Three things:
• Post color correction
• Limited use of handheld
• Motion controlled camera movements
David Fincher is a maverick in the computerized world
of film. He has been an early adopter, time and time again, of cutting edge
digital video recording as opposed to traditional celluloid filmstock, which
reached the precipice of it's innovation long ago. The Social Network, Fincher's either major motion picture, was one of the first to be shot
on the RED ONE 4K camera. Gone Girl was the first Hollywood
feature-length film cut entirely in Adobe Premiere Pro CC (Gone Girl was shot on a 6K Red Dragon camera).
A brief lesson on image sensor clarity:
A 4K sensor has 4 times the clarity of 1920x1080 image sensor making it 3840x2160.
A 6K sensor has 9 times the clarity of a 1920x1080 image sensor making the 6K
6144x3160.
Here is an image from RED Camera’s website showing this
correlation:
So what does this all mean for Fincher’s style?
Let’s say for a moment that D. Fincher shot a movie in 6K, like he did with Gone Girl (a
resolution well beyond the capabilities of consumer televisions and other
screening devices). He would be able to create post-productions pan, tilts,
zooms, and tracks within the frame, on a computer, while still capturing a
resolution higher than what our televisions can project to us. Because 6K is
nine times higher a resolution then 1920x1080, and a post-production CG tilt
only sacrifices small areas around the newly created frame, the resolution would
still be high.
In a sense, Fincher is using tools that allow him the utmost
amount of creative control throughout the process. Traditionalists might argue
that Fincher is neglecting his upfront due diligence and choosing instead to
“just do it in post.” However it is evident that Fincher understands how things
never quite look exactly as you visualize them in your head or as you draw them on a storyboard.
With this resolution technology Fincher would also be
able to stabilize crane, jib, tracking, and car mounted shots with minimal pixel
sacrificing. This type of postproduction manipulation in conjunction with
motion controlled camera movements and little or no handheld shots creates, in
the words of David himself, a camera “without a personality”.
Once CGI is added to the shot, it looks as though it belongs at home right alongside, the omniscient camera. Therefore the audience isn’t drawn
out of the narrative like they would if they noticed the CGI. Fincher did a
good job of this in Panic Room and an
even better job in Zodiac. By the
time he started on The Social Network and Gone Girl he had mastered it. I would argue that the creation
of computer images in a Fincher frame, post 2009, is both seamless and unnoticeable.
It is almost as though since everything looks like it is
computer generated, nothing looks computer generated. One could argue that
Fincher has overcome the uncanny valley and emerged on the other side with a
trough of tools more advanced and forward looking than any other filmmaker in
the industry today.