirky signature style throughout all of his films. This style is portrayed through mise en scene that projects very specific dark, yet quirky visuals which makes his films recognisable just from looking at it. He also carefully uses lighting and cinematography as a motif for characters and the storyline. Also all of his narratives have similar aspects as well as the common creepy twisted character throughout his films. He uses these tools in order to create and maintain his particular gothic but quirky fantasy films, which are what makes his directing style so distinct compared to other directors and separates him from the Hollywood institute.

Edward Scissorhands Notes

Mise En Scene

Cinematography

Characterisation

Narrative

• Spooky music
• Dark, unwell lit
• Introduced with long-timed shots of props/set that are relevant to the story
• Camera going up the stairs
• Blue lighting in the dark
• Long fade ins and outs
• Moving canted angles
• Juxtaposition of the cold dark blue outside world (the rock hill with Edward's mansion on it), with the warmth of the room (fire as warm lighting)
• Story starts with the grandma telling her granddaughter a story about how 'snow' was created but turns out it was a retelling of history
• As she tells the story, her voice becomes a voice over as the camera moves to outside, through the town and up the mansion.
• Choral music angelic ooh's almost christmas-like
• Town's view of the mansion fades into the mansions view of the town and zooms back to reveal edward looking out
• Complete change in visuals: block colours, bright lighting, happy middle-aged women in the city
• Barely any shot changes when characters in conversation - minimalisation
• ColoursBright pink, yellow, purple, green
• Set: Orange and yellow cars, green houses, full purple outfits
• Women are very perky and happy
• Everything in the shot is in focus
• Dark grey hill juxtaposed with colourful town
• Panning low angled shot to reveal the woman arriving at the huge mansion
• Beautiful orchestral and choral music as she enters the gate, looking at the beautiful large bush carvings, tinkle'''' instrument strings
• Steadicam movements revealing all of the artworks 
• Dark, empty, echoey in the mansion
• Cobwebs and minimal lighting
• No music whilst edward and Peg meet - suspense
• Edward is very socially awkward: doesn't know how to carry himself 
• Harp music as he is admiring the colourful town
• Shots from camera in the car as they drive along
• Mid shot for when people are in conversation
• Edwards awkwardness becomes comedic as he is sort of an 'alien' to this place
• Women constantly using telephones to gossip and talk to each other
• Grand orchestral music when he enters the well lit home
• romantic choral music 'ooh's' when he finds out who Kim is
• Edwards face has several scars from cutting, he is very pale, dark eyes
• Close up pans of the photo frames
• Camera is still as Peg and Edward walk forward into the shot on the hallway
• Moments where there is awkwardness, there is no music at all
• High angle shot of the city
• The cars leave and arrive at the same time: men going to work.
• The women stay home all day leaving a lot of time to gossip and stuff
• The camera shoots from edwards perspective sometimes, as the other characters (husband and peg) talk to the camera and we see what edward sees

