Analysis Of Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow
Like Tim Burton’s other films, Sleepy Hollow sustains a dark tone throughout. Tim Burton and Emmanuel Lubezki, consider this tone when filming Sleepy Hollow. The film is shot with a film stock that enhanced black and desaturated other colors. The muted colors help provide the dark and gloomy tone. Also the use of shots plays a role in telling the story. Close ups allow the characters responses to be seen, and the many long shots bring a feeling of uneasiness to the film.
The first shot of Sleepy Hollow is and extreme close up of what appears to be fabric or paper. Almost immediately, drops of red liquid fall to this surface. The viewer, well aware of what genre Sleepy Hollow falls under, might be led to believe this liquid is blood at first glimpse, but within seconds discovers it to be melted wax used to seal a last will and testament. The next minute or so of the movie is extreme close ups of the last will and testament, and of the signing of the will. The camera pans along the writing, as if the camera itself was a person reading the will. With little time to read entire sentences, a few words are comprehensible such as, grave and corpse. These are unnerving words which can only foreshadow dark and gloomy action. Within the first few minutes of the film, a dark tone is set with the help of these close ups, which allow the viewer to see only what the director and cinematographer had planned for the viewer to see. This gives what is shown a dramatic feel and enhances its importance for later in the film.
About thirty minutes into the film, a long shot shows a small bridge, and Ichabod soon comes into the frame, riding on his horse. As he rides under the arch of the bridge, the shot changes to a second long shot that shows Ichabod from the front. Ichabod moves closer to the camera and the shot switches to a medium close up. The switch to a medium close up allows the viewer to see Ichabod's facial expressions in response to what he hears. While in...
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