Tim Burton PDF

Preview

Summary

Presentation Notes on Tim Burton. ...

Description

Slide 1: TRUE OR FALSE: Tim Burton was a Disney Animator.  ● Tim Burton’s love for animation goes way back to his childhood where hespent alotof his time drawing. As a child, he often felt different from the other childrenandhedrew monsters to escape the conformity of the American suburb he livedin(BurbankCity)and art became his way out. Today Burton describes his needtodrawasawaytofocusandto unleash his imagination. ● Then at the age of 18 he went to the California Institute of the Arts founded by Walt Disney to study Character Animation. ● During his time at the school he created “Stalk of the Celery Monster” which was animated entirely through pencil drawings. The short film did so wellthatDisneyoffered him a 4 year apprenticeship at the Disney animation studios, which technically makes him the most popular Disney animator, even if the work that he did there did not make him famous.  Now just to give you an idea of how  far Tim has come, I’m going to showyou“Stalkofthe Celery Monster”. The only fragments remaining of the film today, are of a dentist named Dr. Maxwell Payne making bloody experiments with his patients. For a long time the film was consideredtobelost,untilfragmentsofit appeared on Spanishtelevisionin2006. Any thoughts on the animation?  *Listen  to  responses* My response: For me the  film  shows not only how  much Tim’s animation  has advanced but also how little Tim has changed over the years, as the dark, monster themes and gothic style were evident from the very beginning of his career.  Slide 2: Burton in Disney: ● During his time at Disney, Tim worked as an inbetweener, an assistant animator and a concept artist. ● He worked on Disney’s three films. Tron (1982), The Black Cauldron (1985).  And finally a film that you all have heard of and most of you have watched, any guesses? ● Tim worked on The Fox and the Hound (1981), he actually focused on animating Vixey- which he hated because he found the animated feature really boring. The animation that Disney was asking him to do simply failed to stimulate his creativity and inspire him. He was ill-suited for the project because his skills as an artist were not in tune with the films cuteness. In a recent interview he said the following: “I remember I worked on The Fox and the Hound, and I was just terrible. I was supposed to draw the foxes and I just couldn’t do it. They looked like they’d been run over by a car,” 

Slide 3: TRUE OR FALSE: Tim left his work at Disney because he didn’t like the company’s politics.  ● While at Disney, Tim managed to make a deal with the studio that they would fund 3 of his personal projects. 1. Using Disney’s money he made Vincent (1982), which was a stop motion animation based on his own poem called Vincent. The actor Vincent Price was Tim’s favorite actor and he agreed to provide the voice-over for his film. The opportunity to work with his childhood hero must have been a significant inspiration for Tim which probably gave him a boost to continue his passion. 2. A Japanese themed adaptation of Hansel and Gretel (1983). 3. Frankenweenie (1984) which was about a boy who resurrects his dog from the dead. This film is a live action film, whereas his later Frankenweenie 2012 version is an animation.  I would like to show you Tim’s animation short. After watching Vincent you will understand why upon completing his three films at Disney, Tim lost his job for using Disney's resources for producing films that were too dark for Disney’s standards. Tim was in fact fired.   Slide 4:  TRUE OR FALSE: Tim directed The Nightmare Before Christmas.  TRUE OR FALSE: The production of the film had a very fast turnaround and the 76 minute film took just over 1 year to make.  TRUE OR FALSE: Just under 100 puppets were made for the film.  ● Soon after his career at Disney came to an end. Paul Reubens, an actor and film producer liked Tim’s Vincent and Frankenweenie so much that he let him direct his own film, namely Pee Wee’s Big Adventure which would then start Burtons feature film career.  ● Some of his biggest films of the late 80s and early 90s include: 1. Beetlejuice 2. Edward Scissorhands 3. Batman films  ● However, soon after Tim returned to the world of animation and produced a film that he wanted to make for a long time. That of course was “The Nightmare Before Christmas” (1993).

