Presentations went well today. I think this project is going to be so much fun, but a lot of work, like how our color books were in color theory. But i'm excited. This is my 400+ word essay. Its about 700+ words actually, but I just had so much I found to write on. It's a rough draft, but I like it so far.

As an outcast from Burbank, California, born on August 25, 1958, for over a quarter century in Hollywood, Timothy William Burton has left his “Burtonesque” mark on the filmmaking industry. While growing up, Tim Burton was not good in school, but he gained pleasure in drawing, painting, and in movies. He also found inspiration in horror films and monsters. After high school, Burton attended the California Institution of the Arts in 1976, and a few years later he was already working as one of Disney’s animators. Soon being an animator wasn’t all it was cut out to be for Burton. He didn’t enjoy the fact that the characters were drawn separately and then put together, and placed over painted backgrounds. The work required talented artists, and Burton was very talented, but he could not stray from the structured manner of drawing the characters. Because his talent was not being utilized, the studio made him one of the conceptual artists, the people who design the characters that appear in the films. From there he did early work on The Black Cauldron and The Fox and the Hound. His work was not the traditional Disney fare so he was set loose to created his own animated shorts, Vincent (1982) and Frankenweenie (1984). Shortly after he was offered his first movie deal to work on Pee Wee’s Big Adventure (1985), and from there he produced his first blockbuster, Batman (1989). Burton’s career had taken off. Beetlejuice (1988) and Edward Scissorhands (1990) came along shortly after. And just like that Burton had produced thirteen more movies, which included Batman Returns (1992), The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), Ed Wood (1994), Mars Attacks! (1996), Sleepy Hallow (1999), Planet of the Apes (2001), Big Fish (2003), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), Corpse Bride (2005), Sweeny Todd (2007), Alice in Wonderland (2010), Dark Shadows (2012), Frankenweenie (2012). Other movies that Burton produced were 9 (2009),
James and the Giant Peach (1996),
Batman Forever (1995), and
Cabin Boy (1994).

Now at age fifty-five, Burton still stands out from the rest of the crowd with his trademark look of black jeans, navy button down shirt, black blazer, black boots, black sunglasses, and messy black hair. Like his character’s Burton strangely resembles them. It is said that he uses the “weird environment” from his “weird childhood” to create the stories he does today, which is why so many character resemble his own self. This is especially seen in Edward Scissorhands, with the horror movie sensibility and mundane suburban upbringing in Burbank. Edward is Burton’s spiritual autobiography. He is a fairy tale of the “otherness” felt by every outsider. With his frightening hairpiece, imploring eyes and pruning-shear hands, Edward is the “king of freaks”. Edward’s difficulty of having blades instead of fingers causes him to injure everything he touches, which speaks to the teenage alienation, which was so clearly a part of Burton’s early life, and to the fear shared by many creative people that what makes them special also sets them apart. Like Edward, Burton doesn’t really fit in with the “norm” of society. Because Burton portrays himself in his characters it makes his work so much more personal and it starts to bring his creations to life.

From working for Warner Bros to Disney, and now producing and directing his own films, Burton has created a world like never before. He created dark daydreams and bright pastel nightmares. His movies became extensions of his drawings, and he created a world of freaks and dreamers through pastels, paints, pencils, pens, crayons, and watercolor. Soon his gothic, dark, eerie and entrancing black and whites with spindly boys and girls that are giant-brained extraterrestrial, bug-eyed creatures became known to the world. “Burton uses special effects and visual tricks to create sights that have never been seen before. His movies takes place in an entirely artificial world, where a haunting gothic castle crouches on a mountain-top high above a storybook suburb, a goofy sitcom neighborhood where all of the houses are shades of pastels and all of the inhabitants seem to be emotional clones of the Jetsons” (Roger Ebert). Burton is a director who has made an impact on both the industry and on the cinemagoers. His films, so special in their childlike reverie and cathartic blend of horror and black humor, warrant his inclusion amongst the great visual filmmakers of the past and present (Steve, 2013).

Sources:

·      Starger, Steve. "Tim Burton's Toy Box." Art New England 31.2 (2010): 10-11. Art Full Text (H.W. Wilson). Web. 16 Apr. 2013.

·      Cashdan, Marina. "Tim Burton: Hailing Filmdom's Oddest Artist." Modern Painters 21.8 (2009): 48-57. Art Full Text (H.W. Wilson). Web. 16 Apr. 2013.

·      http://sensesofcinema.com/2003/great-directors/burton/

·      http://www.timburtoncollective.com/bio.html