• Voicemails left on the lady's phone - use of the telephone as a way of communication and gossip
• Lady in purple dress: first to be sceptical of edward, her face isn't shown at first as she accuses him from being from the flames of hell. She pops up in the background to interrupt the ladies to say 'he's a perversion of nature'
• The automatic can opener reminds him of the factory machines in the mansion he lived in
• Zoom into edwards face before the flashback
• Scary brass and string music during the negative flash back
• Fades from the bright into dark atmosphere of the factory - parallel of the can opener
• Bright wind instruments play as the old man (The Inventor) appears from behind the machines
• Steadicam through the works of the machines
• Pans and zooms through the works of the machines
• People wearing a large variety of bright colours
• The old man (The Inventor) is well lit and coloured compared to the background - dark grey machines
• 'harry potter'-like music during flashback
• Cricket sounds to create the night time effect
• Tension:
• Dark lighting
• Warm lighting on Kim, cold lighting on Edward
• Camera position to see Kim in foreground of the mirror and Edward in the background
• No music at all
• Long timing between the time she enters the room, and the time she realises Edward is there
• She screams and the water from the bed goes everywhere
• Camera follows the movement of Edwards head as he looks up
• Lots of long shots
• People at the dinner table are well lit, but the corners of the small room are still quite dark
• When Edward is cutting something, the camera is in the low perspective of 'whatever he is cutting' and the bits and pieces go flying up in front of his face
• Fast, tense violin music when Ed is cutting the ladies hair, 
• Sexual reference? She is quite 'exhilerated' by the hair cut 'that was the single most thrilling experience of my whole life'
• Hair cuts are quirky
• The focus in the room is well lit but the background is mostly dark
• When Ed is having a little 'day dream' staring moment at Kim at the mall(?) the camera is focused on him and everything else is blurry
• Bright block colours: light blue, bright green
• Zooming into Kim's face when she realises Ed might like her
• Camera following them walking through the mall through a glass window in the shop
• Camera pans across the action in close ups; hand on the stereo, goes up to lady's jacket and pans out as she takes it off
• "Then she took me to the back room where she took all her clothes off" A quotation from Edward scissorhands that shows that he doesn't know what was happening and is socially uneducated
• Block bright vivid colours at the restaurant, block black and white colours for bank
• High birdseye view of the room
• Camera follows Kim and Jim as they run away from the house
• Tension: shouting, music, shouting police man
• Bank, and police department are white and bland in comparison to rest of the city
• Camera following Peg as she paces up and down when on the phone
• Close up of the christmas tree pans to the people 
• Camera moves backwards as Kim walks towards it
• Kim walks from the warm lit house, to the dark balcony then out to the cool lit outside
• Glorious Moment
• Low angle as Kim enjoys the 'snow' that Edward creates
• Choral "ooh"s 
• Camera circles kim at a low angle
• Slow Motion
• Police car - black and white, bland and boring compared to rest of city
• Father isn't portrayed as very smart: he has a loud voice and strong opinion but is quite ignorant and doesn't notice some things
• Tension
• Long-timed shots
• Close ups put together with long shots
• HAPPY MOMENT put right before the SAD MOMENT
• Didn't expect this movie to make me cry WHY TIM BURTON
• Edward gets new hands and it is a beautiful moment but then his creators face slowly starts to drop the he falls to the ground WHY AM I STILL CRYING
• Jim: demanding (i don't like him)
• Lighting as boys walks out of house: house is lit but he is not - silhouette
• Music is indicating he is in trouble
• Cool high angle/birdseye shot as he runs down the street

• Everything bad happens in the night
• The night Jim frames Ed
• The night Edward accidentally hurts people
• Edwards House: dark, only white.blue lighting - very dark, specific lighting choices
• High angle shot of Jim beating Edward up
• High angle shot of Kim beating up Jim beating up Edward
• Point of view shots of Jim killed (silently cheering)

• There is always wind blowing through Kim's hair
• Kim lied saying that Edward is dead
• Flash forward to the present day (it's so obvious through her voice that it's Kim)
• Girl in the bed: she is lit well but the bed around her isn't as bright
• White= innocence
• Beautiful cool sky, compared to warm bedroom
• Motif of snow
• Slow motion shots of Kim when she was younger in the snow
• Choral singing ooh's as the movie comes to an ending

7 Life Lessons from Alice In Wonderland

I found this website that listed some life lessons that was taught in the movie Alice In Wonderland and knew that it would definitely be helpful for my assignment because it is a Tim Burton directed film and one of the things I have to explore are the common themes and messages throughout all of his films.


http://mamiverse.com/alice-in-wonderland-life-lessons-54525/6/ 

Alice in Wonderland is in many ways a coming of age story of a little girl who realizes the strength and potential of her imagination. Along the way, Alice in Wonderland imparts many life lessons to her readers, too. Here are seven of our favorites.

1. It’s no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then.Lesson: Don’t try to go back to the person you once were or cling to the past.Instead, grow and change, and become an even better version of you in the process.

2. If everybody minded their own business, the world would go around a great deal faster than it does. Lesson: Of course it’s important that we care about our fellow human beings, but minding our own business when it comes to gossip and the affairs of others is always a good rule to live by.

3. You’re entirely bonkers. But I’ll tell you a secret. All the best people are. Lesson: You have to be a little bit crazy to make it in this world! Some of the happiest people embrace their own eccentricities, and don’t judge others for not being “normal.”

4. There ought to be a book written about me, that there ought! And when I grow up, I’ll write one. Lesson: Each of us has a story to tell, and learning to value our experiences, feelings skills is an important step towards self-fulfillment—whether you write your own memoir or not!

5. Begin at the beginning, and go on till you come to the end: then stop. Lesson: Every great journey begins with a small step. You’ll know when you’ve reached the end, of a project, relationship or other journey, when you get there!

6. Everything’s got a moral. If only you can find it. Lesson: We have something to learn from virtually every experience of our lives, even the most difficult ones. When you come out the other side of a difficult period, you’ll look back and see how much you learned and grew from it.

7. She generally gave herself very good advice, though she very seldom followed it. Lesson: How many times have you given others advice you wish you would take yourself? We must listen to both our hearts and our heads in order to make the right decisions—especially the tough decisions of life.