Directions: Directors: David Fincher

David Fincher

Producer | Director | Actor

• Born in 1962
• Started working for John Korty when he was 18 years old
• Left ILM to direct TV commercials and music videos after signing with N. Lee Lacy in Hollywood.

David Fincher is definitely one of my favourite directors simply because of the subtle yet dramatic decisions he makes for his films. I've noticed a few things that I would consider some of his trademarks or directing style. First of all, Fincher brings a different perspective on how you can tell a story. For him it seems to be what you don't do or what you don't show instead of what you do show. David does not do handheld, Dragon tattoo has only two scenes of handheld action, Zodiac has one and The Social Network has only one shot of handheld. Seven has the most handheld shots as it has 5 but this is still a low number in comparison to other hollywood movies. Some are almost completely shot with a handheld technique. Even when he uses it, he designs the scene in a way where it has a purpose. For example; In this scene the camerawork on the detectives is somewhat shaky.

 Whilst the suspect who has power is shot with a steady, stationary shot as he speaks slowly. 

You could say that this illustrates the status or the mindset of the characters but whatever the reason, the shots are selected for a purpose. Another thing that Fincher does is he deliberately removes the illusion of a human operating the camera as he creates obscure angles and tracking shots. Whereas lots of movies purposely add camera shakes or mistakes to give a feel of a person being there, Fincher does not. Its like he is doing the opposite. In an interview he says that he "doesn't want to give the camera a personality" and that he just wants to "show what is happening and what is doomed to happen" by having tracking shots, sometimes directing the audience to an area before something has happened so they know something is just about to. At times you can't really tell if a shot is CGI, handheld or motion controlled and I really appreciate that. 

Another thing I noticed about Fincher is that he never cuts to a close up unless he needs to. He only does it when there is something specific that he wants you to see. Other than that he usually keeps it at a medium/ mcu if he is showing a conversation between two people.

But when he does cut to a close up, you know what he is trying to show you is going to be something important or have great significance in the plot. Especially since it's used so sparingly.

And lastly, when it comes to the very basic scenes like a conversation between 2 people, it is usually considered the least cinematic thing so this is usually a chance for directors to tell you/ show you what they really care about or want you to care about. It is clear that Fincher cares about information, he holds shots onto when characters learn new pieces of information; 

Illustrated here when the character realises something is a bit out of the ordinary and he puts the pieces of information together. You can see it on his face in this shot so clearly Fincher wants the audience to pick up on this.

The main thin I have taken from David Fincher's style is that you must do things but only if you have a purpose. You can create a great dynamic in scenes if you know what the important parts are to move the story along. He is all about the story and the movement, in comparison to the flow of Fukunaga's True Detective where he wants you to pay attention to everything going on in the shot, background settings any everything. I feel like this isn't always the case for Fincher. But none the less, this just shows me that I need to always think about the important, key parts in the narrative and how I can show it's significance to the story and the plot.