Quincy Coby - Thanks Tim Burton

 

 

Throughout my time in this class I learned why directors make films. Tim Burton makes his films to make his audience feel some type of way about themselves and the setting around them. He made me think about what other people could possibly be going through, and made me realize that no matter how different someone is , they can make such a deep impact on you .

 I went through my high school years battling clinical  depression, severe anxiety  and thoughts suicide , while everyone else was happy with their luxurious lives ." Quincy Coby, that one kid who sits in class and doesnt say a word. Oh Quincy? You mean that weird chubby black kid everyone hates? That one poor kid who eats alone in the cafeteria everyday?  OH he doesnt have this , he doesn't have that, he dresses like that , he talks like an idiot, he walks so abnormally, his smiled is weird, etc." These were the remarks i would hear everyday that would shred clumps of humanity right off my innerself. This drove me to not feel anything . I was numb because I lost 90% of my will to wistand the buffeting remarks i would i hear about my ownself. So numb, so numb  I would sit outside when it rained just so i could feel something . I would put out ciggerettes on my arm , just feel some sort of rush or emotional pain from the physical damage. I would do so much to myself, just so i could feel. But no amount of burns , cuts, or rain drops  could cure my numbness and at the end of my day  i would  asking myself why do i still breathe.

 My life drove me to not take anything for granted , because throughout those 4 years of high school , I held on to my last shred of sanity. These kids had something to live for while I on the otherhand was still thinking about why i even exist. While everyone else would mock at my existance , i would join them  . While I was chastized for being different, I accepted it , because i was . None of these kids knew about what i had going on . None of them . While they had their birthdays, Christmas celebrations and Thanksgiving dinners, I stood by my mother's side as she cried and i went  about these days as they were nothing . While they had their religion, i had my philosphy .  As they smile with their friends , i fought with myself . While they accepted hugs from their parents before being dropped off at school in morning, I accepted the concept of death with open arms every morning. While they smiled for pictures being taken by their parents after band concerts, I packed my trombone and made my trek home . While they lay cozy in a bed waiting for a kiss on the forehead from their parents, I lay awake on my couch waiting for the sun to rise . While they had their happiness, parents, friends, i had my sadness, my emtionless mom, and myself.  

This class made me realize that no matter how different someone is , they matter. How someone walks, talks, dresses, or even smiles, doesnt define them . We define ourselves, as we accept what really mattters in this world. And what really matters in this world to me , is love. Thats it. We are created by love and happiness and no one is taught to hate . We learn to hate from the society in which we live. Tim Burton , is a film director that processed his differences and relayed them into movies thus broadcasting powerful messages that could poke at ones heart. Watching his films with an open mind not only poked at my heart, but opened my heart to so much.  I don't want to be like everyone else. I would hate myself, because i let society define me . I couldn't allow such a monsterous entity to tell me who i should be . I felt like an Oyster Boy, or an Edward Scissorhands, minus the sharp digits. As i will always struggle with my thoughts , i will learn to accept them and deal with because i know i matter. Thats what Tim Burton thinks at least. I know eventually i can open someones eyes to this demonic society.

  

Williams-Tim Burton in a Bucket

    I wrote a lot. I delved deeper into movies than I really wanted to. I discovered the World of Tim Burton, and I enjoyed it.

