TIM BURTON! Gothic King of the Bizarre! Visionary! Weirdo? He has been called many things, but one of the titles that intrigues me most is Master of Colour.
Master of Colour:
There are two sides to Tim Burton that come across in most of his films. Through the use of a variety of light sources, colour tones, and his hand-painted characters, he expressively creates two separate, colorful worlds that captivate viewers and tickle their imaginations: a dark, grey scale Gothic world, and a goofy world, filled with bright colours and striped patterns.
Colour in Films:
Edward Scissorhands
In this film the first thing that strikes the viewer is the use of colours. The small mountain and the mansion on top of it are set in a gloomy, dark grey setting, a shade that strongly contrasts with the brighter colours of the suburb below. This can also be found in the clothing of people. While Edward’s clothes are mostly black the others in the film are dressed in soft, brighter colours. Black is usually a symbolic colour for death and misfortune. This is fitting as Edward experienced the death of his creator before he was able to complete him as he was very old, leaving Edward alone to wallow in a pit of despair and gloom. Black is also the traditional colour to signify the bad guy, so we of course assume at first glance that Edward is evil, or at the very least severely troubled. This is also emphasized by his hands, which are razor sharp scissors, not something you would want to run into in a dark ally. His hair is also a black tangled mess and his face chalk white, which also adds to the horrific and ghostly effect of his appearance. If we imagine this film with Edward dressed in white or some brighter colours it would not have the same effect as white is a colour associated with pureness and innocence, and the softness of pastel or brighter colours would not suit his character.
The suburb consists of many bright and happy colours, found on the cars, the houses and the inhabitants. The sky is a bright blue and the overall colour of the lighting is soft but vibrant and cheery. I associate the colours that I see in the suburb in this film with things like My Little Pony and little girl’s dresses with puffed sleeves and lace. These are very harmless colours making the suburb look like a utopia from the 60's, in contrast to the dark nightmare image of the mansion and high mountain lurking in the background. This use of colour in the suburb distances Edward from the others and shows that he is an outsider. This contrast between him and the residents of the suburb is used throughout the movie.
Toward the end of the film there is a slight change in the colours. Kim and Edward form a unit and she is now dressed in white, which reflects both her innocence and that she is the only one that still believes that he is good and that he does not mean any harm. Edward also has white clothing on, linking the two together. *CLIP!*
Sleepy Hollow
Again the main colours in this film are dark and sinister. A lot of black is used, symbolic of death but what intrigued me most was the extreme contrast of the protagonist, Ichabod Crane’s flashbacks. One scene in particular, which I will show you, the extensive use of the colour white is used to portray the innocence and purity of his mother, and his father, drenched in black clothing symbolic of death and evil, walks through it disrupting and tainting her innocence with the evil deed he has just committed, her murder. *CLIP!*
Tim Burton's Mad Hatter
The original Disney Alice in Wonderland featured a bright Mad Hatter adorned mostly in green. Tim Burton's Mad Hatter takes on a much darker quality, with sensual shades of black and maroon velvet. The face, surrounded by frizzy neon colored hair, is a ghostly pale save for dramatic pink cheeks and dark pink rings under the eyes
Vincent
An example of some of his very first work reflects his style perfectly and has carried through to almost all his other work. The colour is all black and white and very gloomy with lots of shadows, portraying the dark and warped side of a little boy's mind. *CLIP!*
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