David Fincher's Film - Essay Example

s Analyzing the Curious Case of Benjamin Button David Fincher is consideredas one of the most influential filmmakers in Hollywood, who has numerous highly acclaimed movies that grace his résumé. He has made his niche in the filmmaking industry by employing some of the most innovative techniques that made his movies not only a commercial but a critical success all over the world. David Fincher’s immaculate knowledge about filmmaking skills were not acquired through back breaking labor and an impressive GPA at a film school, but he picked up on these skills after working with directors like George Lucas. He has many successful filmmaking ventures under his name, but the substance of this prose will analyze the intricate aspects of his blockbuster film “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”. I. Themes and Motifs: The main premise of “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” revolves around a boy who was born with the appearance of a geriatric and then ages backwards until his death as an infant. Fincher’s writing team has used the short story written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, but on a thematic level it does not have the element of humor as the short story, but is more dramatic in nature. The writers have incorporated several motifs in the film to highlight the philosophical depth of the story. The film starts off with the train station clock tower that runs backwards, which signified Benjamin’s life that had taken a reverse course. Initially, the clock maker had made it to commemorate his son’s death in the war. It emboldens the importance of going through all the stages that finally defines one’s journey. However the closing shot of the movie shows the clock tower being flooded by hurricane Katrina, which symbolizes that whether one goes forward or back in time, death is an absolute factor. The entire scene is a heartbreaking reminder of the mortality of human life that was captured in the backward ticking and the flooding of the train station clock. Similarly, the man who gets repeatedly hit by lightning is yet another motif in the movie. The recounts to Benjamin how he was struck by lightning almost seven times in his life and even though, it was a painful process but he still came to see it as a positive occurrence in his life. Not only the event is significant but the number of times the man claims to have been hit by lightning can be equated as a vague allusion to the Shakespearean ideology describing the course of human life – The seven stages of man. The lightning in this regard signifies an irrevocable change and aging is indeed an irreversible process of life (Browning, 2010). However instead of viewing aging as a negative aspect of life, one must learn to appreciate and welcome the wisdom and grace that comes along with it. Benjamin’s life is an exact embodiment of Shakespearean view of life but it goes backwards and eventually meets the same fate as everyone else. Most of the motifs that occur in the movie are highly cryptic, but provides viewers with the latitude to draw their own conclusions and translate the filmmaker’s thoughts into their own words. Therefore, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” used exceptional visual effects to help viewers to absorb these motifs that would enable them to process the meaning and themes assessed by such motifs. II. Visual Effects The movie made use of highly intricate visual effects that contributed immensely in making it the block buster it was. As mentioned earlier, the main premise of the movie was to depict a man, who was born with a face and body of an 80 year old man and then ages back. Such a complicated premise for a movie puts great pressure on the visual effects team to come up with the right techniques to help provide a realistic depiction of the events. The set had to be developed accordingly to incorporate and depict war scenarios to show Benjamin’s journey through the war-ravaged world with his special condition. The film’s protagonist was played by Brad Pitt and the visual effects team had to make sure that the character’s facial features bore a close resemblance to that of Brad Pitt’s to make the movie seem credible. It is indeed a grueling task, but the project was finally brought into fruition with the help of David Fincher’s and Eric Barba, the visual effect supervisor’s sound teamwork. His immaculate work on the special effects has been elaborated by him in numerous interviews. The team used an innovative technique that had been developed fundamentally for this project; the research and development took nearly 5 years starting in 2004 and was subsequently used as an experiment for an advertisement, which wasn’t received well by critics. However, the team still went on to use it on Benjamin Button and made massive changes to it. As mentioned earlier, the biggest challenge was to show Brad from age 80 and then regress into infancy. Eric Barba has explained that the film first developed a Maquette and then Pitts’ features were projected on to the sculpture. The rest of his character’s performance was enacted through CGI animation; however the animations were still not just created but were indeed xeroxed off Brad’s performance but for some scenes the Benjamin’s body was rendered by a group of performers. Pitts’ head was attached on to various body actors, who had different measurements and vital statistics (Prince, 2011, P. 142). So a tracking system was used in order to eliminate the disparity of the body sizes and massaging was done to enable the body actors to come to do their part well. The mova rig contours was especially designed to hold 27 cameras and were positioned to enable the team to capture the emotions pertinent to the character in the movie (Finance, 2009). The cameras were mounted on a speed rail that captures almost 150 degrees of the actor’s face that was filmed after being covered with phosphorescent make-up. The accessories on Benjamin, such as glasses and hats were added through CG animation. The real challenge was for the photography team, who had to do the entire scene in frames, so that illusion could work and this how Benjamin was shown wearing glasses and