David Fincher - Director
- Fincher's excessive take count tells me that he is an actor's director. He has a clear vision and is not afraid to work with his actors until he can get the performance that he wants.
- He is also known for his impossible camera moves & lengthy tracking shots. Starting with Seven and going through Panic Room and Fight Club, each feature camera's that go through walls, through ducts, down buildings and into garbage cans.
- These moves not only convey a wider sense of geography in the scene, they are also very stylish and show the viewer something they hadn't seen before (or often).
- Fincher's background in music videos give his films a very glossy look, but also feel realistic and edgy. He always uses a similar colour palette, muted tones and lots of darkness/ contrast.
- His use of shadows to hide character's faces is a clever way to have the character appear in the film but obscure their identity from the audience.
- Finally he is known for inserting blink and you'll miss it single frames into sequences, a technique carried over from his days directing music videos and commercials. In Fight Club he included frames of pornography (alluded to in the story), as well as glimpses of the Tyler Durden character before we actually meet him.
- He also used this technique in Se7en & Zodiac.
I'm going to write the first draft of the script now. 5 weeks to go...
