David Fincher

This week's conversation focuses on David Fincher—a director whose decade-spanning body of gritty Americana—from the grim moral drama of Se7en to the revisionist Hollywood tale of the recent Mank—has inspired reams of divisive analysis A new book by Adam Nayman, David Fincher: Mind Games (out November 23), offers a canny and timely appraisal of the director’s filmography. Adam writes that, “Over the past thirty years, Fincher has cultivated and maintained a reputation that precedes him of formal rigor and technocratic exactitude, of moviemaking as a game of inches.” Film Comment editors Devika Girish and Clinton Krute invited Adam and critic, filmmaker, and former NYFF director, Kent Jones—who’s written about Fincher many times over the years for FC—for an illuminating deep-dive into the Fincherverse.

John and Max are joined by pop culture writer Roxana Hadadi @roxana_hadadi (RogerEbert, Vulture, Polygon) to discuss the movies of David Fincher. Most notably his movies from 2007 onwards. But before then they discuss the recent passing of iconic actors ( Christopher Plummer, Cicely Tyson, Hal Holbrook, Cloris Leachman) . Then they talk about some of the crazy nominations happening at the Globes and SAGs. David Fincher: Fight Club (episode 80) Social Network (episode 83) Mank (episode 103) Benjamin Button, Zodiac, Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Gone Girl What We've Been Watching John: The Little Things Roxana: Minari Max: Judas and the Black Messiah Website: itsthepicturespodcast.com itsthepictures.substack.com Download the episode today and tweet at John and Max (@itsthepicpod). Like the show? Review us on iTunes! We are also available on Stitcher. Special Opening: Jonathan Groff on David Fincher ( https://twitter.com/christiansbale/status/1358841860584783879?s=20 ) Opening: the Morning by Vidian (c) copyright 2018 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/Vidian/58453 Ft: Ciggiburns, Aussens@iter, vo1k1 Closing: Pixie Pixels (featuring Kara Square) by spinningmerkaba (c) copyright 2016 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/jlbrock44/53778 Additional comments? Email us: itsthepictures@gmail.com

Erik Messerschmidt, ASC believes that cinematographers get too much credit for how a movie looks and not enough for how the story is told. When you break a scene apart and assemble a sequence, the cinematographer has a huge part to play in the process of deciding when to move the camera, what lenses are used, how it flows and when it moves. Erik thinks when you look at it that way, cinematography has a lot more in common with editing rather than photography. Erik's most recent project, Mank- which is currently streaming on Netflix- was shot entirely in black and white. The look was the result of lots of conversations with director David Fincher. They both had a clear idea of what they wanted it to look like and also exactly what they did not want- too much heavy handed, contrast-heavy black and white cinematography in a film-noir style would take the viewers out of the experience, so it needed a lighter touch. Erik used fine art photography from the '30's to the mid '40's as a reference, and he and David Fincher wanted an homage to Citizen Kane without it actually looking like the film. Fincher was clear that he wished to transport the audience so they would lose their awareness of watching a black and white movie, and feel as though they are in the world of Herman J. Mankiewicz as he writes the script for Citizen Kane in the 1940's. Erik has worked with director David Fincher on several projects, first working as a gaffer on Gone Girl, then moving into the camera department on the series Mindhunter. Erik and David have become very close collaborators, and he enjoys working with him. Fincher likes a sense of hyper reality to his movies, and Erik sees it as his job as the cinematographer to learn what the director responds to, figure out how best to support their process and bring something to the party. Before moving into the camera department, Erik worked for several years as a gaffer. After working with David Fincher on two seasons of Mindhunter, Erik needed more work since he was a newly minted director of photography. He got the opportunity to shoot second unit on Sicario: Day of the Soledado with cinematographer Dariusz Wolski as the lead DP. He then worked on a few episodes of the TV series Legion with producer/director Noah Hawley and DP-turned-director Dana Gonzales, which was visually fun to work on. Legion's look was whimsical yet dark, as it explored the main character's mental illness and possible superpowers. He had the opportunity to work with Dana again on the finale of season four of Fargo. Erik also shot several episodes of the Ridley Scott series, Raised By Wolves, splitting the series with DP Ross Emery. Mank is available to watch right now on Netflix. Find Erik Messerschmidt: Instagram @emesserschmidt IT'S A GIVEAWAY! Enter to win Bruce Van Dusen's book, 60 Stories about 30 Seconds: How I Got Away with Becoming a Pretty Big Commercial Director Without Losing My Soul (or Maybe Just Part of It). Like and comment on our Bruce Van Dusen post on Facebook and we'll choose a winner from the comments. https://www.facebook.com/cinepod Find out even more about this episode, with extensive show notes and links: http://camnoir.com/ep107/ Sponsored by Hot Rod Cameras: www.hotrodcameras.com Website: www.camnoir.com Facebook: @cinepod Instagram: @thecinepod Twitter: @ShortEndz The post Erik Messerschmidt, ASC: Mank, Mindhunter, Legion, Raised By Wolves, working with David Fincher first appeared on Cam Noir .