Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)

Charlie and the Chocolate is a film adaptation of Roald Dahl's book (1964) The film is directed by Tim Burton who also directed Edward Sissorhand and Alice in Wonderland.

The film begins with clouds and mist departing away from the Warner Brother and Village Roadshow Pictures logo in gold, the colour of the logos and also the cast and crew names are in gold because it is the colour of the golden ticket. The clouds and the mist represent the mystery, the magical and the unknown. There is a long shot camera angle of the factory as it moves closer and closer to the building, the long shot angle has been put in so the audience can get a realistic view of how big the factory is. The decor of the factory is silver, brand new-like and shiny this gives us the impression of an unrealistic factory everything is too clean to be real. This ties in with the fantasy chocolate factory, the way in which the chocolate is a fantasy. Realistically you wouldn't have real chocolate been thrown into the air or layered onto a conveyor belt by a balloon. The chocolate Willy Wonka creates is a fantasy just like his factory. There is a close up camera shot of the hand as Willy Wonka places a golden ticket on the chocolate, the close up shot is important as we need to see what is happening. If the shot was a long shot instead the audience wouldn't understand what was being put onto the chocolate. The tempo of the music slows down as the rush of the factory slows down. The golden ticket is slowly put onto the chocolate which creates tension as we are wondering what is going to happen next. Willy Wonka wears a purple glove on his hand while placing the golden tickets onto the chocolate. The connotation of purple is meant to symbolise royalty, as well as the golden tickets, the gold is also meant to represent royalty in the film Willy Wonka is equivalent to royalty, he owns his own chocolate factory, everyone buys his chocolates and is a well known family household name. As the last ticket is placed onto the chocolate the camera angle is of a extreme close up. This angle has been done because it is the final glimpse of the tickets and it also shows the audience the details on the ticket. Once all the tickets have been put onto the tickets the tempo in the music speeds up again to its original fast paced speed as the rush of the factory begins again.

 Outside the factory it is dark and snowing. The snow represent the magical unknown and sets the scene. From the snow we create the impression it must be cold and winter time. There is a long shot of the red Wonka vans being filled up, the long shot has been used so the audience can see the amount of boxes, chocolates and vans it also shows some of the scenery. The red on the vans has been used for importance, in the film to the characters the vans would be easy to distinguish just like we have red royal mail vans. As the vans slowly depart the gates slowly open creating suspense. There is an establishing shot so the audience can see the factory location in comparison to the rest of the city. From the establishing shot we see the factory is located in a town walking distance away from houses. The directors name is last on the screen which follows filming codes and conventions. There is a voice over of narrators voice, we see the voice as the storyteller in the film. As the narrator is talking the camera zooms onto a typical child, we create the impression he is an average school boy from the clothes he wears, he has a casual jumper and trousers and shoes nothing that looks out of place. The narrator tells the audience his name is Charlie Bucket, his name matches the way he dresses, a simple name for a simple ordinary character unlike some of the other characters in the film; Violet, Verruca and Augustus. There is another establishing shot as we see Charlie walking to his home. The establishing shot has been used so we can make the comparison between Willy Wonka's wealthy factory and Charlie's home that is just down the road. Charlies family is poor and underprivileged, the location and the props used tell us this. The way the house is standing has been over exaggerated it is standing slanted on a remote bit of land. Inside the house the equipment is very basic and the spacing is very small and limited. He lives with his family, his mum, dad and grandparents. At the end of the opening sequence the narrator says "Charlie Bucket is the luckiest boy in the world he just doesn't know it yet" this foreshadows future events leaving the audience wondering what happens to poor Charlie.