David Fincher by Shruti

SHRUTI BRAHMA SECTION A, CD LEVEL I

CONTENTS 1 2 6 10

INTRODUCTION DAVID FINCHER GONE GIRL FIGHT CLUB

CONCEPT AUTOCAD GRAPHIC PANEL REFERENCE

15 16 18 22

DAVID

FINCHER

People will say, “There are a million ways to shoot a scene”, but I don’t think so. I think there’re two, maybe. And the other one is wrong.

American film director, film producer, television director, television producer, and music video director.

THE DIRECTOR

He went on to found Propaganda in 1987 with fellow directors Dominic Sena, Greg Gold and Nigel Dick. Fincher has directed TV commercials for clients that include Nike, Coca-Cola, Budweiser, Heineken, Pepsi, Leviâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s, Converse, AT&T and Chanel. He has directed music videos for Madonna, Sting, The Rolling Stones, Michael Jackson, Aerosmith, George Michael, Iggy Pop, The Wallflowers, Billy Idol, Steve Winwood, The Motels and, most recently, A Perfect Circle.

He has directed music videos for Madonna, Sting, The Rolling Stones, Michael Jackson, Aerosmith, George Michael, Iggy Pop, The Wallflowers, Billy Idol, Steve Winwood, The Motels and, most recently, A Perfect Circle.

David Fincher was born in 1962 in Denver, Colorado, and was raised in Marin County, California. When he was 18 years old he went to work for John Korty at Korty Films in Mill Valley. He subsequently worked at ILM from 1981-1983.Fincher left ILM to direct TV commercials and music videos after signing with N. Lee Lacy in Hollywood.

Fincher was born on August 28, 1962 in Denver, Colorado, the son of Claire Mae (nĂŠe Boettcher), a mental health nurse from South Dakota who worked in drug addiction programs, and Howard Kelly Fincher, an author from Oklahoma who worked as a reporter and bureau chief for Life. Howard died of cancer in April 2003. Fincher knew from a young age he wanted to go into filmmaking. When Fincher was two years old, the family moved to San Anselmo, California, where filmmaker George Lucas was one of his neighbors. Fincher moved to Ashland, Oregon in his teens, where he graduated from Ashland High School. During high school, he directed plays and designed sets and lighting after school, and was a non-union projectionist at a second-run movie theater, production assistant at the local television news station KOBI in Medford, Oregon, and took on other odd jobs such as fry cook, busboy, and dishwasher. Inspired by Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), Fincher began making movies at age eight with an 8mm camera.

PROPAGANDA

FILMS Set on a directing career, Fincher co-founded video-production company Propaganda Films and started off directing music videos and commercials. Like Fincher, directors such as Michael Bay, Antoine Fuqua, Michel Gondry, Spike Jonze, Alex Proyas, Paul Rachman, Mark Romanek, Zack Snyder, Gore Verbinski and others honed their talents at Propaganda Films before moving on to feature films. After directing several music videos, Fincher’s feature debut was Alien 3 (1992). While it received an Oscar nomination for visual effects, the film was not well received by critics or moviegoers. Fincher became involved with several disputes with 20th Century Fox over script and budget issues. In Director’s Cut: Picturing Hollywood in the 21st Century,[10] he blames the producers for not putting the necessary trust in him. He stated in an interview with The Guardian in 2009: “No one hated it more than me; to this day, no one hates it more than me.” After this, he retreated back into the world of commercial and music video directing, including the video for the Grammy Award-winning track “Love Is Strong” (1994) by The Rolling Stones. In 1995, Fincher directed Seven. The film, based on a screenplay by Andrew Kevin Walker, told the story of two detectives (played by Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman) tracking down a serial killer who bases his killings on the seven deadly sins.

The film grossed more than $100 million domestically (over $300 million internationally). After the success of Seven, Fincher went on to film The Game (1997). The story focused on a closed-off San Francisco businessman (played by Michael Douglas) who receives an unusual gift from his younger brother (Sean Penn), in which he becomes the main player of a roleplaying game that takes over his life. The film had middling box-office returns despite being well received by critics.

