DIRECTOR CASE STUDY: DAVID FINCHER

The director I will be focusing on is David Fincher, as he has directed films similar or within the genre of police crime thriller. Doing a case study on this director will definitely help me in exploring some of his directive styles, what influenced his work, and what his greatest successes were in film as a director.

• David Fincher is an American film director, film producer, television director, television producer, and music video director.

• His career began with directing commercials and ads, working with brands such as he would continue to direct spots for companies like Levi's, Converse, Nike, Pepsi, Revlon, Sony, Coca-Cola, and Chanel.

• He extensively worked with Madonna, directing videos including "Express Yourself", "Oh Father", "Vogue" and "Bad Girl".

SIGNIFICANT FILMSSEVEN: This psychological thriller is well renowned in the police crime thriller genre- many see this as David Fincher's signature film. It’s gory and gruesome themes make it an exceptionally thrilling film to watch, along with the film’s narrative of the ‘seven deadly sins’

ZODIAC: Reviews for the film were very positive, lauded mostly for its writing, directing, acting and accuracy. The film grossed over $84 million worldwide against a production budget of $65 million.

GONE GIRL: This film is a commercial success of over $368 million, making it the highest grossing film by David Fincher. Gone Girl has a clear and recurring pattern between these films are that they are all psychological driven thrillers. All narratives excel at creating suspense and conceal the antagonists identity until the very end.

FILM INFLUENCESDavid Fincher stated many of his favourite films in an interview with Empire magazine (2008), some of which were big influences in his productions. His favourite films include:• Alien (1979)• The Godfather part II (1974)• Mad Max 2 (1981)• Jaws (1975)• The Terminator (1984)David Fincher then went on to direct Alien 3 in 1992, and although it received an Oscar nomination for visual effects, it wasn’t well received by critics or those moviegoers who went to see the film.

In addition, all these films include similar techniques of creating suspense, and ultimately contain ‘psychological thriller' aspects in parts of their films. Many feature close-ups to show the character faces, sweeping dolly shots, use of silhouettes and shadows, typical of many David Fincher films.

COMMERCIAL VS CRITICAL

All films directed by David Fincher directed grossed more than they cost to be produced, which proves their success. Also, many of his films were nominated for prestigious film awards, such as the 1996 MTV Movie Awards. In 2010, Fincher alone was awarded a BAFTA award, Critics Choice Movie Award, Golden Globe award, London’s Film Critics' Circle Award and a Satellite Award for best director.

WHAT I HAVE LEARNTI have learnt useful techniques that I can use in my film in order to conform to

police crime thriller conventions, such as close-ups on character faces, sweeping dolly shots, use of silhouettes and shadows which all set a mood to communicate a certain omen to the audience without having to use dialogue. Fincher creates a psychological suspense which is very effective in police crime

thriller films, so I can now look to David Fincher's inspirations which will give me a better understanding of how to direct my trailer.