Both Tim Burton and Guy Richie's cinematic style is quite different from eachother but however has tiny similarities which bind both films together in terms of visual elements.
Guy Richie has a style in which he modernizes a film with very clean and slick characters and with a real flexible narrative in the way the story is being told. Furthermore, his style is very authentic and tends to reinvent films like Sherlock Holmes and add a bit more of an action-packed film along with extra features of Sherlock Holmes such as showing him as a really agile character that knows how to fight, like an action superhero. Guy Richie creates a new perspective in the story of Sherlock Holmes and shows it in the most dynamic way and in a way no one has ever seen it before.
Guy Richie tends to reanimate and reimagine most of his films whether they're fictional or factual and generally modernizes the film and gives it this dynamic energetic buzz.
Richie also uses more accurate setting to place the story in so that it is a bit more realistic than Sweeney Todd which shows animations of random Victorian buildings.
In the film, Richie makes Sherlock less mysterious and suspicious in the film which the past films had done but made him cocky, snobby and rather quick witted therefore making him more appealing to viewers of this time and that is what Richie had intended to do and in his other films aswell.
Another way in which Guy Richie modernizes this film is that he does not put in music that is with that time period the characters are in, but stuck to this huge, action-like orchestral music therefore making his films as well as Sherlock more authentic to his style.
Tim Burton's style is rather gloomy and strongly gothic in the way he presents his films. His films are very low-key like in Sweeney Todd and often tends to use blue tint extensively in his films to give it this cold, and creepy effect. In Burton's films, he also tends to make the reds really stand out by making it really saturated. It is often blood like in Sweeney Todd or pieces of clothing on a person, either way it creates almost this same effect of blood as it is majorly surrounded by predominantly dark shades of blues and greys. Burton's cinematic style is that he also tends to make the camera movements really slow and smooth, creating this effect of almost being in the eyes of a creature lurking through dark woods, sewer pipes, creepy tunnels and caves etc. Burton likes to create a ghostly atmosphere in some of his films and often uses animation for credits such as the beginning titles of Sweeney Todd, and again, he highlights the red colours which is blood dripping which is not often used by most film directors therefore making Burton's obsession with highly saturated reds really unique and gives his films a signature touch. Furthermore, Tim Burton also tends to use really exaggerated Foley sounds to emphasise the horror or divert the viewers' attention on something in a scene and often tends to add some sort of musical theme in his films aswell, therefore creating this real juxtaposition with the way the film looks and the music.
In Sweeney Todd, Burton also puts in majorly organ and quite dramatic violin and orchestral music, not as modern as Sherlock Holmes but orchestral music that suits that time period the film is in and a traditional theatre musical composition.
Thursday 24 January 2013
Section 3 - Textual Analysis - Guy Richie's Style in Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes has a particular visual style used by the director Guy Richie in which creates a certain effect on the setting, characters and in fact the actual film. This is demonstrated in the scene where Sherlock Holmes meets Lord Blackwood in prison and first has a proper conversation with the villain.
Guy Richie creates clarity within the scene with the use of cinematography.
This is evident from where there is a close up shot of Sherlock Holmes as he talks to Lord Blackwood in the jail cell. His face is in the rule of thirds and is in shallow focus.
His use of the shallow focus in the background effectively capitalizes the viewer's view on Sherlock and what he says in the dialogue, it is used almost as a way of blocking out the surroundings and just show the two characters in individual close-up shots.
This links to Guy Richie's Style in the film as he had intentionally done this consistently in the film so that he can almost manipulate where the viewer focuses in a scene.
Furthermore, the use of the close-up shots add an emphasis to the reactions of what the other had said and adds clarity in showing how they feel.
In addition, the continuous use of the close up shots used during the dialogue is used to signal that the dialogue is significant in contributing to the main series of events later on in the story in the form of foreshadowing.
This contributes to the framework, style as Guy Richie uses cinematography as a way of directing the viewer's focus to a certain part of the frame or scene.
The use of high angled shots of Lord Blackwood also contribute to style.
This is evident where Richie uses a series of high-angled mid and close-up shots of Blackwood as he talks to Sherlock. This shot makes him look rather inferior in comparison to Sherlock Holmes and is contrasted with the levelled close up mid-shots of Sherlock Holmes. This presents Blackwood as inferior, weak and vulnerable, and portrayed as a sort of animal in a cage, isolated, trapped and inferior to both the people who keep him there and Sherlock as he looks down at him in the close up shots.
This adds to the framework of Guy Richie's style as he uses angled shots and in the cinematography to show who is superior and who is inferior and how the protagonist and antagonist persistently tries to overpower each other. In addition, Richie, makes the villain's intentions clear in the film by allowing his villains to tell the hero what will happen as well as the viewer so that then Richie can show a series of events leading up to the main plot instead of disorientating the viewers with random acts and this also creates less of a restricted narrative in the way it's been told but a more flexible perspective and that's what Richie has done in the film.
Mise-en-scene is also used to show another way in which Guy Richie's cinematic style is presented in the film.
