Identity
Identity and Artistic Expression
Innovation in moving-image media does not occur for its own sake, but rather as a means to better tell stories - to better express ideas about what it is to be human, what it is to belong to a particular culture or society or group, or what it is to be oneself. Central to experimenting with representations is the concept of 'identity' - the artist's identity, a group's identity and a culture's identity. Innovative moving-image media engages us through how it resonates with our own identities.
Film can unite an audience as a collective, speak emotively to individuals or positions viewers to think or feel a particular way. Artists create stylistic identities through the moving-image media they create, and these media construct representations of ideas, people, places and emotions.
The term 'identity' encompasses three key forms:
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Individual. A sense of place in the world (past, present and future), and what differentiates self from others.
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Social. A sense of belonging in a group.
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Cultural. A sense of belonging to a distinct cultural or ethnic group.
Filmmakers impart their own personal experience and influences on their narrative.
Consider your own personal identity. Create a new word doc called 'Identity Project Formation'. Answer the below questions:
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Individual. What is your sense of place in the world (past, present and future), and what differentiates self from others.
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Social. A sense of belonging in a group. What groups do you belong?
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Cultural. A sense of belonging to a distinct cultural or ethnic group?
Matthew Ninnes
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Individual - Grew up in rural Maryborough, on acreage, youngest of 3 children. Learnt about Technology from my older brother who pursued a career in IT and my sister taught me about the environment and music. Attended public school, excelled in Film, I.T., Physics and Maths, played the drums and participated in a range of sports. Completed University studies in Film & TV Production at the Queensland College of Art (now Griffith Film School) in South Bank, Brisbane. During studies, met a number of International students and formed close friendships, Kjetil from Norway, Dimitri from Columbia, Chee from South Korea. My graduating project was about an isolated elderly man and I worked very closely with Kjetil on script development and the production. The character reminded me very much of my Grandfather who I was very close to and I had lost a year prior to creating the film. The story explored themes of loss and loneliness. Upon graduating I worked making TV commercials for Roly Poly Studios and learnt more about cinematography and visual styles for advertising. I also worked on a number of music videos with friends from University who have gone on to produce music videos for some amazing bands around the world. From there began my journey as an educator, wanting to share my passion for visual storytelling with others.
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Social belonging - Family (married my Highschool sweetheart, have two children Archie (6) and Hugo (3)), Arts and filmmaking circles, sports communities (basketball and cricket), automotive groups (muscle car - Mopar), running groups (parkrun), school community at Xavier.
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Cultural belonging - Aboriginal groups (descendent of Palawa - Mannalargenna), I am now living in Butchula country.
Spike Lee - Brooklyn
Lee was born in Atlanta Georgia and at a very young age he moved from pre-civil rights Georgia to Brooklyn, New York. He came from artistic/education background; his father a jazz musician, and his mother, a schoolteacher of arts and black literature. Lee has 3 younger siblings. He attended school in Brooklyn's Gravesend neighbourhood and then Morehouse College in Atlanta, a historically black college. Also studied and lectured at NYU.
Lee's work has continually explored race relations, colourism in the black community, the role of media in contemporary life, urban crime and poverty, and other political issues. His films are also noted for their unique stylistic elements, including the use of double-dolly shots to portray the characters 'floating' through their surroundings, which he has had his cinematographers repeatedly use in his filmography.
He has made commercials for Levi Jeans, Nike Air Jordans, Converse, Jaguar, Taco Bell and Ben & Jerry's.
She's Gotta Have It (1986)
Do the Right Thing (1989)
Jungle Fever (1991)
Malcolm X (1992)
Crooklyn (1994)
He Got Game (1998)
Inside Man (2006)
Oldboy (2013)
NBA 2K16 - My Career Story Mode (VG 2015)
BlacKkKlansman (2018)
Tim Burton - Isolation and eccentricity
Edward Scissorhands (dir. Tim Burton, 1990) tells the story of Edward, a boy found living alone in a dark mansion on the top of a mountain. Edward is the creation of an elderly inventor who dies before he can replace Edward’s scissorhands with conventional hands. The motherly Peg takes Edward under her wing and invites him into her home to live as part of her family. The world into which Edward is placed is a model of pastel-coloured conformity. Initially, he is welcomed by the rest of the community as an entertaining oddity but is brutally rejected when things go wrong.
Background
The inspiration for Edward Scissorhands goes back to Tim Burton’s childhood in suburban Burbank. When he was growing up he found the tendency for the people around him to live life on the surface unsettling and alienating. Because everyone was so concerned about how things looked on the surface, it was very difficult for anyone to be different. Burton’s struggle to deal with this world of conformity was the inspiration for Edward Scissorhands. He says of this character:
The idea actually came from a drawing I did a long time ago. It was just an image that I liked. It came subconsciously and was linked to a character who wants to touch but can’t, who was both creative and destructive. … It was the feeling that your image and how people perceive you are at odds with what is inside you.
- Think about this idea that other people often don’t know what is going on inside you, and cannot see the person you feel you really are. What is the effect of this? Why does it matter?
- Is it always a good idea to let others know what you are thinking and how you are feeling? Explain.
- What are some of the things we can do to communicate effectively with others?
- How important is it that we make the effort to really ‘see’ who other people are?
Edward Scissorhands is Tim Burton’s most autobiographical film but most of his films feature characters who are outsiders. Burton uses filmmaking as a means of communicating all the feelings that used to be hidden inside him.
- What other Tim Burton films have you seen? Are there any similarities between those films and Edward Scissorhands? It could related to themes, visuals, character, anything
- Want to know more about Burton and his filmography?