● The idea for the film actually started back when Tim was working in Disney. Apparently he saw a shop display of halloween decorations, that were replaced with Christmas decorations. That sparked his imagination and led to Burton writing a 3 page poem called “The Nightmare Before Christmas”. After the success of Vincent he thought about turning his poem into a children’s book or a 30 minute TV special, he even started working on some concept art. But then of course he got fired from Disney and moved on to making feature films. ● After 6 years, he returned to Disney who still had the project’s rights and luckily Disney allowed him to make the film. Many of you might think that “The Nightmare Before Christmas” was directed by Tim himself, I know I did- but the truth is that because Tim had to return to his work on Batman Returns a nd the pre-production of Ed Wood, he handed his work to his Disney friend Hernyk Slyk who directed the film. ● Tim only came in for around 10 days during the production process, raising questions whether this is a Henryk Slyk or a Tim Burton movie. ● In the end it was accepted that the film is a Tim Burton film as it was his idea, story and his characters. ● What’ really fascinating for me is the fact that the film took 3 years to make with over 120 people working on the 76 minutes long film. Over 200 puppets were made, including the main characters who had 3 or 4 puppets each, and Jack the main character himself had over 400 different changeable heads to show the different emotions.   Slide 5: The film was planned to be released as part of Disney's animated feature line up and as you will see from the trailer it is presented as being part of Disney innovating new animation techniques. However in the end the film was not released as a featured Disney animation- while watching the promo think of why that might be.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5W2Irb9A0g  Any ideas why Disney didn’t want to release the film as part of their feature animation series?  Disney said that the film was a little too scary for kids and they put it under Touchstone Pictures banner, who distribute films made by Disney that are aimed more at adults than children.  The film was released in 1993 and was a huge success with a box office of over 76 million. And for the first time an animated film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Special

Effects. It also won two Annie awards including Best Individual Achievement for Artistic Excellence in the field of Animation. ● In 2001 Disney wanted to make a sequel to the film but with Computer animation. Burton convinced them to leave the film as it is and the original film was shown in cinemas again in 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2010. Today the film is often said to be one of the best animated films of all times.  Slide 6: TRUE OR FALSE: The main character of Corpse Bride had over 200 different changeable heads. ● After “The Nightmare before Christmas” Tim went back to live action feature films and produced films such as: Ed Wood Mars Attacks Sleepy Hollow Big Fish His adaption to Charlie and the chocolate factory  ● He then went back to stop motion animation but this time he didn’t let anyone animate his work. His next animation success was a 17th century themed film called “Corpse Bride”. The film focuses on Victor and Victoria whose families have arranged their marriage. Although they like each other, Victor is nervous about the wedding and goes on a walk in the forest to practice his lines for the ceremony. He practises putting on a ring on tree branch that is in fact Emily’s hand. A bride who was murdered and who now wants to marry Victor. The plot evolves with Victor trying coming back to the land of the living before Victoria marries the villain Barks Bittern.  ● The film took 55 weeks to make and instead of using a 35mm camera- it was the first dslr digital animation. Unlike previous stop motion animation films, where the heads had to be changed for the characters, the puppets had clockwork heads which were controlled by hidden keys which gave the movements a more realistic feel.  ● Similarly to “The Nightmare before Christmas” several puppets of the main characters had to be made. Victoria, Emily and Victor all had around 13 or 14 puppets each.  ● Once released the film was once again a huge success with a box office of 117 million worldwide, with the film winning even more awards.  Slide 8: 

● Tim once again took a break from animation, and directed and produced films such as Sweeney todd, Dark Shadows, Vampire hunter and Alice in wonderland. He then went back to animation and created the amazing Frankeeweenie. ● You may have remembered from the start of this presentation that at the start of his career, Tim actually worked on his 1984 live action short called Frankenweenie, which mainly focused on Victor and Sparky. Yet in 2005 he decide to make a remake and turn it into a feature length animated film. ● Finally 5 years later in 2010, the filming began in the same studio in London, using the same crew as the one who created Corpse Bride. Production was super busy and as many as 30 different scenes were being made at the same time. ● One of the biggest challenges was creating Sparky’s puppets as the dog puppet had to be smaller than the adult puppets, but not too small so that he could still be moved and controlled. ● Also because dogs have around 250 more joints than humans, the puppet had to be made in a way that so that he would resemble the movement of a real dog.  Slide 9: ● Thinking again about Burton’s first film Vincent, you may have recognised the resemblance between Vincent and Burton himself - the quiet, shy boy with messy hair, who is only comfortable inside his own imagination. ● The film deals with themes that come up time and again in Burton’s animations. A young boy and his rejection of the environment that he lives in, that ultimately lead to grotesque fantasies and uncanny plotlines. ● After the release of Frankewnee there has been a lot of fan theories that connect all of Tim's stop motion films into one film- about a man and his dog. It all starts in Frankenweenie with Victor and Sparky, then Victor would grow older to find Sparky dead in the underworld in Corpse Bride as Scraps, and then much later Victor would take the name of Jack and be part part of the undead world in Nightmare before Christmas with his dog called Zero. That is however just a fan theory, with Tim neither confirming or disconfirming the theory. ● He has said however that if his movies are easily identifiable, it’s only in the same way everyone would naturally have a style; if he has to draw a dog, he draws a dog, and he can’t draw one any other way, so it’s inevitable that they all end up looking the similar.  *ASK: I’m going to give you 2 or 3 minutes to with the Person next to you discuss whether you agree with the fan theory that the two Victor’s and Jack, maybe even Vincent are all connected, or whether like Tim said the visual similarities between the films are inevitable? SLIDE 10: 