    I have never written so much for a class, except my creative writing class, than this one. Trying to come up with original ideas and thoughts once week was a struggle and most times a failure. I mean it was nice being able to sit down once a week to watch a movie, but it was a true struggle to analyze a movie like I would analyze a book. In all honesty, I hated it. Movies are not really my genre, but I will admit that I love Burton, which is why I took the class, I guess. I, however never expected for it to be so taxing. On the other hand, I learned that my writing skills need some expanding and that my thinking needs to be a little more critical, which I guess is the point of this class. I enjoyed trying something new, though I will probably avoid film classes from now on.
     So I wish we took more time in class to talk about cannibalism in Sweeney Todd. I know, it is strange but it has always been an interesting topic for me. I mean of all the ways to commit murder, to make people feel less than themselves, to subserve the upperclass society why did Lovett choose grinding theM up into meat pies and why did Todd agreed with it?
    Alright, so what I pretty much learned from Tim Burton is that world sucks and there is not much you can do about it. It is a depressing and cynical way to view life, but Burton show the harsh reality the world that most people try to ignore. I disagree with somethings, like the boring synchronization of suburbs seeing as I am from one, but others like about how people treat outsiders and strange ones are kind of on point. I was intrigued that man as strange as his movie characters can be so loved in this type of society. Yes, people call Burton strange, but they love him for it. Burton's characters are hated, but excepted by other outfits that they use to create a family. Burton uses his actors to create a family that truly accepts him, which is why think many of Burton's movies are so touching.
     I never realized how poor my memory was until I took this class. I would set out to start do my blog, I would proceed to open my computer and everything. I would then gracefully fall into a deep slumber and wake to a blank screen and past due date. My memory would proceed to get worse. I would point blank forget to the statements at all. My roommate got so irritated at me waking in the morning at 2am screaming Tim Burton that she started to write Tim Burton on my mirror and my walls and text it to my phone. It was sweet, but I still forgot to do it. 
     Overall I really enjoyed this class. Would I take it again, I doubt it, but I would recommend it to anyone and everyone. I think it is a class worth experiencing and I am glad I got the chance to do it. 

Seals- Last blog :-( - Always All Ways A Color Map of the Sun

Well… this was an interesting class and semester.  From the beginning, I new I was going to be writing a lot which is both good and bad due to the fact that I love writing, but hate how long it takes me to get ideas out.  I had an idea of how much material we were going to analyze.  It's an english class so I figured we were going to truly dig deep into the mind of Tim Burton.  But it was really great to do so.  There were so many aspects of production that Burton and other writers/producers use that I had to knowledge of.  To be honest, I know/knew nothing about film.  The whole mise en scene world and technique for films were a revelation for me.

Something else that was interesting to me was how, overall, I didn't find Tim Burton that dark of a person.  Or maybe just his films weren't as dark as I thought.  His past is..sad, none the less.  I don't know how to back up this point really.  Maybe I just always affiliated him with a lot more darker films.  I think that's because all I knew was "Corpes Bride" and "Nightmare Before Christmas."  I guess I expected more grotesque themes or something.  Actually, his films are pretty dark now that I look back on it.  Gotham city was one of the most claustrophobic and depressing settings I've ever worked with.  I don't know- I guess I'm two sided with that.

Learning about his past was awesome though.  I definitely felt a good connection to him when learning about his view on suburbia which was cool.  Overall I enjoyed this class.  It definitely opened my mind a little bit on how much stuff can actually be packed into a good film.  Tim Burton has so many personal references thrown in his works which is fun to be discovered.  As soon as I thought we were getting repetitive within our task to discover these personal references, another theme was to be found.  From the twists on politics to all the death satire, the man is truly brilliant.

As for myself- I need some work.  This was a class that I "got by" in, which I'm disappointed with.  I fell back into the crappy habits!  And I don't know why.  This goes with all my classes too.  We had about 13 worksheets and blogs and I probably did about half of them.  AHHH.  My first semester was weird.  I'm really good at overanalyzing the purpose of everything which causes distraction…and depression. :-(  I got a great feel for what I need to do and how everything works though.  When it comes down to it, I just need to do what I need to do.  Same problem same b.s. I've pulled my whole life.  I'm slowly getting the hang out of it though.  In high school I barely did any work, but that can't slide here.  I guess it doesn't work to suddenly change bad habits.

I had fun in this class.  So long Timmy Burton.          

         

