Let's talk about David's venture if you're watching this you know who he is over the past two decades
Fincher has become one of the most highly regarded film makers working in Hollywood [his] style and sensibility are so distinctive that you can picture
That look and feel just from hearing his name but today
I want to look back to his work before he started making big-budget feature films [I]
Want to talk about his music videos?
Fincher like many well-known directors working today got his start directing music videos into 80s and 90s
But when people talk about the [great] video directors the same names always come up Spike Jones Michel
Gondry Chris, Cunningham
But not David fincher when Pom [pictures] released the director's label series of DVDS in the early
2000s collecting the music video work of certain directors and treating them like art [Sintra] was not included
And I think this is because fincher exclusively made pop videos
to explain this distinction
I'm going to quote joseph, Kahn
One of the masters of Pop videos who has made a ton of stuff that you're very familiar with the world has always been two
types of videos the big entertainment style videos that quite frankly a lot of directors may not really respect and the artsy videos that only
other art students like
That's putting it pretty bluntly but it's clear what he means on one end
You've got a britney spears video where she's there singing the song on the other you've got a chemical brothers video
Where the artist never appears and it basically?
Functions as a short art film since fincher made pop videos for artists like Madonna and Paula Abdul his videos have rarely received a much
critical analysis despite him being one of the best pop video directors of all time
while many acclaimed filmmakers evolved and hold their style over the course of their feature film careers
ventures artistic [evolution] took place in his music videos
[so] by the time he made the jump to feature films his craft was perfected and his style was fully formed
So what is it that sets venture apart? What makes his movies unique?
It's easy to say is his dark color Palette and Darker subject matter
But that's a very surface level reading plenty of less talented directors make dark movies. What really makes fincher such an interesting filmmaker
[what] makes his movies as good as they are is his precision?
everything about his approach his tendency to do massive numbers of take is just like a pan tailed shot from favor of Deliberate tripod and
Dolly shots and in particular his rhythmic editing all point to a very clear specific
intent behind every single decision
And this can all be traced back to his music videos most pop videos you see are surprisingly imprecise
they might have great production design and lighting but in the end they just come down to shots from a ton of different Angles put
Together with the most rapid editing possible take a look at this
It's hard to tell what purpose any of these shots served?
since none of them contain a full line being sung or a full dance move being completed a lot of the cuts come in the
Middle of words and aren't even on the beat, okay. Let's separate the shots and look at how they function on their own
While there's some continuity between shots like this woman
Continuing her movement into this shot the cuts are way too fast to even make that connection without slowing it down and watching it shot
By shot. [this] is just lazy filmmaking
It's edited really fast to give it energy
but none of the shots or cuts have any function see music videos while an art form
are still
Promotional tools and pop videos in particular are designed to showcase the two main things they're promoting the artist and the song what fincher understood
Is that the visuals in the music video should enhance the listening experience and provide the ideal?
Visual accompaniment to the music while portraying the artist as iconic ly as possible so let's look at the video for vogue in
The minute long intro every visual is synced directly to the music
This is obvious in these long dolly shots, but look at the details the butler swipes his finger right on the beat
This guy shifts his head on the beat
This dancer locks in the pose right on the word pose
Right and then we get to the first verse where fincher starts with a long push in on Madonna
Before this she was only shown in fragments [a] close-up of her back or an extreme close-up of her face now
[it's] her proper introduction. There's a full hero shot it holds for seven seconds
Which is [a] long time in music videos and here's the important part
Watch health intro cuts during the verse he holds the shot for the first two lines
Then cut then another line
Then a cut where so many other video directors cut in the middle of lines or even word
Pincher cuts around the vocals the cuts are like the [artist] taking a breath they feel natural
[we] don't even think about them by the way this video was edited by James [Haygood] who would go on to edit the game of
Fight club and panic room [ok] let's look at another video fincher did for Madonna Express yourself again?
He's cutting around the vocals and when he cuts away from Madonna
each shot is designed to evoke the music over this rising synth bar fincher lays a shot tracking across multiple railings that finishes with the
Dancers choreography syncing to the last note before cutting away
Now watch how fincher builds to the chorus with the last few lines of the verse he starts with a wide shot
then goes to a medium shot and
Finally an extreme [close-up] and as the energy builds it cuts to a panning shot of the cat running across the room
It's footsteps matching the rapid percussion as the chorus swoops in
Introduces a trick he returns to a lot cut into a big forward tracking shot even the visuals a forward momentum to Match the music
One thing fincher doesn't get enough credit [for] is being one of the best [directors] when it comes to shooting
choreography check out the video
He made in 2012 for Justin Timberlake [Suit-And-tie]
like he does with the vocals he cut around the
Choreography letting full sets of movement play out and cutting so it to emphasize them not because it's been half a second since the previous
Cut and he's worried the audience is going to get bored Beyond
Just showing dancing fincher treats all the visuals as a kind of choreography
Every shot every camera movement and every cut is choreographed to the music
What fincher is doing is creating visuals that look how the song sounds with every movement synced perfectly to the music?
enhancing the listening experience
And deepening the viewers connection to the song the ultimate example of this and what I would argue as fincher's best video is
George Michael's freedom
The video presents a cast of supermodels each one totally alone
[lip-synching] to the song it's made clear from the very beginning of the video that they're not performing the song they're listening to it and
Enjoying it so here fincher the master of creating videos designed to enhance our [enjoyment] of music made a video about how [we] enjoy music
It's the ultimate commercial for the song several of the most beautiful people on the planet all lit perfectly of course privately enjoying the song
And [ventures] unparalleled craft visualizes this with the same precision. We've come to expect
As always he cuts around the vocals using the editing to emphasize certain Lines or moment
At the bridge after primarily static shots through the first verse he cuts to sweeping forward movement
He matches every beat of the chorus to a huge visual started with an epic. Low angle push in starting on the first beat
With a cut to flames erupting on each of the cymbal crashes
And as always the shots are choreographed to the music look at this little moment at the end of the second verse
Right Ism views that goes to a glissando fincher goes to a whip pan
The perfect visual translation and of course the opening and closing shot to use a trick fincher would employ in many of his movies
Especially panic room as the camera moves through the back of a chair
The end result is a video that's essentially just a bunch of people [in] rooms
Lip-synching [to] a [six-and-a-half] minute long pop song there isn't even an attempt at narrative and yet
It's compulsively watchable, and that's entirely a testament to Fincher's work and also the very attractive people, and yeah, the song is also good
So you might ask what's the point in analyzing these music videos as far as fincher's body of work goes these are pretty and significant
well
I think if you're
Interested in the directors craft there's a lot of insight to be gained by studying how they work within a different medium
Especially one like pop videos that has such rigid parameters
Plus music videos are fun
It's the perfect mixture of music and visual it's [your] to the point
motivated
Total guys thanks for watching and thanks for indulging [them] while I got real nervous about music video editing because that's the kind of cool
Stuff that I spend my [free] time thinking about if you're watching this I assume
He seems a great video essay on [bitch] or by every kind of painting you haven't go watch now the links in the description
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