Media Essay

Media essay: Tim Burton

Sleepy hollow, Tim burtons gothic horror film, perhaps one of America’s most loved folk story bought to life by one of Americas most loved film makers. The story takes place in a rural town in America, where the locals have experienced a chain of horrific murders, in steps Ichabod crane played by Johnny depp in Burtons adaption of the film. Who is a police officer from New York who comes to investigate these murders but finds out the hard way. That the murders have been committed by a ghost of a headless horseman played by Christopher Walker.

I wanted to find out ‘Can gothic horror complete in the technological cinema of the 21st century’? or will it fade away due to the heavy use of visual effects of modern cinema, for example Avatar, where visual effects let you see into another world, and will it go the same way as most genres with fancy effects but no real plot or interesting dialogue. Who better to ask than Tim Burton. Perhaps the most famous gothic film makers of our time. So I set out to find my answer.

I went to Los Angeles to speak to Burton and try and find an answer, as I arrived at the set I was immediately by the lack of colour in the set. Black and white seemed to be the focus point with lots of crimson red blood adding an eerie feel to the set. The soft lighting gave the set a sense of death and the monstrous shadows that loomed over me. Gave the how sense of gothic and the supernatural. As I proceeded I met a foul sight, a tree stood in front of me it seemed to be oozing with blood. I was amazed at how real it looked in the set it seemed real but as I touched it the bark crumbled and the plaster cracked. Then I saw him he was standing on the opposite side of the set and he was smiling at me.

I walked over, my hands shaking, trying to keep calm, he welcomed me to sit down, so I did, he was wearing a long black coat, black jeans and a blood red shirt, his hair was untamed and wild and his sunglasses had an ice cold...