David Fincher
David Andrew Leo Fincher was born in Denver, Colorado in 1962 (49), he is a film director, film producer and a music video director, in his early days David started of directing music videos and commercials for companies such as Nike, Pepsi and Sony, his biggest music video was Madonna’s “Express Yourself” music video which was voted #1 in Slant Magazines Top 100 Videos. In the past decade David has directed some of the biggest films such has Fight Club and The Social Network which have both won him numerous awards such as the Golden Globe and the BAFTA for Best Director, he has a unique style that makes films accessible, enjoyable and entertaining he is one of a few select people that can be called an auteur.
In his younger day’s David began making movies at the age of eight with a 8mm camera, his first ever job was loading cameras and doing other hands-on work for John Korty’s Korty Films. He has actually appeared in a film playing himself called “How Did They Ever Make a Movie of Facebook”
Most of David’s films are dark and shady, not much colour used in them, just by looking at the film posters you can tell that the films have a deep meaning embedded into them, the two films posters that really stand out and show David Fincher’s style are Zodiac and Panic Room. Zodiac film poster is very simple but effective the fog and mist that covers the bridge gives off a chilling look which is a perfect example of what the films holds. Panic Room is also very simple, that’s one thing that I have learned with David Fincher film posters they are all simple, less is more a good saying which I think is true and goes perfectly with David’s posters.
David’s dark style is not only seen in his posters but a lot in the films, Fight Club, Alien3, The Game and Seven are all films that have a successful suicide attempted in them, this shows the depth his willing to go to show off these dark traits. His films often have low-key lighting with green or blue tinted colour temperature, the films endings tend to have downbeat endings, deaths etc, the camera angles are mostly low, gives off a grittier look and one thing that I did see him use a lot is the Stationary shot, unfocused background with character walking into focus.
David likes to use a lot of the same actors over and over again a few people that he has have worked with on more than one occasion are Brad Pitt in the films, Fight Club and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Bob Stephenson who has been in Seven, Game, Fight Club and Zodiac and finally Angelina McCoy who was in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and The Social Network. I think the reason David uses same people over again is because he’s knows that they are great actors and can deliver what is needed of them.
When I did my focus group i asked a few questions and one of them was what kind of director do you think David Fincher is, style wise? I wanted to ask this question because I wanted to know how other people view his films. Matt started off with saying that he does more “multi-genre films”, so his films are not just based on one genre and that is true after researching about David Fincher I found out that he has done different types of genres for example the 2007 film Zodiac and the 1992 film Alien 3 are both horror films but the 2010 film The Social Network and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button are both drama films, so this point that Matt made was correct.
Other people said that most of his films are more dark and shady, not much colour used in them and that they all have a deep meaning embedded into them, the film poster for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button has a slogan that says “You’re different from anybody I ever met” this is a example of the passion and the deep thought of the films David Fincher makes.
He has his own unique style that’s different from any other director and he adds that into his films and music videos too. As I just mentioned, a lot of the time his films are down beat, grim colour tones, lack of happy endings and a lot of violent content. These are things that make him an auteur; these are his key features or traits that you can see throughout his films and sometime music videos.
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