Case study - David Fincher

1.     1) Outline how Fincher approaches the creation of an opening title sequence for a film. (You will need to read the interview and analyse some of the clips of his work. You will see that he notes the work of Saul Bass as an influence).

Using the video bellow I analysed some of David Finchers films, this clip contained nine of his film, these being:

http://vimeo.com/44890024

-Alien3 (1992)

-Se7en (1995)

-The Game (1997)

-Fight Club (1999)

-Panic Room (2002)

-Zodiac (2007)

-The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)

-The Social Network (2010)

-The Girl With a Dragon Tattoo (2011)

Quote of David Fincher "Titles should be engaging in a character way, it has to help set the scene, and you can do that elaborately or minimally"

Fincher really believes that a good tittle sequence for a movie is just as important as a good movie. He wants the title sequence to be a part of the film itself as it starts by setting the scene and the overall feel to the movie for the viewer. As you can see in the opening to the film ‘seven’ there are clips of lots of writing and someone that appears to be cutting finger tips. This is to confuse the viewer and the get them thinking about what it is this film is based on, is this a strange way to introduce a film with no explanation, or is this just helping to unfolded what is to be discovered later on in the movie. Therefore he wants the title sequence to be a form of a stepping stone to help set up what is later to be shown within the movie. In the interview David Fincher says how he thinks the title sequence to a movie should be straight to the point as he states "I don't believe in decorative titles". He also states in his interview that his work is greatly influenced by Saul Bass who I have recently studied as seen in my last post. The film ‘North by north west’ especially inspired him as said in his interview, and his work made him look at the different ways in which to present information.  

2) Analysis of the film 'Seven'

The opening sequence in film seven begins with a non-diagetic screechy noise and music setting an uneasy feel to over all film right from the start hinting to the viewer what the genre may be. The way in which the words and names were presented was in a hard to read font, it was very jagged with no smooth flowing lines that looked as if it could be representing messed up thoughts or actions, form the choice in text I inferred that it could be someone's messes up head leading to a physiological theme. Lines appeared across the screen too which looked as if they were scratches, this is when It set the sense of this being a horror/thriller film. The flashes of darkness appeared disturbing as it would the quickly flash back to books and what appeared to be someone writing a letter/book. The shots are used in a very cleaver manner, its always showing shots of the hand and pen, along with shadows yet never revealing the person of whom is doing the writing. This is drawing the viewer in and leaving them with questions which would then be revealed through out the film.