After directing several music videos, Fincher’s feature debut was Alien 3 (1992). While it received an Oscar nomination for visual effects, the film was not well received by critics or moviegoers. Fincher became involved with several disputes with 20th Century Fox over script and budget issues.

MOVIES & TELEVISION SERIES

Fincher is executive producer of the Netflix television series House of Cards; he also directed the first two episodes. The series has received critical acclaim, receiving nine Primetime Emmy nominations, including Outstanding Drama Series and Fincher for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series for the first episode, which he won. Fincher directed the adaptation of Gillian Flynn’s novel Gone Girl, Production began in September 2013 and the film was released on October 3, 2014. Fincher signed a three-series deal with HBO for Utopia, Shakedown, and Living on Video. He was to handle the directing and writing duties for the first season of HBO’s adaptation of Utopia, a British television series, but budget disputes between HBO and Fincher led to the project being canceled in July 2015.

Fincher directed the 2010 film The Social Network, about the legal battles of Mark Zuckerberg and the founding of Facebook. The film features an Oscar-winning screenplay by Aaron Sorkin, adapted from the book The Accidental Billionaires. Featuring a young cast ensemble, the film was produced by Scott Rudin, Kevin Spacey and Michael DeLuca. Filming started in October 2009and was released a year later, to critical acclaim. Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross created the Oscar-winning soundtrack for the film. Fincher had long been a fan of Reznor’s work in Nine Inch Nails, even putting a remix of “Closer” in the beginning of Seven and directing the music video for “Only”.

MUSIC VIDEOS “Dance This World Away”, Rick Springfield (1984) “Celebrate Youth”, Rick Springfield (1984) “Bop Til You Drop”, Rick Springfield (1984) “Shame”, The Motels (1985) “Shock”, The Motels (1985 “Celebrate Youth”, Rick Springfield (1985) “All The Love In The World”, The Outfield (1986) “We Don’t Have To Take Our Clothes Off ”, Jermaine Stewart (1986) “Everytime You Cry”, The Outfield (1986) “One Simple Thing”, Stabilizers (1986) “Stay”, Howard Hewett (1986) “She Comes On”, Wire Train (1987) “Should She Cry”, Wire Train (1987) “Endless Nights”, Eddie Money (1987) “Downtown Train”, Patty Smyth (1987) “I Don’t Mind At All”, Bourgeois Tagg (1987) “Notorious”, Loverboy (1987) “Love Will Rise Again”, Loverboy (1987) “Johnny B”, The Hooters (1987) “Storybook Story”, Mark Knopfler (1987) “Can I Hold You”, Colin Hay (1987) “No Surrender”, The Outfield (1987) “Say You Will”, Foreigner (1987) “Don’t Tell Me The Time”, The Motels (1987) “Tell It To the Moon”, The Motels (1988) “Heart of Gold”, Johnny Hates Jazz (1988) “Englishman in New York”, Sting (1988) “Shattered Dreams” (second version), Johnny Hates Jazz (1988) “Get Rhythm”, Ry Cooder (1988)

“Most of All”, Jody Watley (1988) “Roll With It”, Steve Winwood (1988) “(It’s Just) The Way That You Love Me” (version 1988), “Holding On”, Steve Winwood (1988) “Heart”, Neneh Cherry (1989) “Bamboleo” (second version), Gipsy Kings (1989) “Straight Up”, Paula Abdul (1989) “Most of All”, Jody Watley (1989) “Real Love”, Jody Watley (1989) “Bamboleo” (third version), Gipsy Kings (1989) “She’s a Mystery to Me”, Roy Orbison (1989) “Forever Your Girl”, Paula Abdul (1989) “Express Yourself ”, Madonna (1989) “The End of the Innocence”, Don Henley (1989) “Cold Hearted”, Paula Abdul (1989) “(It’s Just) The Way That You Love Me” (version 1989), Paula Abdul (1988) “Oh Father”, Madonna (1989) “Janie’s Got a Gun”, Aerosmith (1989) “Vogue”, Madonna (1990) “Cradle of Love”, Billy Idol (1990) “L.A. Woman”, Billy Idol[39] (1990) “Freedom ‘90”, George Michael (1990) “Who Is It?”, Michael Jackson (1992) “Bad Girl”, Madonna (1993) “Love Is Strong”, The Rolling Stones (1994) “6th Avenue Heartache”, The Wallflowers (1996) “Judith”, A Perfect Circle (2000) “Only”, Nine Inch Nails (2005)

