Second Film DeconstructionSweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (Directed by Tim Burton)

Theme: Gothic Horror / Musical

Background on directors style: The directors visual imagination often sees Gothic architecture and atmosphere brought together with his own upbringing in sunny Los Angeles. A world of darkness, wild moors and haunted castles crossed with pastel-coloured bungalows, picket fences and verdant green lawns as American as apple pie. The contrast is there in almost all his films

The sequence starts off with string instruments, playing low repetitive notes, that almost resemble the rumbling noises of London; which is where this film is set. Only an organ is playing at first, which fits with horror conventions. The camera shot is a crane shot, overlooking the sky as it comes down looking into the window, the setting is dark, and there is lots of rain and fog. This connotes evil, and foreshadows bad events.There is then a red rain droplet, connotating blood and creating suspense.The high angle shot on the barbers chair, highlights its importance

The scolded portraits on the wall create a dark atmosphere, almost like the painting is melting, or perhaps even bleeding.The portraits have a Victorian style design, which could introduce the era of the film. The camera follows the dripping red substance in a very long framed shot. The red substance that is trailing on the stone, could be seen as blood to the viewer. This is another convention of horror stories as blood could foreshadow murder or death further into the film. We see that one of the actors is Johnny Depp; on further research this actor tends to be in very surreal, dark movies.

The titles do not fly onto the screen, they just simply fade in and out. The speed at which the titles appear on the screen increases as it progresses and the position of the titles depends on the importance. The red substance then begins to race into the darkness, where a secret panel is revealed, this could imply a dark secret. The next shot says Sweeney Todd, where the red stands out against the dark background.

Following the blood trail, leads the camera to meat grinding, this could suggest that the blood seen in the previous shots comes from whatever is being grinded. The shot is the pedestalled downwards into flames. Linking this back with the previous shot of meat being grinded, the fire could represent the cleansing of the bacteria, as the meat is cooked.

The shot then changes to a close up of pies. Linking this back to the fire, we can see smoke and the tip of the flames behind the pie. The blood that the camera had be trailing is now in the oven, along with the pie bubbling, this could also be linked back to the blood falling into a secret panel and being the blood of the grinded meat. The shot then begins to zoom out, revealing the the oven door resembles a safe, once again fitting with the idea that whats going on is a secret. The camera then begins to trail the blood once more, but this time the blood is in the sewers, this could be symbolising the dumping of the waste products after extracting the most useful part: meat.

The blood trail finishes as its washed away into the sea, until completely diluted. There is then a transition of the water to really thick fog, this could give an atmosphere of mystery. The next shot is a wide shot of a pirate ship piercing through the fog, and a quick wide shot transition of the London bridge; confirming that this film is set in London. The camera pans until it is a close up of a character, he then begins to sing. Immediately we know this is going to be a musical: not conventional with a horror film. The character is then interrupted by who I consider to be the main, as his overall appearance is much darker and sinister, fitting with the atmosphere of the film.