Exposure: David Fincher
Since his debut feature, Alien3, in 1992, David Fincher has been a fearless “first adopter” of new technologies and production methodologies to change the face of genre films; using bleach-bypass to evoke the bleak and nameless urban metropolis in the crime drama Se7en or employing a virtual cinematography workflow to achieve otherwise impossible camera fly-throughs in his gripping modernization of the home invasion film, Panic Room.
Fight Club, made in 1999 was the second of Fincher’s three collaborations with Brad Pitt, and the film seems ageless, still reflecting the zeitgeist nearly ten years after its debut; likewise for his first teaming with Pitt, Se7en, which blew apart the conventions of the serial killer movie and sparked a slew of stylistic imitators. Of course predicting being ahead of the curve isn’t anything new for Fincher, who began his career as an assistant cameraman at ILM shooting miniatures for the Star Wars and Indian Jones franchises. His trend-setting music video work made him an early star with Propaganda Films, which went on to launch some of the industry’s most original talents – Michel Gondry, Neil LaBute, Spike Jonze, and Gore Verbinski to name just a few. Talk about prescient: Fincher’s commercial spot for AT&T (You Will) gave consumers a “peek” into their own wireless, Web-obsessed future way back in 1993; ditto ten years later with his all-digital spot for HP (Constant Change).
Early word on The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (see cover story), shot by Fincher’s one-time gaffer and more recently, his commercial DP, Claudio Miranda (and again featuring Brad Pitt in the title role), indicates an odds-on favorite at next year’s Oscars. A morality play and love story that covers more than nine decades in American History, Button puts visual styling and special effects in the service of character and story like no other David Fincher film before.
ICG December 2008
FEATURES
THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON
DP Claudio Miranda
By Kevin H. Martin
HURRICANE SEASON
DP Larry Blanford
By Phillip Williams
FRINGE
DP Michael Bonvillain, ASC
By Matt Hurwitz
DEPARTMENTS
FLASH FRAME
Eric Steelberg
Craig Haagesen
EXPOSURE
David Fincher
GEAR GUIDE
Indie Tools
SPECIALS
ANYWHERE, USA
By Nic Gardner
OY VEY!
By Pauline Rogers
REGIONAL FILM SCHOOLS PROFILED
Fountain of Youth
Cinematographer Claudio Miranda climbs into the way-back machine to help visualize David Fincher’s stunning adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s ageless short story.
By Kevin H. Martin
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