GONE GIRL Gone Girl is a 2014 American psychological thriller film directed by David Fincher. The screenplay by Gillian Flynn was based on her 2012 novel of the same name. The film stars Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike. Set in Southwest Missouri the story begins as a mystery that follows the events surrounding Nick Dunne (Affleck), who becomes the primary suspect in the sudden disappearance of his wife, Amy (Pike). The film had its world premiere on opening night of the 52nd New York Film Festival on September 26, 2014, before a nationwide theatrical release on October 3, and was received well critically with a commercial success of over $368 million, making it the highest grossing film by David Fincher. Rosamund Pike’s performance was particularly praised, and she received nominations for an Academy Award, BAFTA Award, Golden Globe Award and Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actress. Further nominations included a Golden Globe Award for Best Director for Fincher and Golden Globe Award, BAFTA Award and Critics’ Choice Award nominations for Flynn’s adapted screenplay, receiving the award for the latter.

“I often don’t say things out loud, even when I should. I contain and compartmentalize to a disturbing degree: In my belly-basement are hundreds of bottles of rage, despair, fear, but you’d never guess from looking at me.”

PLOT

“It’s humbling, to become the very thing you once mocked.”

Flashbacks reveal that Nick and Amy’s marriage had disintegrated; both lost their jobs in the recession and moved from New York City to Nick’s hometown of North Carthage, Missouri. Nick has become lazy, distant, uninterested and unfaithful. The lead detective on the case, Rhonda Boney, unearths evidence of financial troubles and domestic disputes, and a witness states that Amy wanted to purchase a gun. She also finds a medical report indicating that Amy is pregnant, of which Nick denies knowledge.

The day of his fifth wedding anniversary, Nick Dunne returns home to find that his wife Amy is missing. Her disappearance receives heavy press coverage, as Amy was the inspiration for her parents’ popular “Amazing Amy” children’s books. Detective Rhonda Boney does a walkthrough of their house and finds poorly concealed evidence of a struggle. The police conduct a forensic analysis and uncover the remnants of cleaned blood stains, leading to the conclusion that Amy was murdered. Suspicions arise that Nick is responsible, and his awkward behavior is interpreted by the media as characteristic of a sociopath.

“There is an unfair responsibility that comes with being an only child - you grow up knowing you aren’t allowed to disappoint, you’re not even allowed to die.”

Amy is revealed to be alive and well, having changed her appearance and gone into hiding in a distant campground. She despises Nick for the erosion of their marital bliss, her isolation after they moved to be closer to Nick’s family, and his infidelity. Amy plans the framing in great detail: she befriends a pregnant neighbor to steal her urine for the pregnancy test, drains her own blood to leave trace evidence of murder and fabricates a diary describing her fear of Nick. By using the clues in a “treasure hunt” game she and Nick play on their anniversary, she ensures he visits places where she has planted the corroborating evidence of Nick’s guilt for the police to discover. She anticipates Nick will be convicted and executed for her murder, and contemplates committing suicide after his conviction. Nick hires Tanner Bolt, a lawyer who specializes in defending men accused of killing their wives. Nick meets Amy’s ex-boyfriend Tommy O’Hara, who claims Amy framed him for rape. He also approaches another ex-boyfriend, the wealthy Desi Collings—against whom Amy previously filed a restraining order—but Desi refuses to share any details. When Amy’s neighbors at the campground rob her of her remaining money, she calls Desi and convinces him that she ran away from Nick because she feared for her life. He agrees to hide her in his lake house, which is equipped with surveillance cameras.

