Comparison Of Edward Scissorhands, Charlie And The Chocolate Factory

Director Tim Burton is widely known for his grotesque, unique, and often outlandish style. A style in which, most notably, encompasses the use of extreme makeup and costuming. Burton employs the use of makeup and costuming to help the audience what a character represents and to help the audience understand a character’s personality. Throughout the movies “Big Fish,” “Edward Scissorhands,” and “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” Burton used makeup and costuming to help form characters and communicate with the audience.
Out of all three of these Burton films, “Edward Scissorhands” most strongly engages the use of makeup and costuming to convey its message to the audience and to aid in the depiction of characters. For example, when Peg first brings Edward home, his wardrobe changes dramatically from that of an all black leather, button down suit in which suggests that his character is dangerous and evil to a more docile and societally acceptable white shirt with black pants. This outfit represents Edward's attempts to conform to the uniform structure of the town he’s abruptly been made a part of. However, the fact that Edward’s still wearing black foreshadows that his is still an outsider. Also, as the story continues, Edward’s costume gradually

becomes tattered and ragged as a series of disastrous events occur. The more the people in town slowly lose their fascination with Edward and begin to treat him as an outsider, the more tattered Edward’s clothing becomes.
Burton’s creative use of makeup and costuming works remarkably well to project the message of his films to his audience. In “Edward Scissorhands,” for example, the audience, within seconds of his emergence, immediately understands that Edward is a potentially dangerous and hostile character just from his ominous appearance. Here, Burton manages to portray the seriousness and intensity of the scene, as it’s unknown whether or not Edward is a threat to Peg, without a single word of dialogue being spoken. All the audience sees is the vast contrast between Edward and Peg’s outfits, as Peg is dressed in a bright purple suit that connotes safety and kindness, and they can straightaway understand that something bad may happen. Also, the way Burton gradually destroyed Edward’s costume until he was eventually wearing the same dark outfit that he’d been wearing in the first place was a great film technique. It was a great film technique because it helped to emphasize that Edward did not and never would be accepted by the characters of the movie because they never truly liked him for who he was, they were only temporarily intrigued and curious about Edward because he was different. However, once they realized that Edward was so greatly different from them, they amiability towards him faded away and this was represented by the way Edward’s cloths grew to be tattered and ruined.
In, “Big Fish” and “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” Burton also used makeup and costuming to send out messages to the audience about the movies and their characters.

For example, in “Big Fish,” Burton dressed the giant in a shredded looking cloak made out of branches and dirt. Dressing the giant this way made him look much more intimidating and aggressive towards other characters who were already half his size. Also, in “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” the costuming of Augustus Gloop helped to make him appear larger and greedier. Dressed in a striped shirt, Augustus looked even fatter than he really was and helped the audience to foreshadow what his character would do once they entered the famous chocolate

factory.
Another technique that Burton used in all three of these films was establishing shots. In “Edward Scissorhands,” Burton used establishing shots to highlight the strict structure of the town. For instance, near the beginning of the movie, a view of the town is shown. In this establishing shot, the audience can see that each and every house in the town is nearly identical and varies only in color. All of the house have the same perfectly mown lawn and backyard, square shape, and pastel paint. From this establishing shot, the audience can also see how the townspeople don’t vary much from one another either. Practically every single member of the town wears the same clothing and lives the same suburban life.
The use of establishing shots can also be seen in “Big Fish.” One prime example of an establishing shot in “Big Fish” occurs when Edward Bloom discovers Spectre for the first time and when he later returns to the town. When Edward first encounters Spectre, the establishing shot of the town shows a vibrant and idyllic setting carpeted with thriving grass, rows of white houses, welcoming shops and, within moments, Edward is embraced into town by all kinds of friendly people. A row also hangs atop Spectre’s entrance holding all the shoes in which the residents of Spectre had been wearing when they found the town. Nevertheless, when Edward returns to Spectre years later, he finds that the once beautiful place has become an abandoned and joyless place to live. Where the shops had previously stood, lay dilapidated shacks and, in place of the once bright grass, remains only dry tumble weeds and dirt. And brown, rotted out shoes hang upon the entrance of Spectre.
“Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” uses establishing shots as well. When the narrator begin describing Charlie Bucket’s life, an establishing shot Charlie’s house is shown. The establishing shot of Charlie’s house shows a decrepit and lopsided home almost buried in snow while, in the the background, a stark contrast of a developed city lay behind the Bucket household.
In each of these films, establishing shots gave helped viewers to make istat predictions as to what was going to happen in the film. In “Edward Scissorhands,” the establishing shot of the town, which shows an extremely structured and organized suburban town, foreshadows that that Edward most likely won’t fit and will be rejected because he’s the only one who doesn’t coincide with what’s acceptable in town. Then, in “Big Fish,” the beautiful establishing shot of Spectre, in which was a sharp contrast to the sinister forest that Edward had just escaped from, helped viewers to concur that Edward was no longer in danger. The audience could also instantly infer that Charlie lived in great poverty from the establishing shot of his home in which, ironically, lay right in front of a wealthy city.
The third technique that Burton used in all three of these films was non-diegetic sound. Burton used non-diegetic sound to establish mood in specific scenes of the movies. In “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” for example, the rousing build up of music when Charlie was opening his first Wonka Bar, created a feeling of heightened anticipation and enthusiasm among the audience to know whether or not Charlie had found the golden ticket. In “Big Fish,” the eerie, nerve-racking music playing in the background caused the audience to feel apprehensive as to what was going to happen next. And, in “Edward Scissorhands”, the romantic music in which began to play when Edward saw Kim’s picture shifted the audience to an optimistic and romantic mood.
All in all, film techniques, such as makeup and costuming, establishing shots, and non-diegetic sound, all add to a director's style and a movies atmosphere. without techniques like these, movies wouldn’t be half as interesting and engrossing to viewers. They connote different emotions, help viewers foreshadow, and help audiences to grasp different characters. In this case, these three techniques helped to make Burton’s films richer and engaging.