Alice In Wonderland

Wonderland

I’m going to talk about the techniques used in the film Alice In Wonderland, directed by Tim Burton. I believe that Tim Burton has its own technique, he uses a lot of low key lighting and has a gothic style in his movies.

In Alice in Wonderland, Burton uses a nightmare and scary approach towards the storyline. Alice is a normal girl that as a child had a nightmare about a fantastic world called Wonderland, little did she know that the dream she had was real. She then grew up to realize that wonderland is a world created by her and she had to save this fantastic world by killing a giant dragon called Jabberwocky. 

Alice In Wonderland by Tim Burton

High Key Lighting

In the image above Tim Burton uses the High Key Lighting technique which can be seen because the scene is just flooded with light, Tim Burton uses this to demonstrate and create a sense of happiness, clarity and peace. The scene takes place on the White Queen’s palace where the Queen meets Alice for the first time, it is the most peaceful and joyful scene in the movie.

This scene can help the audience to realize that when ever they see white in a scene or in a character it means that they are with the White Queen or in the good side. 

Light vs darkness

 

Alice In Wonderland by Tim Burton

In this scene Alice has already killed the giant beast called Jabberwocky meaning that now the crown goes back to the White Queen, this scene can be seen as a Good vs Bad scenario, or light vs darkness. 

The way the Queen dresses herself is also a way to clarify towards the audience that she itself represents peace and joy. In fact almost every time the Queen is the focus point in a scene, Burton uses high key lighting. It is important for the director, in this case Tim Burton, to use high key lighting because it can show a contrast between scenes, giving the viewers a space to understand what the characters mean in the movie and what “side” are they on. In this case the viewers can make a sense of purity in the White Queen and a sense of horror with the Red Queen therefore going back to the Light vs Darkness thing. 

 

Resolution

Alice In Wonderland by Tim Burton

In this scene Alice goes back to reality and tells Hamish that she can not marry him because he is not the right man. This scene represents a moment of clarity for Alice and a moment of revelation and the director chooses the lighting to be bright because of Alice’s freedom from her mother that tells her what to do and how to act. This is the ending scene and as expected high key lighting is used just like in any other movie with a happy ending. 

The scene gives the viewer a sense of things ending and all the loose ends being caught up. The viewer can also relate with the scene because Alice is giving a speech about how she wants to be free and that no one but herself control her life, therefore it is ideal for the director to use high key lighting so that the viewer can take that message and relate to it. 

 

Impact of High Key Lighting

Throughout the movie Tim Burton plays with both High Key Lighting and Low Key Lighting and it gives a big important impact to the movie because it differentiates from good and evil. This can help the viewer to transition better from the tense and scary type of place like the Red Queen’s Castle and transition to the White Queen’s Castle which is more peaceful and less heavy with the shadows, it can be seen as a place to “breath” and take a break from looking at too many shadows and dark places. 

What I like about Tim burton is that he not only plays with the Lighting of the scene but the way the characters dress can also persuade the audience that the White Queen, well she represents all the happy and good things you can think off and whenever she is on scene then everything is going to be okay even if the scene is with a low key lighting. 

The use of different lighting is important in a movie or even in a picture because it creates a mood to the movie and it makes everything so much interesting since the lighting can represent much more than just light. It can represent the mood of the characters at that moment and the actions that they are doing at that moment as well.