“Most beautiful, good things were done by women people scorn.” 8

PRODUCTION DEVELOPMENT

Gone Girl is a film adaptation of Flynn’s 2012 novel of the same name. One of the film’s executive producers, Leslie Dixon, read the manuscript of the novel in 2011 and brought it to the attention of Reese Witherspoon in December of that year. Witherspoon and Dixon then collaborated with Bruna Papandrea to further develop the manuscript—with Flynn’s film agent, Shari Smiley, they met with film studios in early 2012. Following the release of the novel in June 2012, the 20th Century Fox studio optioned the book in a deal with Flynn, in which the author negotiated that she would be responsible for the first draft of the screenplay. By around October 2012, Flynn was engaged in the production of the first draft while she was also involved in the promotional tour for her novel. A first-time screenwriter at the time, Flynn later admitted: “I certainly felt at sea a lot of times, kind of finding my way through.” Flynn submitted her first draft screenplay to the Fox studio in December 2012, before Fincher was selected as the director for the project.

Fincher had already expressed interest in the project, and after he completed Flynn’s first draft, a meeting was scheduled between the director and author within days. Typically, authors are removed from film adaptations following the first draft and an experienced screenwriter takes over; but, on this occasion, Fincher agreed to work with Flynn for the entire project. Flynn later explained: “... he [Fincher] responded to the first draft and we have kind of similar sensibilities. We liked the same things about the book, and we wanted the same thing out of the movie.”

FIGHT CLUB

Fight Club is a 1999 American film based on the 1996 novel of the same name by Chuck Palahniuk. The film was directed by David Fincher, and stars Brad Pitt, Edward Norton and Helena Bonham Carter. Norton plays the unnamed protagonist, an “everyman” who is discontented with his white-collar job. He forms a “fight club” with soap maker Tyler Durden, played by Pitt, and they are joined by men who also want to fight recreationally. The narrator becomes embroiled in a relationship with Durden and a dissolute woman, Marla Singer, played by Bonham Carter. Palahniuk’s novel was optioned by 20th Century Fox producer Laura Ziskin, who hired Jim Uhls to write the film adaptation. Fincher was one of four directors the producers considered, and was selected because of his enthusiasm for the film.

“A ticking-time-bomb insomniac and a slippery soap salesman channel primal male aggression into a shocking new form of therapy.”

Fincher developed the script with Uhls and sought screenwriting advice from the cast and others in the film industry. The director and the cast compared the film to Rebel Without a Cause (1955) and The Graduate (1967). Fincher intended Fight Club’s violence to serve as a metaphor for the conflict between a generation of young people and the value system of advertising. The director copied the homoerotic overtones from Palahniuk’s novel to make audiences interested and keep them from anticipating the twist ending. Studio executives did not like the film and restructured Fincher’s intended marketing campaign to try to reduce anticipated losses. Fight Club failed to meet the studio’s expectations at the box office and received polarized reactions from critics, who debated the explicit violence and moral ambiguity, but praised the acting, directing, themes and messages. It was cited as one of the most controversial and talkedabout films of 1999. The film later found critical and commercial success with its DVD release, which established Fight Club as a cult film. The unnamed narrator (Edward Norton) is a traveling automobile company employee who suffers from insomnia. One night he visits a support group for testicular cancer victims, where they assume that he too is a victim, and he spontaneously weeps into the nurturing arms of another man, finding a “freedom” that euphorically relieves his insomnia. He becomes addicted to participating in support groups of various kinds, always allowing the groups to assume that he suffers what they do.

THE FILM FOUND CRITICAL AND COMMERCIAL SUCCESS WITH IT’S DVD RELEASE, WHICH ESTABLISHED FIGHT CLUB AS A CULT FILM.

