David Fincher – The art of the moving camera

David Fincher is a film director born in 1962, Denver, Colorado. From the age of 18 he worked as a director, starting with TV commercials for clients including Nike and Coca Cola. He then moved on to music videos for clients including The Rolling Stones and Michael Jackson, before becoming a Film Director achieving great success with films such as: Seven, Fight Club, The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo and more recently Gone Girl and some work for the Netflix Original series Mind Hunter.

Fincher has an iconic style of camera work which has been given the term ‘Fincheresque’ by his fans. It is a way of moving the camera to directly follow the main focus of the frame in their exact speed, rhythm and motion.

One example of this could be a person walking down the street. The camera would follow them

exactly, in perfect synchronicity. If they stopped, the camera stops. If they move, the camera moves. It can be used in pans, tilts, tracking shots and many others. A simple technique but it is very hard to do well.

The technique is present in all his films and is used frequently and effectively throughout the entirety of its run time in such a way that often you won’t even notice it is there. This technique is, as you may be able to imagine, extremely hard to nail in one take. Fincher’s reputation as a perfectionist applies very specifically here, he will retake and retake shots until this synchronicity between the camera and the actor is perfect.

This technique is able to capture the eye and invest the audience more acutely to what the actor is thinking, feeling and doing. It drags you into the film by following their movement to minute degrees which, as an audience, is what we want. To know all about the actor, see their emotions and identify with them. In Fincher’s films this is especially important given that they are often about, crime, mystery and secrets. Whether it’s a detective figuring out what happened or a criminal hiding their true intentions, we are given more information about them than in other films due to this camera effect.

Not only are you totally absorbed during the film runtime, but often people experience a sense of unity with the film when it has finished. By this I mean that they often feel as though they are now in the film world, or the film world is now in theirs. Seeing things differently in the real world as the result of a camera effect and incredible storytelling and direction is one of the best effects a director can have and Fincher manages to do this continually and consistently throughout his catalogue of films.

So next time you watch a Fincher film, see if you can spot this technique in action and consider the effect it is having on the film, the audience, and you.

This post was written by Erin in Q block. If you fancy writing an article about anything media related, check out the guidelines and suggestions here, and get writing!