● I think it’s fair to say that Tim’s animations are gothic in style and full of uncanny moments. In The Nightmare before Christmas f or example the use of anthropomorphism is particularly strong Halloweentown is full of anthropomorphic creatures. ● Anthropomorphism is basically the attribution of human characteristics or behaviour to an animal, or objects. ● When the trick or treaters are tasked with kidnapping Sand Claws, they jump into a bathtub that grows legs and is used to carry them to their destination. Now I don’t think that the aim of anthropomorphism here is to create a horrifying experience for the viewer, but is rather used as a form of entertainment, and although the image is slightly troubling it is not terrifying. ● However, we cannot avoid the fact that Jack draws our attention to death because he only has a skull for a head and is full of bones and no flesh. Although he is referred to as the Pumpkin King of Halloweentown- he is effectively the Lord of the dead. ● But when we think of Jack Skellington we don’t think of him as a gothic villain or a monter. Even though he takes on the visual from of a skeleton, something dead, he is shown to think and act very human and throughout the film he displays feelings of loneliness that allows the audience to feel empathy for him and we slowly begin to root for him, rather than see him as a scary or horrifying monster. ● Burton is a master as what he does as he manages to encourage a positive response from us by giving the gruesome skeleton likeable characteristics. ● Burton brings in the uncanny in the form of death once again in his feature Corpse Bride not only through the underworld setting, but also through the main character Emily who is personifying death. She takes Victor to the land of the dead and everywhere Victor turns we see corpses at different stages of their decaying process. ● But once again by the end of the film, the audience emphasise with Emily who lets Victor go and marry Victoria in the land of the living. ● Just to quickly conclude on Tim's use of the uncanny is his animations. I think that the reason it works so well is that although the images and narratives are to some degree scary and uncanny, he mixes horror with romance and comedy which allows the audience to accept the uncanny and death rather than being seen something that endangers them and should therefore be suppressed.  It's a funky old art from, stop-motion...basically it's artists doing it and painting sets and making things. There's something very gratifying about that, something I love and never want to forget...When it's done beautifully you feel somebody's energy. It's something that computers will never be able to replace, because they're missing that one element... There is something about stop-motion that gives it an energy that you don't get in any other form.” Tim Burton. References: 

Burton, T, (1982) Vincent  Burton, T (1993) The Nightmare Before Christmas  Burton, T (2005) Corpse Bride  Burton, T (2012) Frankenweenie  Cheu, J. (2018). Converging Woods Neo-Victorianism in the Stop-Motion Films. In: K. Manning, ed., Tim Burton: Essays on the Films, 1st ed. North Carolina: McFarland & Co, pp.184-194.  Lammers, T. (2013). Direct Conversations: The Animated Films of Tim Burton. 1st ed. USA: Ebookit.com.  McMah, A. (2014). The Films of Tim Burton: Animating Live Action in Contemporary Hollywood. 1st ed. USA: Not Avail.  McMahon, J. (2014). The philosophy of Tim Burton. 1st ed. USA: University Press of Kentucky.  Priebe, KA 2006, Art of Stop-Motion Animation, Course Technology / Cengage Learning, Boston. Available from: ProQuest Ebook Central. [7 March 2018].  The-artifice.com. (2009). The Art of Tim Burton: The Artist Before The Filmmaker | The Artifice. [online] Available at: https://the-artifice.com/art-tim-burton/ [Accessed 7 Mar. 2018].  Link, K. and Link, K. (2011). Vincent (1982). [online] AwesomeBMovies.com. Available at: http://awesomebmovies.com/2011/05/vincent/ [Accessed 7 Mar. 2018].  Stopmotionworks.com. (2003). 'Bride' Stripped Bare. [online] Available at: http://www.stopmotionworks.com/articles/cbrdstrpdbare.htm [Accessed 7 Mar. 2018].  Young Post | South China Morning Post. (2016). Tim Burton on movies, quirky characters, and why he always uses Johnny Depp. [online] Available at: http://yp.scmp.com/entertainment/movies/article/104897/tim-burton-movies-quirky-characters-and-why-h e-always-uses [Accessed 7 Mar. 2018].        ...