THINGS YOU DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT At the beginning of the movie, after the traditional copyright warning, there is a second warning that flashes for a second. And, in an early scene of the narrator, there is an ad for Bridgeworth Suites playing on a TV in front of him… The breath in the cave scene is actually Leonardo Di Caprio’s breath from Titanic, composited into the shot. Helena Bonham Carter, who is 5’2”, wore huge platform shoes to be closer in height to 5-foot11-inch Brad Pitt and 6-foot Edward Norton.

Director David Fincher has claimed in interviews that there is at least one Starbucks cup visible in every scene in the movie. Tyler Durden flashes on screen four times before we actually meet him as a character. Before shooting, Brad Pitt and Edward Norton actually took boxing and soap-making classes. And she insisted that her makeup artist do all her makeup left-handed, because she thought the character of Marla wouldn’t care about, or be good at, that kind of thing.

Before deciding on Brad Pitt, the producers initially wanted Russell Crowe to play Tyler Durden. And both Sean Penn and Matt Damon were considered for the role of the narrator, which Edward Norton eventually played. Reese Witherspoon and Sarah Michelle Gellar were both offered Helena Bonham Carter’s role of Marla Singer. When the narrator is sitting at work writing haikus, the names on the document on his screen are of the film’s production assistants and crew members. Brad Pitt and Helena Bonham Carter spent three days recording orgasm sounds for their unseen sex scenes. This line of pillow talk was originally supposed to be “I want to have your abortion,” but Laura Ziskin, a producer at Fox 2000, found that too offensive. In the scene where the narrator first punches Tyler Durden, Edward Norton was supposed to fake-hit Brad Pitt… But at the last minute, director David Fincher told Edward Norton to actually punch Brad Pitt. Pitt’s wince of pain is real, and you can see Norton laughing about it. Marla Singer’s phone number is the same as Teddy’s number in the movie Memento. To look convincingly like sagging flesh, Bob’s fat suit was filled with birdseed. It weighed more than 100 pounds. While filming this scene, Edward Norton was actually completely nude from the waist down. When Tyler is giving a speech to the Fight Club, he looks directly at Jared Leto’s character when he mentions rockstars.

HOW WE MISUNDERSTOOD

FIGHT CLUB There’s a key scene that the author, identified by Chuck Palahniuk as Jeffrey Kalmikoff, returns to repeatedly when making the point that Marla’s gender swaps with Jack’s gender over the course of the movie. The scene takes place in a Laundromat, where Marla takes “multiple pairs of men’s jeans” out of a Speed Queen dryer, then promptly sells them at a vintage clothing store. As the site suggests this is the point where Jack is becoming Marla, “selling” his masculinity (pants) in a figurative manner.

The site maps out all of the reasons why Helena Bonham Carter’s antagonistic love interest, Marla, is a figment of Jack’s (Edward Norton) imagination… much like Tyler (Brad Pitt) exists only in Tyler’s mind. They are all one person. They are all “Jack,” our story’s narrator. The evidence seems to be everywhere in Fincher’s movie, starting with the way that Marla dresses in similar clothes to Tyler, and shows up in places women normally wouldn’t appear. Like, for example, a support group for people with testicular cancer.

Do you buy it? There are literally dozens of other examples that JackDurden.com points to in an effort to illustrate the notion that Marla doesn’t exist, and that she’s just as much a part of Jack as Tyler is/was. Some of them are a stretch. Others had me scratching my head and itching to go back to Fight Club and see how much of it was included by David Fincher intentionally. The share by Palahniuk has to be read as a ringing endorsement. I’d love to hear Helena Bonham Carter’s opinion of this bizarre Fight Club theory. Think she has read it yet?