Suarez- The World of Tim Burton

When I began this course, I was but a mere infant to the world of Tim Burton, but this has changed in my 14 weeks spent in this class. Prior to this class, all I knew about Tim Burton was that he made movies I enjoyed, and that he loves Johnny Depp. I had no idea his past was so struggled filled, that he published a poetry book; I really just had no idea he did anything besides movies with Johnny Depp. Without this course I would have never known that in every Burton film are aspects of the struggles he felt he had to overcome. I can now watch any Tim Burton movie and relate it back to his life is some way or another. I did not just learn about Tim Burton though, I also learned about new ways to analyze films; I learned to not just watch it for the plot, but to think of other aspects that influence the characters and themes, such as political and social. I had never heard of a mise-en-scene analysis until this course, but now I know what it is, and the importance it holds. Some other interesting information I learned about film making—that also relate to mise-en-scene analysis—are the types of ways to describe a scene; the proper terms used to describe lighting, camera angle, the most important object in a scene, the colors, etc. I already knew that the world is a terrible place at times, but a lot of things I learned in this class just reinforced this phenomenon. I found the denial of death to be one of the most interesting topics we discussed all semester. Because I have lost people close to me, including my mom and my grandfather, death was something I unfortunately was very familiar with. Prior to this class, I had never really thought in depth about the way Americans think of death in comparison with the rest of the world; I have never really thought about death as not a bad thing. My overall ideas about death haven’t changed, but I definitely feel as though some of my thoughts were challenged. I liked all of the films we watched in class; almost all of them were films I had seen before entering this course, some were even films I didn’t know were directed by Tim Burton. The picture I chose for this blog is a picture from my favorite Tim Burton movie, Big Fish. This picture is from one of the very last scenes in the movie where Will Bloom is describing to his father, Edward Bloom, the way in which he is going to pass away. This scene always makes me cry because of how it represents two rivaling personalities coming together as one. Having lost my mom at 13 years of age—a relatively young age—I feel as though I never got to know her as well I would have liked, which is some ways is linked to how Will Bloom feels about his father. I didn’t have a bad relationship with my mom, but we did butt heads a lot because school and grades, and it wasn’t until a few months before she passed that we really began to get along well, and she began to really appreciate the young women I was turning into. To me, this scene is Will finally accepting his father for who he has and will always be, and it is at the end of his life, which is parallel to how things were with my mom. This scene means a lot to me, and that is why I chose this picture.

O'Doherty - The Last Hoorah

Throughout this course, I have learned many things about Tim Burton, myself, and how the world works. Before this course, I thought that Tim Burton was just a really creepy individual who enjoyed making really dark films. Now I realize that I was right...but there is a reason behind the darkness and the mayhem. I did not know about his parent's troubled relationship with his parents, or how he was misunderstood as a child, or that he felt like an outcast all his life. I also did not know that he worked for Disney at one point in his life (though now that I think about it, I should have because there is a ride at Disneyland that is based of Nightmare Before Christmas). One of the things I really enjoyed about this course was learning about the themes, archetypes, and symbols in each of Tim Burton's film. I thought it was clever how Tim Burton incorporated his troubled past into each of the films by making the underlying themes of each movie alienation, rejection, and isolation. It made me realize that, similarily to how Edward Bloom is the stories he tells, Tim Burton is the movies he makes. In fact, many of the characters he creates share some of the same qualities and characteristics as him. For example, many of his characters are misunderstood outcasts who are trying to be individuals in a society that is trying to get them to stick to the status quo. I also really enjoyed learning about the archetypes because I feel like it was a necessary thing to learn. I've gone all my life watching movies with the same types of characters in them. The only two I ever really noticed were the heroes and villains. Now it seems so obvious to me that there are others-- the nurturing mother, the strange outcast, the manipulative trickster, etc. The symbols were also pretty cool and interesting to learn about. I love how much detail and thought went into each scene (how certain objects, like things that people are wearing, give you context about their characters). It takes a lot of work, and I feel like only really good directors who are passionate about their work take time to do so. Now whenever I watch a movie, I can't help but to do mise en scenes of some of the scenes. I ask myself: what is the dominant? What does it mean? Why did the director think that was important? I never really go in depth with these thoughts, but I think it's funny how I acknowledge it. Another thing I learned from this course is how to write faster and more efficiently. I remember I spent well over an hour and a half on the first blog, but by the end of the year I got better at articulating what I have to say.
Overall, I really loved this course and would take it again in a heartbeat! I had so much fun watching movies, analyzing them, and figuring out their deeper meaning. I also really enjoyed having Dr. McCay as a teacher!

