When I signed up for this course, I simply thought that it would be a fun class where we would watch Tim Burton films, but The World of Tim Burton has truly opened my eyes and allowed me to look at and analyze movies in a way that I never had before. This course has showed me that there is an incredible amount of effort that goes into creating a film and that each and every scene has a connection in one way or another to the deeper meaning embedded in the film.
Tim Burton is by far my favorite director and I have watched these movies countless times, but before this class I would have just sat and watched the movies and would not have fully appreciated the meaning that was incorporated within each film. I wouldn’t have noticed things such as the meaning behind the colors of each scene, the uniformity of suburbia, the outcast, or the meaning of the “house on the hill” without having taken this course. From this class, I have been able to understand things such as why the director places a character in a certain spot in the frame, why he fills the frame with the colors he does, and the importance of the lighting in each scene. Before this class, I would not have been able to appreciate how all these elements come together to relay the meaning within the film.
When I watched these Tim Burton films before taking this class, I never saw how films reflected the director’s life experiences and feelings. For example, in Big Fish, William and Edward’s tumultuous relationship truly reflects Burton’s relationship with his own father, or how the band of misfits in the circus come together to make a family just as Burton did with the actors and people that he uses to create his films. Throughout his life, Tim Burton felt as though others misunderstood him and Burton’s films always have a character that simply wants to be understood, which is something that I would not have noticed before taking this class.
Dr. McCay, thank you so much for an amazing semester! This course was by far my favorite courses I have ever taken and I am truly sad that I will not have this class next semester. I hope that I get the privilege of taking another class from you in the future!
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