Haley Brown

Period 4

March 2, 2016

Tim Burton Style Analysis Essay

Tim Burton was influenced by Dr. Seuss, Roald Dahl and his imagination, his films are

characterized by horror and dark features. One of Burton’s films, Edward Scissorhands, he uses

any cinematic techniques to complete the characterization of horror and dark features. For

instance, Burton uses non-diegetic sound/music and high angle in the movie Edward

Scissorhands to convey the idea that Edward’s innocence is being delivered by the hands of these

cinematic techniques.

Throughout the film, Burton uses non-diegetic sound/music to complete the mood or

tone of the scene. For example, when Edward is looking at the pictures of Kim, there seems to be

music that sounds like love, angelic and heaven-like music. This indicates that Edward has some

kind of connection or “spark” with Kim. similarly, Burton uses non-diegetic sound/music during

the opening credits. The music that is playing during the opening credits sounds spooky yet

angelic and mysterious. This causes the audience to predict that the movie may be a love story

with an horrific twist. These 2 examples work together to show the power of non-diegetic

sound/music to reinforce Burton’s focus on having a sweet story with a terrifying twist.

As the film continues, Burton also uses high angles. For example, when Peg and Ed are

talking to Edward at the police station the camera seems to be at a high angle and facing down

on Edward. This scene shows the audience that Edward seems to be weak in this moment and

also speechless for the horrible action he just caused. Similarly, when Burton uses high angle on

the scene of when Jim is laying on the ground dead. This emphasizes that Jim is now powerless
and no more has control over Edward or Kim.Together we see how these 2 examples of high

angle work to show Burton’s theme of how horrible looking things could be lovely and beautiful

on the inside.

Ultimately, Tim Burton explores the idea that the help of all these cinematic techniques it

delivers Edward’s innocence throughout the movie. Non-diegetic sound/music and high angle

play a very huge part in this movie, they both constantly emphasize that with these techniques

they made the audience able to feel the morale of the story.The concept of the movie and Tim

Burton’s ways of his works are really interesting, because I like how a beautiful story can tie in

with a dark side.