Just how shallow focus is used to block out the background and surroundings to direct the viewer's focus to the important dialogue, lighting is also used to serve the same purpose in this scene where there are shots of Lord Blackwood talking o Sherlock and the background is in deep darkness, so deep that nothing is visible, leaving a bright, lit circle of light coming from the little window from the top of his cell which implies to the viewer that he is the main focus of the shot.
This demonstrates the Style of Guy Richie in the sequence and shows how he uses lighting to create a main focus point in a shot.
The use of makeup is also used as a way of showing one of Guy Richie's stylistic touches to his film.
This is evident where on the close up shots of Sherlock, there is no pale white, 1890s make up and no traditional, rich powders on his face but the rough looks and the skin colour is natural, this makes Richie's characters' appearance more realistic and creates a natural look to Sherlock by not applying any makeup but sweat. Sherlock and the other characters look clean, sophisticated and modern.
This contributes to Guy Richie how stylizes the characters as well as the film and demonstrates how his cinematic style may apply for his other films.
Performance is also used to demonstrate Richie's stylistics to the film by revealing a particular feeling from a character.
This is shown through body language where in the close-up shots of Sherlock where he speaks during the dialogue, his head to tends to shake a lot while he speaks and as he just stares at Blackwood as he talks. This suggests that he is quite anxious and uneasy as Blackwood delivers statements about his victims. This creates a cold, ghostly atmosphere in the scene and reveals that Sherlock is almost attempting to hide the fact he is rather unnerved communicating with him.
This adds to the framework "style" as Guy Richie uses really energetic body language to reveal a character's feeling or a hidden nature about a character. It also increases clarity in expressing anger and emotion in most of his films.
Guy Richie creates clarity within the scene with the use of cinematography.
This is evident from where there is a close up shot of Sherlock Holmes as he talks to Lord Blackwood in the jail cell. His face is in the rule of thirds and is in shallow focus.
His use of the shallow focus in the background effectively capitalizes the viewer's view on Sherlock and what he says in the dialogue, it is used almost as a way of blocking out the surroundings and just show the two characters in individual close-up shots.
This links to Guy Richie's Style in the film as he had intentionally done this consistently in the film so that he can almost manipulate where the viewer focuses in a scene.
Furthermore, the use of the close-up shots add an emphasis to the reactions of what the other had said and adds clarity in showing how they feel.
In addition, the continuous use of the close up shots used during the dialogue is used to signal that the dialogue is significant in contributing to the main series of events later on in the story in the form of foreshadowing.
This contributes to the framework, style as Guy Richie uses cinematography as a way of directing the viewer's focus to a certain part of the frame or scene.
The use of high angled shots of Lord Blackwood also contribute to style.
This is evident where Richie uses a series of high-angled mid and close-up shots of Blackwood as he talks to Sherlock. This shot makes him look rather inferior in comparison to Sherlock Holmes and is contrasted with the levelled close up mid-shots of Sherlock Holmes. This presents Blackwood as inferior, weak and vulnerable, and portrayed as a sort of animal in a cage, isolated, trapped and inferior to both the people who keep him there and Sherlock as he looks down at him in the close up shots.
This adds to the framework of Guy Richie's style as he uses angled shots and in the cinematography to show who is superior and who is inferior and how the protagonist and antagonist persistently tries to overpower each other. In addition, Richie, makes the villain's intentions clear in the film by allowing his villains to tell the hero what will happen as well as the viewer so that then Richie can show a series of events leading up to the main plot instead of disorientating the viewers with random acts and this also creates less of a restricted narrative in the way it's been told but a more flexible perspective and that's what Richie has done in the film.
Mise-en-scene is also used to show another way in which Guy Richie's cinematic style is presented in the film.
Just how shallow focus is used to block out the background and surroundings to direct the viewer's focus to the important dialogue, lighting is also used to serve the same purpose in this scene where there are shots of Lord Blackwood talking o Sherlock and the background is in deep darkness, so deep that nothing is visible, leaving a bright, lit circle of light coming from the little window from the top of his cell which implies to the viewer that he is the main focus of the shot.
This demonstrates the Style of Guy Richie in the sequence and shows how he uses lighting to create a main focus point in a shot.
The use of makeup is also used as a way of showing one of Guy Richie's stylistic touches to his film.
This is evident where on the close up shots of Sherlock, there is no pale white, 1890s make up and no traditional, rich powders on his face but the rough looks and the skin colour is natural, this makes Richie's characters' appearance more realistic and creates a natural look to Sherlock by not applying any makeup but sweat. Sherlock and the other characters look clean, sophisticated and modern.
This contributes to Guy Richie how stylizes the characters as well as the film and demonstrates how his cinematic style may apply for his other films.
Performance is also used to demonstrate Richie's stylistics to the film by revealing a particular feeling from a character.
This is shown through body language where in the close-up shots of Sherlock where he speaks during the dialogue, his head to tends to shake a lot while he speaks and as he just stares at Blackwood as he talks. This suggests that he is quite anxious and uneasy as Blackwood delivers statements about his victims. This creates a cold, ghostly atmosphere in the scene and reveals that Sherlock is almost attempting to hide the fact he is rather unnerved communicating with him.
This adds to the framework "style" as Guy Richie uses really energetic body language to reveal a character's feeling or a hidden nature about a character. It also increases clarity in expressing anger and emotion in most of his films.
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