hats. The images and visual data gathered were then refined using image analysis technology (Prince, 2011, pp. 142-145). The team also had to work on to create a realistic chronology of the character since Benjamin Button was shown to have lived in almost 8 decades; the Maquettes were shot in almost three different lighting settings with the help of a light stage. The lighting was regulated for all the frames in which Benjamin appeared that was done using computer-based lighting that effectively matched the lighting on the set. Not only Benjamin, but a number of other characters were enacted through special effects, such as Daisy’s pirouettes and her dancing part was the product of ingenious visual techniques and editing. The greatest feat for the crew was the development of a baby Benjamin, which was accomplished by using robotic Maquette that was incorporated for a full 3D shot and was later enhanced using Hydraulx visual effects (Debereceni, 2012). The amount on make-up on Brad’s face decreased as his character regressed and when he was an adult, there was almost negligible amount of make-up on the actor’s face. The movie was a combination of skillful make-up along with state-of-the-art technology. (Prince, 2011, pp. 142-145) The visual effects had done intensive work to make this project a success; especially after a failed experiment the stakes were quite high. Matching the body actor’s physical language with Pitts’ emotional expression is in fact crucial task and requires great finesse. They integrated Brad’s CG face on to the body actor and in order to create a proportionate physical appearance, the crew used creating software systems to help them keep track of all these minute details and handle them with great precision. Thus, the visual effects elaborately and successfully depicted the life and appearance of a man, who lived his life in regression and provided audience with highly visually appealing scenarios. III. Comparison with other Films directed by David Fincher David Fincher has indeed established his reputation in Hollywood as a gifted director, but all his movies contain a perceptible shard of monotony; be it the cryptic motifs in the plotline or the overall production, Fincher adds an element of his unique gift for imagery. “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” was a cinematic wonder, but as mentioned earlier, this is not the only great film under David Fincher’s name. This part of the prose will juxtapose three of Fincher’s greatest works, The Game” and “Seven” with “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”, to see how consistent the Fincher has been with all of his filmmaking ventures (Browning, 2010) Before delving into the technical details, “The Game” follows the life of an investment banker with a troubled past. He is referred to an organization by his brother and then his life takes an unexpected turn as he finds himself becoming a part of an elaborate conspiracy. However, must to the protagonist and the audience’s surprise, Michael Douglas’s character is able to reach catharsis and the organization eventually helps him overcome the demons of his past. The movie uses some of the same themes as Benjamin Button as it highlights the importance of living a good life and making peace with one’s past. However, it was not only the epic moments of the movie that made it truly remarkable, but the visual effects and the overall coherence of the scenes depicted in it. Unlike, Benjamin Button there was no real need of using intricate CGI animations, Maquette modeling or make-up in the filming for the Game. In fact, the movie’s visual appeal lied in the captivating flashbacks and well-conceived action sequences. The most controversial twist, yet visually breathtaking in the movie is the part showing Michael Douglas’s leap off a building as he thinks he has killed his brother and falls through a glass ceiling with a giant ‘X” on it. The fact that Fincher beautifully captured the scene during the late 90’s, when visual effect technology was not that advanced, it is no less of a feat. He used various angles to show his fall and then through computer graphic they depicted the shattering glass with acute precision and sophistication. Lighting was of immense importance for Benjamin Button, but the Game also makes use of shadows to project the character’s emotions. On the other hand, the movie is a thriller movie centered on a psychotic killer, who has taken it upon himself to punish the evil doers and is pursued by two detectives. The protagonist of Benjamin Button and Seven is played by the same actor, but it is more than just the cast that is similar. All three of the aforementioned movies; The Game, Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Seven have a similar premise, about the individual struggle to better oneself and humanity. However, the conflict and the means to resolve them are different. The plot included a lot of blood and gore scenes, which were curtailed greatly by Fincher in order to make the film watchable by the majority of the audience and to highlight the psychological thrill of the movie (Browning, n.p.) Fincher made use of several animated design, but in line with the premise of the movie the designs were vastly dark-colored to match the tone of the story, whereas Benjamin Button was a combination of dark and light colors. The visual layout of Benjamin Button further exhibits how much technology has advanced in the last few decades. It further highlights Fincher’s ability to create cinematic masterpieces even when Hollywood lagged behind in technological resources. All three of these movies are classics not only for their gripping storyline, but amazing visual effects and editing that has revolutionized the filmmaking industry. Works Cited Browning, Mark. “David Fincher: Films that Scare.” ABC-CLIO: 2010. Print. Debreceni, Todd. “Special Make-up Effects for Stage and Screen: Making and Applying Prosthetic.” CRC Press: 2012. Print. Finance, Charles. “The Visual Effects Producer: Understanding the Art and Business of VFX.” Elsevier Press: 2009. Print. Prince, Stephen. “Digital Visual Effects in Cinema: The Seduction of Reality.” Rutgers University Press: 2011: p. 142 -151. Print. Read More