Tim Burton Cinematic Style

The cinematic style of a director is his or her fingerprint. It is wholly unique to that specific director, and even the best attempts to mimic another director’s style are not entirely successful. The esteemed director Tim Burton uses his own unique style to enrich his films with meaning and complexity. However, his use of styles is not equal and balanced, for he draws heavily upon grayscale and dark imagery. He uses these colors as a polarizing agent to enhance the movement of the plot without regard to aesthetics, while keeping the film pleasing to his audience’s senses. Another style unique to Tim Burton is the use of motifs such as re-animation and death. Tim Burton uses these styles to not only allude to his fascination of the macabre, but to also maintain the classic horror tradition and imprint his cinematic fingerprint on each of his films. Overall, his manipulation of these two cinematic elements, color and theme, is responsible for his reputation as an astounding film director.
Tim Burton uses dark coloration as a distinct means to heighten the tragic, dramatic, and symbolic setting of his films. In The Corpse Bride dark coloration was used to compare the world of the living from the world of the deceased. Through this juxtaposition, an ironic situation is formed, wherein the dead …show more content…
His fascination with the macabre, death, re-animation, and life are unquestionably apparent in his film Sleepy Hollow. In this film, Tim Burton combines his visual prowess and love of the macabre to create and give life to his character, the Headless Horseman. The character himself serves as an archetype to suggest that although one is dead, he or she may still live a life that outshines those who are supposedly alive. Tim Burton’s style is intrinsic to him and only him, and it defines his personality as a