Tim Burton's Auteur Theory

Indisputably, Tim Burton has one of the world’s most distinct styles when regarding film directing. His tone, mood, diction, imagery, organization, syntax, and point of view within his films sets him apart from other renowned directors. Burton’s style can be easily depicted in two of his most highly esteemed and critically acclaimed films, Edward Scissorhands and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Burton ingeniously incorporates effective cinematic techniques to convey a poignant underlying message to the audience. Such cinematic techniques are in the lighting and editing technique categories. High key and low key relationships plus editing variations evinces the director’s elaborate style. He utilizes these cinematic techniques to

An auteur is a singular artist who controls all aspects of a collaborative creative work, a person equivalent to the author of a novel or a play. The term is commonly referenced to filmmakers or directors with a recognizable style or thematic preoccupation.

An auteur is a filmmaker whose movies are characterized by their creative influence. Garry Marshall is an American filmmaker, he has directed more than 15 films in his career. Garry Marshall’s films The Princess Diaries, Valentines Day and Overboard share a common theme of love and a genre of romance and comedy, he likes to use the same actors in his films and have the common plot of a double twist. Garry Marshall likes to keep to the same character persona and film techniques but these generalized similarities are not obvious to the audience, therefore Garry Marshall is not a recognizable Auteur.

An auteur is a director who personal creative vision and style is expressed through films. The term auteur is originated in France and is French for author. There are different ways in which a director can express their vision in films and show who they are. There are many directors that are considered to be a auteur such as: Quentin Tarintino, Tim Burton, Kathryn Bigelow, Stanley Kubrick and Woody Allen. The director I have chosen as an auteur is Spike Lee.

Without doubt, Tim Burton has one of the world’s most unique styles when it comes to directing a movie. Burton’s use of tone, mood, diction, imagery, flashbacks, and -most of all- his point of view within his films easily allows him to be a director like no other. Effective techniques such as these contribute to conveying an underlying message to his audiences. Two impacting techniques are the use of makeup/effects and his choice of actors. Although the two may not seem important, they can be terrifically illustrated by Burton’s award winning film: Edward Scissorhands.

The cinematic styles that Tim Burton used were editing to stand out a specific mood of the scene and contrast to show the one who doesn't fit in and symbolic color to create the mood of the scene. First, Tim Burton used editing to stand out a specific mood for a scene. In Edward Scissorhands, the scene when Peg gets into her car with frustration from her work not going well and sees a castle when she looked into her car’s rearview mirror. To the scene, when she enters the castle that she saw in the car.

Tim burton uses many cinematic techniques to create many moods and a imaginary world of his own throughout his movies. To create these moods he uses lighting, music, and shots. These techniques are what help make a Tim Burton movie. Tim Burton is known for his unique style of making wicked and creepy movies. In the following paragraphs I will describe how Tim Burton uses these cinematic techniques to create his movies.

Individuality can be an admired gift, but it is often buried under society’s illogically perfect expectations. The famous film director, Tim Burton, known for directing movies such as Edward Scissorhands and Alice in Wonderland, proves in several thrilling adventures. He shows that uniqueness is a strength, not a weakness, even if it means being an outcast or misfit. Through two of his films, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children and Edward Scissorhands, showcases the message of identity is preferable to conformity.

Tim Burton’s style is his films are very uncommon, quite peculiar, and his films normally stand out from the few directors, with Burton’s lighting, distinct costuming, and advanced editing.The lighting in which develops a mood towards the audience. It has very few bright scenes and much darkness is brightened by few lights to make the scene very lowly lit. With the costuming from “Edward Scissorhands” the main character had quite a strange and rather scary costume while the other outlying characters dressed formal at the time. His editing of the many films he has done are often “intense” and “childlike”. With the features of childlike figures and imagines combined with the odd, chilling scenes and designs.The overall Tim Burton’s style is unique

The term Auteur seems to bless a privileged group of filmmakers with an almost messiah-like legacy. Men such as Alfred Hitchcock, John Ford and Fritz Lange are believed to inhabit the ranks of the cinematic elite, and not surprisingly most critics are more than willing to bestow upon them the title of Auteur. By regarding filmmaking as yet another form of art, Auteur theory stipulates that a film is the direct result of its director's genius. With the emerging prominence of auteur based criticism in the 1950?s, the role of the director became increasingly integral to a film's success. However most would argue that this form of criticism didn't reach its apex until 1960s, when Andrew Sarris released his

Tim Burton is a famous director who has created famous work such as Edward Scissorhands and the Oscar nominated Corpse Bride. His work has its own distinct look that is completely separated from most artists and directors. He would be influenced by horror to develop his own style that is recognisable today. The majority of the impact on this style came from isolation and normality as well as his own life and work as a child. He then implements a lot of his childhood life including the things that he was affiliated with and the people he idolised into making his films and does so in a unique manner.

From the distinct transitions, to the extremely well defined visual design of each frame, to the intricate choice of every mise-en-scene element; the director conveys the central unifying concern of the film through feeling. The director uses very classic cinematic elements

Auteur theory, theory of filmmaking, considers the director as an author of the film and gives most credit to the director. “Auteur means who the chief creator force behind the film. If it is a book it is easier and it is usually one person product but in a film it is a lot more complicated” (Jonathan Berman Week 7 lecture). I think the key word are here “the chief creator force behind the film”. If we are asking who wrote the story originally then the answer to the question “who are the real authors of films?” would be the writers since the writers are the authors.

Tim Burton is one of the most unusual and unique directors of our time. He brings characters to life by putting them in a habitat they don’t belong. His movies “Alice in Wonderland”, “The Corpse Bride”, “Charlie and the chocolate factory”, and “Edward Scissorhands” all demonstrate how one of a kind his movies are. Using cinematic techniques, Tim Burton points out the misfit character and shows how different they are then everyone else. His use of camera angles, lighting, and sound give the viewers a different perspective on the movies, and help pick out the individual character.

Tim Burton is a popular director, his films are known to be dark and strange, they usually are a fairytale like story with a dark twist. He has done a lot of very popular films, for example, he has directed Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Edward Scissorhands, and The Corpse Bride. He was inspired by the Grimm Brothers, Edgar Allan Poe, Roald Dahl, and Vincent Price.Tim Burton uses close up, low key lighting, zoom, and long shot to show the characters emotions, create a scary scene, show what is important and to make characters look vulnerable.