Can’t get enough of David Fincher’s ‘Gone Girl’? Here’s an incredible video essay on the filmmaking style of David Fincher.
Tony Zhou has created an amazing visual essay examining the work of the director of ‘Gone Girl’. You may remember Zhou from his visual essay on Martin Scorsese. But, this week Zhou examined and breaks down the Gone Girl director.
So what does it take to create a David Fincher movie? According to Zhou:
In his world, drama happens when a character learns a new piece of information. How does it fit with everything they already know? And how do they react to knowing a little more of the truth.
This would be similar to how Steven Spielberg loves to use closeups on character’s facial reactions, also known as Spielberg’s Face. But, the difference is David Fincher focuses on the character’s moment of “sudden clarity”.
Fincher’s style is an extension of this idea, and it’s interesting to hear him describe his process. “They know you can do anything, so the question is what don’t you do, not what do you do.”
So the question becomes, what does David Fincher not do?
Here is a list of things David Fincher does not like to do
-Hand held camera work.
-Create the sense of a human being operating a camera.
-Cut to a close up unless he needs to.
-Move the camera if he can help it.
Zhou does an amazing analysis with audio commentary of several Fincher movies. Check out the video below to get a great filmmaking perspective and view of what is one of Hollywood’s best directors.
Watch the video below:
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