Mise-en-scène

Mise-en-scène is used throughout the opening to evoke different emotions in the viewer, and to introduce several of the film's main themes, such as betrayal, abandonment and the loss of innocence.

Most notably, images such as a close-up on the dead inventor introduce the viewer to Edward's grief at the loss of his creator and the first human he felt an emotional attachment to. This helps the viewer to have an emotional attachment to Edward, which makes the rest of the film more compelling for them. The image of the dead inventor also relates to the film's themes of loss and abandonment. Edward feels abandoned by the inventor when he dies, and this is his first experience with loss. This is important because it marks the beginning of Edward's loss of innocence and also shows how effected he was by this, furthering the viewer's understanding of his character.

The recurring images of snow introduce a motif used throughout the film. At the very beginning, Kim's granddaughter asks the question, "where does snow come from?" In a way, the rest of the film is spent exploring this question, eventually revealing that in the case of the town, the snow is created by Edward carving ice statues, his way of expressing his love for Kim. The use of snow in the opening introduces this theme and shows how Edward has difficulty expressing his emotions conventionally, both because of his physical disability and because of his differences from 'normal' society.

Frequently, images of disused machinery and statues covered in cobwebs are used to convey the film's recurring theme of abandonment. Much like the house he inhabits, Edward is abandoned by the townsfolk for being outside the norm, and left to gather dust and be forgotten. The use of disused machinery represents this visually, helping the viewer to clearly understand one of the film's main themes, and also the film's main character.

This image, of a ghoulish statue covered in cobwebs, is shown along with the name of the actor who plays the titular character. The statue, like Edward, has been abandoned and left alone. This visual display of isolation helps the viewer to become emotionally invested in the film in the opening seconds, and to begin to understand the main character before he is even introduced.

Burton uses this technique in the openings of some of his other films, such as The Nightmare Before Christmas, in which different parts of Halloween Town are explored during the opening to give the viewer a visual sense of the world Jack Skellington inhabits. This helps the viewer to understand Jack's character and why he is so fascinated by the concept of Christmas Town, which becomes the main plot of the film. This use of Mise-en-scène in the opening is used to great effect by Burton in both films to give greater understanding to the viewer about the nature of the film, important themes and emotions, and an introduction to main characters and what drives them.

Transitions/Editing

Edward Scissorhands uses fade transitions to create flow within the opening and to give the opening a dreamlike quality which fits with the rest of the movie. The opening is comprised of numerous pan shots and close ups of different objects which represent themes in the film such as the betrayal of Edward by the townspeople and Edward's loss of innocence. By using fade transitions between them, Tim Burton has created a whimsical, flowing scene which draws the viewer into the fairytale feel which the film has.


The use of the fade transition and montage effect makes the opening feel dreamlike and gives the viewer the impression that they are drifting through Edward's thoughts. This gives the viewer an insight and introduction to Edward's character. Images used in the opening seem unrelated to each other, such as a shot of a staircase being followed immediately afterwards by a shot of some machinery such as a large pair of scissors, but are tied together and given meaning by the use of fade transitions. Other aspects of the opening such as a POV shot used with the staircase help to show the reader that the opening is from Edward's point of view, and shows his emotions and his mindset. The use of a montage gives the opening a fairytale feel which relates to the childlike manner of Edward at the beginning of the film.


Other editing techniques are used in the opening, such as the 'scissoring' effect on the titles of the film. This is an reference to the recurring motif of scissors used throughout the film. Edward's scissorhands are used as a metaphor for his differences from regular society, a theme which is explored in the film through his rejection by the townspeople out of their fear of his differences. The use of a scissoring effect on the film's title helps to introduce this motif within the first few seconds of the film and help tie the opening visually with the rest of the film.

By introducing this theme early on in the film, Burton allows the viewer to identify more deeply with the emotions it stirs in Edward, such as his grief at finding acceptance and then losing it again just as quickly, and the isolation he feels as a result of his differences. Through this theme, the viewer can identify more with Edward, which makes the whole film more emotionally compelling.

Color

Color is used in the opening sequence to give a sense of abandonment and loneliness to the opening. A blue filter is used in all frames throughout the opening sequence, usually showing blue objects on a black background. This is particularly effective as blue is a color generally associated with sadness, and so it serves to expand on the emotions created by other aspects of the opening.

In particular, the way that the blue filter affects the way objects are represented is very effective. Cookies, something usually associated with warmth and friendliness, suddenly appear to represent loneliness and lost childhood when shown in blue.

The same effect is used with other objects such as hands, which are another symbol generally associated with life and warmth. When shown in blue, they represent death and the isolation and loss Edward feels at the death of the inventor. They also represent his longing to have hands of his own, and the way he is now different to everyone else. This is effective in putting the viewer in the right mindset for the rest of the film by showing them that many objects that generally have positive connotations can be negative too.

The use of the blue filter also relates to snow which is a recurring icon throughout the film. The snow represents Edward's love for, and his capacity to understand, beauty, even though he himself is seen as a monster by the townspeople. This is seen especially in one of the film's most iconic scenes, where Kim dances in the snow as Edward carves an ice sculpture of her. This scene represents Edward's final moment of innocence and purity before the townspeople turn on him. In this way, snow is also used to reprent Edward's innocence, and the loss of it. This is important to the main themes of the film and the use of cold colors relating to the snow helps to reinforce this.

