B.) Genre/Atmosphere

Tone

The tone is to give us a feeling of what we are in for in the film; and in “Sweeny Todd” this has been cleverly created by symbolism relating to the film itself. Some examples are the cogs symbolising Todd’s thoughts and the ever-increasing globules of blood symbolising the growing number of Todd’s victims. The director, Tim Burton, uses dark and gloomy lighting, suggesting to us the overall tone of the film.

Part of the title sequence is from the point of view of Todd’s victims – falling down the “chute”, oozing out of the meat grinder, blood floating down the drain. Tim Burton wants us to experience the character’s point of view without actually showing the character. As we are only shown images and not people, Burton wants us to feel apprehensive for what is to come and also to give us a fear of the unknown.

There is a disorientating feeling is of falling for example the Victorian style silhouette pictures have blood dripping down and the title "Sweeney Todd" appears to fall and the blood down the sewers. Burton is suggesting to us the idea of Todd’s victims falling .

In the title sequence Tim Burton wants to take us through a series of feelings. He has done this firstly by utilising dark monotone images of London. It is a gloomy and grimy city, which makes us feel threatened and that we are entering a “dark” place not only physically, but also in what is going to happen. Following this, he wants us to feel scared by following the trail of dripping blood and then horrified as you wonder how the pies are being made when blood sizzles from beneath them in the oven. Burton lightens the tone slightly by the fact that it is partially cartoonised.

Tim Burton in conjunction with the composer, Stephen Sondheim, has used the music very effectively to enhance the various emotions throughout the title sequence. The eerie music at the beginning is to create a tense feeling of anticipation and then there is a feeling of heightened emotion and unease, created by the dissonant chords with the string ostinato above. The Horror feeling is created by the high screeches in the strings - a technique that is often used in horror films. The brass then add fullness to the sound, which intensifies the tone and then climaxes when the title of the film is shown.

The font of the title and credits for the actors and people involved is in Gothic font. This reflects the Victorian time in which the film was set and gives the viewer a better sense of the tone and setting of the film. The writing is white on the dark lighting which stands out and shows the people are involved are important. Then the title “Sweeney Todd” is coloured red. By doing this, Time Burton has cleverly made us realise that the blood is connected with the man Sweeney Todd himself and signifies the excessive and possibly gratuitous amount of blood used in the film.

Mood

For me, the mood of the opening sequence reflects very much what I think the Director’s intentions are.  To begin with I felt tense and quite cold with the dark images of Victorian London and the sound of thunder is threatening and suggests something bad will happen. A feeling of uncertainty follows this as the camera zooms up to house. The sound of blood splattering on the window and dripping and oozing through the cogs made me want to shiver in horror. I started to feel grossed out because it is quite realistic.

This was balanced by the fact that the images are partially cartoonised, which then made me question the reality of the film and my mood lightened a little. Because there are no people in the opening sequence and the images are hints of what happens I was also intrigued as to what might follow. When I saw Alan Rickman’s name (Judge Turpin) by the barber’s chair it made me question what the chair was going to be used for and what it all really meant. Later we discover it is the place of his murder. I found the contrast of the dark lighting and images against the bright white text made me focus on the text and then when the title “Sweeney Todd” was in red it made me think more about the oozing blood and I felt more disgust.

The cold, dark feeling from the beginning transmogrifies to a warming sensation as the pies are being cooked in the oven. Seeing blood oozing and sizzling from beneath the pies I started to suspect what was really in them and what might take place in the film. I thought about the smell of the sewers and felt sick seeing the rats scuttling around. 


I felt the sense of falling watching the images, blood, mincemeat and text falling down the screen. This anticipates Todds' victim’s fall through the barbers’ chair after having their throat cut.


The music underpins all of the images and emphasises what I felt to a very large extent, this is because as a musician I am very aware of what I hear, as well as what I see, when I “watch” a film. The music effectively enhances the visual impact of the opening sequence.