Burton spent a lot of his time as a child watching horror films (especially monster movies) and drawing. He enjoyed watching films with monsters who were misunderstood by those around them. The films that moved him were mainly stop-motion animations and films that reflected German Expressionism. Before he started directing his own films, he enjoyed the conceptual work he was able to do for Disney studios.

He was very introspective, looking at things in a symbolic and very poetic way. While he was not an avid reader, he did identify with the work of Edgar Allan Poe, Dr Seuss and Roald Dahl for its imagery and symbolism.

His experiences as a child helped give him a distinct point of view that now shapes his films in adult life. It’s these beliefs that give his work their own distinct style.

Tim’s school life showed little promise with his work not being ‘exceptional’ or of high standards. He was an outcast at school, he dressed different from the other kids and being more shy and reserved than others, struggled to make friends and soon become isolated from society. This can be hugely reflected in all his movies whereas the main characters go against the hegemonic ideal (mainstream characters such as jocks, and cool kids), and are usually estranged and alienated from society. This type of reflection is dramatised however in his movie interpretations, especially in Edward Scissorhands, where not only is he completely different, mentally and physically, from the surrounding public, but he physically cannot make contact with people because of the sharp fingers her owns, this type of separation and lust to fit into society is obviously exemplified… This misunderstood character is stereotyped and questioned constantly by the perfect surrounding suburban society, convenient considering that the outcast Tim Burton lived in a suburban town in Burbank, California, a shiny conventional town in which Burton did not fit into.

All this supports the type of Mise-en-scene that Tim Burton has and that is dark, mysterious, freaky and weird. 

Lighting is also used to demonstrate different things like an otherworldly feel like in beetlejuice when he is summoned the lighting goes dark and sometimes there is lightning the background. 

Mise-en-scene, cinematography, sound, lighting, representations  

During the opening credits there is dark and eerie music to set the tone of the movie as it is a dark movie. The movie is also sad as the movie has many sad themes in it. There is thunder to add more to the tone as it is raining as well to show that there have been a lot of tears shed in these characters lives and many shocks as well. 

The images show at the start of the movie show the location and how dark it is which shows it will be a dark movie, there are also coges in the start showing that there are many cogs working at once which will become the final piece in which the movie will take place. Then more coges will start until they all suddenly stop at the end. There is also blood dripping arpun which shows you there will be a lot of blood. The images at the beginning also show what kind of art style the movie is going for. It also show the most important objects to the movie. 

The sound changes a lot once the movie properly starts as it goes from a dark melody to a nice sweet melody and this is done because sweeney todd has just arrived back to london on a bout after being released from prison also he is about to sing. There is also the sounds of wind, water and sound from the boat to make the boat itself seem more realistic. The music is nice when the sailor is on screen but when sweeny todd comes on scene the music turns to be more twisted and distorted. When sweeny is talking about wanders the music is happy but when he sing about londone it does twisted again to show how he feels about it. When sweeny sings about his wife the music all happy. 

The scene itself as well as the people are quite dark from the beginning but when sweeny is having a flashback about his wife the scene as well as the characters and their costumes are very bright. 

When sweeny todd is singing about lundon he says many bad things about it and there are sounds of rats and thunder that supports what he is saying. Also the one he is using is one of disgust. 

The scene then speeds up and goes a twisted walk to the location that sweeny todd is going and it shows that everything is dark and disgusting. 

Sound is added to show show what the character is doing and it is making pies music then starts with the same timing of her pie hitting and when she sees sweeny the music goes happy as she is happy there is a customer. Sound is also added to show how sloppy and disgusting the pie filling is. Sounds of discus are made by sweeny to show how bad the pies are. 

In the music small fast notes are used to build up tension fast as the scene is moving fast as well.

Quite deep notes are used when talking about something sad and serious. Music is also used to build up some tension then slow longer notes are used to represent nostalgia and memories.  Faster long notes are used to show happy nostalgia when meeting something which sweeney todd has not seen in a long time. 

The shot is dollied out as to show a lot of london and that sweeney todd as truly returned in his full self to this place and everything is put into a bigger picture also to show that the wheels of fate are in motion. 

For the crazy old women twisted singing is used to show that she is crazy and wrong but also they don’t show her face and they also keep her face area dark as foreshadowing and not to show you who she is as that is a secret. 

With the characters their eyes are made to look sunk in and when they want to look menacing shadows are put in the eyes sometimes blocking out the eyes so that they look more menacing. 

The kettle sound is used to represent sweeney todd’s anger and when it hits max he uses the kettle to hit the other man with. Fast shots are used for each hite so that it can show how buttle the hits are and to hide the fact they the are not really fighting.