Buzaid- Tootles Tim Burton

This course, The World of Tim Burton, has been my favorite part of college thus far (academically speaking.) It has opened up a whole new world to finding the deeper meaning behind things, specifically film. What was so appealing about this course was the focus on reading visuals and making connections with the seen and unseen. More so, I should say watching the film and taking in the storyline, characters, setting, and linking it with either a controversial issue, a statement, or a message. For example, Edward Scissorhands is a film I originally watched and enjoyed because I liked the plot. Now, after watching the film in class and making interpretations with my classmates, I have come to enjoy the film for more than just the interesting storyline. Rather, I have gained respect for the film and its play on conservative societies and outcast individuals.  I was not expecting to find so many of Tim Burton’s morals, and himself as a person, in each and every one of his films. With every picture Tim Burton has worked on, he morphs the story to mean something to his life story and views. In return, he is able to create films that audiences can understand, relate to, and make their own meaning of.

I was taken a bit back when I watched Tim Burton’s Batman. It was my first time watching the two movies done by him and I was totally not expecting to the like them so much. I have always been a fan of Batman as a super hero. Although, before this class I had never taken into mind of how much of a tortured character Bruce Wayne really was. I think it was because of the way Burton portrayed him through Michael Keaton. Burton has good taste in actors, there is some sort of comfort in knowing that he likes to reuse actors in his films- making his own family and such. Another great thing about Burtons Batman was that his artistic side really came out. Through the settings and scenery- shots and framing, he reflected the mood of the film in the dark musty colors.

I have a lot of respect for Tim Burton as a director, but what makes me love him as an entertainer is his undying ability to instill his crude humor in almost all of his creations. From Beetlejuice, to Catwoman, to the parents of the Oyster Boy, Burton has a character with a twisted sexual jokes. Without fail he can capture the attention of any audience, whether they like it or not.

Because of this course, I have a new found love for film. Most of my phone calls to back home have held conversations on this class about all the assignments and the time I have put in for it. As well as sharing with my family everything that I know about Tim Burton and his personal twists in his movies, (and telling my parents to watch the movies too!)  It is true when I say that I am not leaving from this course with zero knowledge. Instead, I am taking wider eyes for visual observations.

Honestly, if I had never taken The World of Tim Burton, I would have continued my future on with under appreciating a lot of film.

Aidan Eljumaily-Reflective Blog

            Over the course of this semester, I have learned many great things about Tim Burton, his work, and about how perception can make everything beautiful. Burton and his deep dark ways have made me take completely different views on certain things, and also have provoked me to watch movies with attention to much greater detail. Every movie that Tim Burton directed held some sort of special dark meaning to how his life and personal experiences were. It was incredible to go from watching huge grossing films that the man created to reading Oyster Boy and other Stories and seeing how really dark and unusual he was.

            From Fantasy to Science Fiction and even Musicals, Tim Burton’s library of successful films is immense. All these different films brought to light so many different issues and ways of thinking throughout the semester. From looking at the end of the world in a satirical sense like in Mars, to complete and utter world and time disaster in Planet of the Apes. Burton shows that you can take any sort of idea or story and find ways to put bits of yourself into it. This makes for a much more personal and direct way of directing.

            The correlations between Tim Burton’s movie character’s and their lives are numerous. His focus is on stories that involve tricksters and the unusual, and through this focus he makes positive thinking experiences with his films. Sweeney Todd, Edward Scissorhands; these are just exampes of characters Burton truly relates to. His effortlessness to take his bleak past and put it into the art form of filming is incredible. From it I have actually grown to be a better musician and artist.

            When you watch film after film after film of different Tim Burton productions, you start to see the underlying common lessons and emotions he is trying to portray. This honesty, that Burton believes in the beauty of the unusual and a world where even the strangest of people can do good, has inspired me to be more honest in the work that I do and the things I want to present about myself. Burton took a very dreary, negative life and made a positive one out of it all by being honest in his work and never lying to himself.

            The fact that he also used many of the same actors for different movies surprised me. Burton using actors that he was comfortable with and knew showed that he wanted to really have people he could trust. He wanted to know that an actor was going to go out there every day and have some personal connection that he could put onto his or her character. This is an incredible way of filming, because Burton makes it so personal and comfortable. With movies as dark as Sweeney Todd and fantasies as bright as Alice in Wonderland, all with similar casts, Burton shows that you can take any group of people that make art together and merely shift the tides every time you make a new project.