The use of a blue filter creates meaning in the film opening by reinforcing the themes of the movie's narrative and dictating the viewer's emotional response to the film. By using a muted palette of cold colors, Tim Burton has effectively told the viewer that Edward Scissorhands is a film which deals a lot with loneliness, rejection, isolation and abandonment. These themes are revisited many times throughout the film; through the loss of the inventor and Edward's abandonment issues stemming from this, Edward's rejection by the townspeople for his differences to them, and his eventual isolation from society when he chooses to fake his own death and live out his life in solitude rather than deal with the pain of rejection. The use of color is important in achieving this because the human mind automatically associates different colors with different emotions. Therefore, using only blue, black and white colors is a simple yet effective way to set the tone in the film without distracting attention from the movie's titles. Tim Burton also uses this technique in some of his other films, most notable in The Nightmare Before Christmas, where Burton uses different color palettes to differentiate between the warmth and happiness of Christmas Town and the dreary, depressing mood of Halloween Town, similar to the way color is used to underline the mood in Edward Scissorhands.

Music

The music in the opening titles, composed by Danny Elfman, contributes greatly to the overall tone of the opening. The score is very cinematic and also includes a choir. The slow, sweeping movement of the score helps to create the mood of sadness and loneliness present throughout the opening.

The use of a glockenspiel at the very beginning brings the score in gently and quietly. It creates a soft, ethereal tone which is carried through into the rest of the opening. The sound of the glockenspiel resembles a music box which helps to create the fairytale feel seen in the opening, and in the rest of the film. This is an effective opening to the film as it introduces the viewer to the themes and emotions of the film, such as Edward's isolation and exile from society after he is rejected for his differences. The beginning of the opening track also has a very innocent, childlike tone to it, representing Edward's innocence at the beginning of the film.

The synchronization of the music with the images on-screen is also effective in tying the music to the rest of the film. This is seen especially near the end, in the final buildup of the scene's music, when the musical notes coincide with the appearance of cookies on screen. This visually enhances the buildup in the music and when the score reaches its peak, this is reflected onscreen by a sudden cascade of cookies, as opposed to the isolated ones appearing previously.

These different uses of music are effective in creating meaning in the opening titles because they heighten the emotion portrayed through the opening, and connect the viewer emotionally to the movie and its characters before the beginning of the narrative. The simple glockenspiel at the beginning gives the viewer a childlike sense of wonder, like Edward. As the music swells and grows, the emotion felt by the viewer also deepens, helping to set the emotional tone of the film and introduce the viewer to the key moods and themes of the film.

Close Reading: Genre/Atmosphere

• What is the tone?
• Mood of the scene?
• How is it created?

The tone of Edward Scissorhands' opening scene is dark and slightly whimsical. Tim Burton achieves this through the use of sound, colour and a number of different close-up shots. Danny Elfman's score has a very ethereal quality to it, and when coupled with the blue-hued images of machinery, cookies, architecture and hands, and shots of snow against a black background it gives the opening a very fairytale feel. Especially, images like snow falling on the 20th Century Fox logo show that this movie has a darker tone. The snow is also used to represent Edward's isolation. The use of this in the opening is important because it allows Tim Burton to introduce the reader to the emotions and themes of the film before it begins.


The mood of the scene is sad, and suggests feelings of isolation. There are many close-up shots of abandoned machinery, and the empty house of the inventor. The close up and slow zoom out on the dead inventor, shown in blue, creates a definite feeling of sadness and loss. Images such as close-ups on machinery covered in cobwebs, and a POV shot of an empty staircase suggest a feeling of loneliness, which relates to the character of Edward. All of these techniques used to create emotion help to introduce the viewer to some key themes before the movie's narrative has even begun.


Techniques such as the "scissoring" effect on the film's title, and several other titles throughout the opening, also relate back to Edward and the central point of the narrative, which is Edward's hands and how they represent his differences from normal society. This is reinforced by a pan over a wrought-iron gate featuring a set of scissors. Once again, the use of these techniques in the opening sequence helps introduce the viewer to important aspects of the film before the film's beginning.

The opening sequence ends with a fade from a shot of snow falling, to a long shot of the inventor's house at night as it stands alone on the top of a hill. Snow is still falling to continue the images introduced in the opening and to link this shot back to what the audience has just seen. This long shot serves to establish a main setting in the film and to make a smooth transition from the opening titles to the film's narrative.

(Link to opening sequence here.)

Close Reading: Reasons For Selection

• Briefly describe the scene.
• How does it fit into the film as a whole?
• Why did it appeal to you?

I have decided to study the opening sequence of "Edward Scissorhands". The initial opening scene, where Kim is tucking her granddaughter in, introduces a main character, albeit much older than she is in the rest of the film. Her granddaughter asks her "where does snow come from?", and Kim replies by beginning her story about Edward. The camera moves out the window and toward the house up on the hill where Edward lived, and the opening titles begin. The main feature of these titles is different, distinct images, generally in a blue light, against a black background. These include cookies, which is an allusion to the cookie making device that the inventor is using when he is hit with the idea for Edward, and snow, referring to the ice sculptures that Edward makes, which are used later in the film to represent his innocence and isolation. Hands are another image used, which is a clear reference to Edward and the fact that he never received his hands. The images used introduce some central ideas to the movie.

It fits into the film as a whole because, by beginning many years after the film takes place, it sets up the narrative of the story and hooks the viewer in, making them want to find out what the story is that Kim is about to tell her granddaughter, that story being the main body of the film.

This appealed to me because it is a simplistic way to introduce the film's genre, general tone and main characters. It also introduces one of the film's main settings, the inventor's house.