Tim Burton

My Inspiring Director

One person's craziness is another person's reality

All about Tim…
• Timothy William Burton was born on the
25th August 1958 in Burbank, California,
USA.
• Burton studied at the Burbank High
School where he began to find his talents
in drawing and painting and this was
where he discovered his love of film.
• He was mainly influenced by the Horror
and Science fiction genre as he loved
watching films such as Godzilla, the films
made by Hammer Film Productions and
from the works of Vincent Price.
• After successfully finishing High School,
Burton went on to attend the California
Institute of the Arts to study character
animation along side class mates such as
John Lasseter, Brad Birth and Henry
Selick (who he later worked with).
 Burtons Career
• Tim Burton’s first job was an animator for Disney where he worked on films
such as ‘The Fox and the Hound’ and ‘The Black Cauldron’ (1981) . In
1982, Disney realised that Burton had some creative, original, and
interesting talents and gave him the opportunity to write and direct his own
film. ‘Vincent’, the film that Burton made, was an animated short film about
a boy who wanted to be just like Vincent Price (one of Burtons childhood
icons) which went on to be a success and won several awards.
• After creating such successes on such a minimal budget, film companies
decided to allow Tim to have a large budget where he went onto to directing
and writing award winning, globally popular films such as;
Batman/ Batman Returns
Edward Scissorhands
The Nightmare Before Christmas
Sleepy Hollow
Corpse Bride
Sweeney Todd
 Burtons Cinematic Style
Here are a selection of styles that Burton tends to use:
• Tends to direct gothic horrors, animations and re makes
of stories (e.g. Alice in Wonderland)
• He believes that in order to appeal to a wide range of
people, you need to be crazy, because someone’s
craziness is another’s reality
• Johnny Depp is his favourite actor as Burton believes he
is an actor who is able to adapt to any circumstance or
situation. He also states that Depp adds the ‘edgy flare’
that Burton thrives on when directing any genre of film.
 Just a Handful of His Films…
Sleepy Hollow, Sweeney Todd, Batman Returns, The
Nightmare Before Christmas, Edward Scissorhands…
 Tim Burton inspires me to create exciting,
interesting and more than anything, original horror
films, making people find things scary that you
never thought could. He inspires me to aim high
when creating my film and to use my resources,
however many I have, to the best of my ability.
All of Tim Burton’s films inspire me as they are so
individual and appeal to such a wide range of
people and also I love Tim Burton’s work as he
created ‘Alice In Wonderland’ which is my
favourite film.