CONCEPT & RESEARCH QUESTION

This exhibition is centered around the concept of being a promotional exhibition for the director David Fincher, and his works. For that purpose, I’ve taken two of his best, most iconic films - Fight Club and Gone Girl, both of which are based on novels of the same name. They’re also similar in the sense that both the stories harbor powerful characters which have a psychotic element in their functioning and thinking process (although the two characters and stories are vastly different). My exhibition space is accordingly divided into two.

On either sides, their is a screen (among other things) that displays on a loop the trailer, making and iconic scenes from both films. Then, there are prop walls show casing important props from both movies. There are hologram projection of both film characters along with other 3D set up representing the films and the agenda behind them. There’s also a well light book case containing books of both films, on which the movies are based. The placement, design and dimension of all these things have been marked and shown in my final layout.

CONSIDERING THAT BOTH MOVIES SHARE SIMILAR PSYCHOTIC ELEMENTS, DOES GONE GIRL HAVE THE SAME POTENTIAL AS FIGHT CLUB TO BECOME A CULT FILM? 15

AUTOCAD

FLOOR PLAN & ELEVATIONS

GRAPHIC PANELS INFORMATION PANEL ON DIRECTOR One of the panels would be information on David Fincher. His life, career and other things the viewers might be interested in knowing about him apart from his films.

GRAPHIC PANEL ON HIS WORK Graphic panel containing posters of his movies (apart from fight Club and Gone Girl) and the corresponding years.

FULL WALL PANELS

BIBLIOGRAPHY

“About the Academy Awards”. Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Archived from the original on 7 April 2007. Retrieved 13 April 2007.

https://web.archive.org/web/20070407234926/http://www.oscars.org/aboutacademyawards/index.html Essex, Andrew (14 May 1999). “The Birth of Oscar”. Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on 2013-11-11. Retrieved 2 March 2011.

“History of the Academy Awards”. Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Archived from the original on 2010-11-18. Retrieved 13 January 2014. http://www.ew.com/article/1999/05/14/birth-oscar

“The Oscars – Feb 24th 2013”. platinumagencygroup.co.uk. Retrieved 2 December 2014. http://www.oscars.org/awards/academyawards/about/history.html

“Oscar Statuette”. Oscars.org – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 27 October 2015. http://www.oscars.org/nicholl/history

“History of the Academy Awards”. Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Archived from the original on 2010-11-18. http://www.platinumagencygroup.co.uk/#!los-angeles/c1drk

“Oscar Statuette: Legacy”. Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Archived from the original on 2013-12-11. Retrieved 13 April 2007. http://www.oscars.org/oscars/statuette

“Meet the Mexican Model Behind the Oscar Statue”. Retrieved 2016-02-27. http://www.webcitation.org/5uKhyVna9

“Oscar Statuette”. Oscars.org | Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 2016-0115.

https://web.archive.org/web/20131211172055/http://www.oscars.org/awards/academyawards/about/awards/oscar.html/?pn=statuette

“Oscar Statuette: Manufacturing, Shipping and Repairs”. Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Archived from the original on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 13 April 2007. http://abcnews.go.com/ABC_Univision/Entertainment/meet-emilio-fernandez-face-oscars/story?id=18550020

REFLECTIVE NOTE

This was an extremely interesting project for me personally since the two movies I worked with are my all time favorites! It gave me a lot scope to give in my own inputs and I found out some very interesting things during the research that I was completely unaware of. Also, David Fincher is one of my most favorite directors and it would be an honor to actually work with or for one of his exhibition or movie someday! Planning this exhibition, gave me a lot of clarity on measurement, placement of objects and panels as well as a very good idea of space and how to manage it well! It was a lot of fun to visualize every little detail from material, lighting, floor, panels, to each wall and drawing it from different angles. I really look forward to doing similar work in the future.

This exhibition design project on David Fincher has been possible only due to the kind cooperation and guidance lent by Mr Manan. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my parents, my elder sister, my teachers and my dear friends. A special thanks to my brother, Mr. Rajat Ghosh, for lending his very wise and insightful thoughts and views on this topic. At last, I would like to thank my seniors and batch mates for their constant support and guidance.