Film: Analysis of a Director: David Fincher

This is a university student's video essay analyzing the directorial style of David Fincher, director of Fight ClubThe Girl with a Dragon TattooThe Social Network, and many more. These films are unabashedly adult, but there is nothing in this analysis that is too mature and the content carefully considers a variety of techniques, many of which we have discussed in class.

On a few occasions the speaker refers to mise en scène. This is the technique of composing items in a scene to effectively convey information. For example, when you look at the still image from the below clip, notice that there are visual markers that create lines that point to the center of the screen; the columns on the left and the windowed-wall on the right create a frame of the center of the screen, while the road we are looking down acts almost as an arrow to the character near center screen, directing our attention to her. All of these visual components are mise en scène.