David Fincher is my director and has directed many famous films. He has lots of different trade marks and techniques that he uses in his films like the lighting schemes, composition of shots, and also the camera movement.
Lighting Scheme
Silhouettes
In Se7en he used silhouettes to hide John Doe’s face(Kevin Spacey), who plays the murderer in the film. When detective Mills gets struck down by Doe, we see a POV shot of Mills looking down at Does silhouette in a puddle of water. It hides the identity of the murderer to the audience so they don’t figure it out before the detectives
In Fight Club he uses silhouettes to show the different meaning objects and people have to the main characters, depending on whose point of view the camera is showing. In the scenes that show Durden fighting in cellar, there is often a silhouette over his face when shown through point of view of Norton. Whenever the shot isn’t from Norton’s pov there is no silhouette. This represents the importance the two characters’ have for each other
Silhouettes are a way Fincher of communicating to his audience and giving them hints about relationship between two characters. He uses silhouettes to describe the relationship between Ben and Daisy. The shot has them underneath a table which is covered by a cloth and the only light is a candle. All you can see from the outside shot is the silhouette of Ben and Daisy. He uses this to make people forget the complications in their relationship. The silhouette strips the characters of their differences and makes the audience view the relationship they had as sweet and innocent.
Lighting
He uses a low key lighting scheme in films. As well as the low key lighting he also has a green or blue colour temperature, this means there is either blue or green tint through out the entire film. He uses this colour temperature and lighting to explain how he views the world. He sees the world as a very dark and gloomy place, the ideal director for films like Se7en and Fight Club with dark themes. He uses the green colour temperature in Se7en and Fight Club and couples this with the effect of using low key lightning to create very depressing and gloomy scenes. This makes the film more believable and real as there is none of the flashy and bright Hollywood fakeness. This helps audience to relate the films to the harsh real world. The lightning and colour also sets the mood for the sinister happenings.
But for Benjamin Button he doesn’t use the blue or green temperature because it doesn’t have the twisted storyline that Se7en and Fight Club do. But the film doesn’t have bright colour’s and stays true to his low key lighting scheme.
Fincher is smart with the lightning he uses as he is able to communicate to the audience that something is abnormal and dark by altering light and colours.
Composition of shots
Shooting scenes through objects
In the film se7en, Fincher frequent shoots shots through other objects like car windows and glass doors. One of the more interesting and crafty way Fincher does this is when he has a shoot of detective Somerset (Morgan Freeman) sleeping on his bed through the underside of a table. He likes to give the audience a different variety of ways to view the film as to keep the audience interested and more involved in the films.
Symmetry-Framing
This is when the centre point of the shot is given
a border or frame. An example of this is then Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) is standing in an escalator. Fincher uses the escalator as a frame for the shot. An example of this technique in Se7en is when Somerset is in the library and is walking inbetween the rows of shelfs. In The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is when Benjamin and a lady are sitting at table eating caviar. Fincher places a singular candle in between them and is shot through doorway. This gives the audience a centre pint and a frame provided by the doorway, creating a symmetrically scene. Using this technique makes the scenes with framing and symmetry visually pleasing to the eye, it gives a focus point to the audience. It also keeps the audience interest/entertained in shots that don’t have much happening,Single framed inserts
Single framed insert are images that only appears in one frame of movie causing a momentary flash on the screen. The flashes are easy to over look and to miss.
In Se7en he uses it in a very clever way as it shows so much in so little time. In context it tells uses that Mills wife is truly dead and reemphasizes her death on use and the impact it takes on Mills. In Fight club he uses it in a subtle way for a different purpose, hinting rather than confirming. The Single frames are of Tyler Durden. While Norton’s character is at his support group, Tyler flashes under the arm of the leader of the support group, as well as when Norton is at the hospital asking his doctor for sleeping pills and lastly when Marla is walking away from Norton, just after Norton says “I can’t sleep”. These All hint at a deeper connection between Norton and Durden
Fluid Tracking camera
Fluid tracking camera is a technique that displays a smooth tracing shot no matter how fast the camera is going or the terrain it is shooting. In Fight Club he uses the fluid tracking to go any where. At the start of the film, Fincher uses fluid tracking to show the situation the characters are in, Durden holding a gun into Norton’s mouth. The fluid camera enables him to have the camera go out the window, down the building, through the ground and to a shot of a van parked beneath them, packed with explosives. He uses this to give audience more of a shock as it shows so much information going so fast. Throughout the film, there are very many shots that focus on a centre, tyler for example and goes around the surrounding characters and area they are in. Also uses fluid tracking to show shot coming up from rubbish bin at Norton’s workplace, just another example of how it can go any where.
