YouTube Selection: Nerdwriter’s “How David Fincher Hijacks Your Eyes”

David Fincher has directed some great films like Se7en, Fight Club, Gone Girl, and The Social Network.  While Fincher has a distinctive style that other, lesser directors attempt to copy, they never quite get what Fincher is doing and how he does it.  What is that missing element?

YouTube essayist Nerdwriter thinks he found one of those missing elements.

I won’t say what that element is, aside from the fact it relates directly to camera movement, but not only does Nerdwriter show what it is, but he goes so far to suggest that it affects the way the viewer sees the real world after watching one of Fincher’s movies.  That might be more debatable, but the observed technique does do certain things to audiences and their sympathies towards Fincher’s characters, and that might say a lot about what really makes Fincher’s films work as well as they do.  Besides, it’s such a seemingly small thing (one that would require a lot of rehearsal and work to get right even then), that it is a bit amazing I hadn’t heard about this before.  Whether or not Nerdwriter is the first to observe this phenomena or not, I couldn’t say, but I think I will be paying a bit more attention to Fincher’s camera movements next time I watch one of his movies.

Oh, as always, Nerdwriter ends his video with an ad for one of his sponsors.