Watch this short video essay on his career.
The original trailer for Edward Scissorhands
Themes
Difference and conformity
- Describe the way the townspeople in Edward Scissorhands respond to him.
- Why do they welcome him at first and then turn against him?
- What does this tell us about them and the community they live in?
- How does Edward respond to the people in the community?
- How and why does he struggle to understand his new environment? Explain with examples from the film.
- Consider the still from the film below and Tim Burton’s statement: ‘I just remember that feeling that what people call “normal” is not normal and what people call abnormal isn’t normal.’ List the ways that Burton presents the 'normal' world of suburbia, as being abnormal, or a little bit off.
- Identify moments in the film where characters are forced to conform and go along with the majority. What are the negative consequences of these moments?
Being human
Director Tim Burton has always been fascinated by the idea of what makes someone truly human, and this is one of the central themes of Edward Scissorhands.
- In what ways is Edward more human than most of the people he encounters?
- Which characters in Edward Scissorhands are the most destructive and monstrous? Explain.
- What are the values that the film advocates?
Creativity and Imagination
Burton's film champions creativity and imagination, and Edward's creativity has a profound effect on certain people in the town.
Edward
Not only is Edward the unique product of his scientist creator’s vision and imagination, he also benefits from the love and care lavished on him by this surrogate father.
- How do we know they have a special relationship?
- Why are Edward’s memories so important?
- How does Edward reflect and express the creativity and vision of his father?
- How is the positive effects of Edward's creativity communicated in the film
Peg
- In what ways is Peg different from the other people in the town?
- Describe what we learn about her when she is first introduced.
- Why is Peg the only townsperson to actually even notice that Edward’s house is looming over the town?
- How does Peg respond to Edward and what does this tell us about her?
Kim
- Describe Kim’s character
- How does she change and why?
- Choose a scene where we see Kim learning more about herself and the world she lives in as a result of meeting Edward. Describe what happens and explain Edward’s role.
Watch the clip below, how are the positive effects of Edward's creativity communicated here, and how does this scene relate to how Kim changes throughout the film?
The setting
Have a look at the image gallery below of stills from the film.
- Describe the two worlds depicted in Edward Scissorhands. How do lighting, colour and shape influence our understanding of each of these worlds? Explain.
- How do the characters’ costumes emphasise the contrast between the 2 worlds explored in the film?
- Explain how the contrast between these two worlds adds to our understanding of the story and the themes being communicated.
- What does each of these places represent? How are these two worlds connected through the characters of Edward and Kim?
When Tim Burton described the suburb in which he grew up, he said that there was ‘no sense of history, no sense of culture, no sense of passion for anything’. How does this description apply to the town in Edward Scissorhands?
Genre
Films can often be classified into groups or genres based on the recognisable story elements they share (e.g. horror, comedy, romcom). These story elements are known as genre conventions. Often films use elements from a number of different genres.
Horror Film
Watch the scene where Peg visits Edward’s house. There's a helpful scene-analysis video on YouTube.
- List as many elements that you see and hear that have been borrowed from the horror genre
- How does this scene build up our expectations about what is going to happen and then surprises us?
Teen Film
The film also borrows familiar elements from teen dramas.
- How is Edward Scissorhands also a ‘teen film’? Explain, identifying the elements drawn from this genre.
- How do some of the younger characters fit stereotypes from teen films? Jocks, geeks, and so on.
When Tim Burton was criticised that Jim’s death at the end of the film made the film too dark, he suggested it was a ‘revenge fantasy’ in response to the behavior of the ‘jocks’ at his high school.
- What do you think of the portrayal of Jim and the other high school students? Do you think that Jim’s death is the most appropriate way of ending the story or would there have been other, possibly better, alternatives?
One of the key conventions (a familiar element) of the teen film is that the main character learns more about who they are and grows as a person.
- Usually it's the protagonist who is changed forever by the end of a story. Do you think Edward has changed or has he stayed the same by the film's end?
- Which other character in Edward Scissorhands goes through this process of gaining self-knowledge?
Fairy Tale
The special effects and make-up artist, Stan Winston, who worked on Edward Scissorhands was only able to understand what Burton was trying to achieve when he realised the film was a fairy tale. Up until that point, he had been trying to use logic to understand the story.
- List the fairy tale elements in Edward Scissorhands. They can be specific to a fairytale, or fairytales in general
Fairy tales are used to teach life lessons and values. Fairy Tales are also about magic and transformation.
- What does Edward Scissorhands teach us?
- Explain what is magical about Edward Scissorhands.
In Edward Scissorhands the opening and closing scenes provide a frame for the main story. It also gives us important information about the kind of story we are watching. Rewatch the closing minutes of the film in the clip below.
- Provide a single sentence description of the beginning and end of the film and focus on the story and visual elements that seem fairytale-like
- What do they tell us about the kind of story being told in Edward Scissorhands? (‘Well a long time ago…’)
- Describe the way that Edward transforms the world below his house. How is this communicated visually, particularly at the end of the film?
Narrative
Films are often plotted out around the key moments of tension, and relief of tension.
- List five or more of the most dramatic moments in the order they happened.
- List five or more other moments that were memorable because they were humurous or elicited other emotions from us, such as sympathy, empathy, joy, wonder.
- When and how do we find out about who Edward is and where he has come from? Why do you think this information is scattered through the film, rather than shown at the very start? What is the effect of this?
- How does this way of telling Edward’s story reinforce Burton’s message about the limitations of trying to understand an individual through the way s/he presents him/herself to the world?
Hitchcock - Suspense and wrongful accusations.
