Rowing Has Never Seemed So Much Fun

Whenever someone asks me to recommend films from a certain director, one of my first suggestions is always the never boring, fascinating work by David Fincher. His career has been one of incredible success and worth, having garnered a massive fan base over two decades. He has created such classics as "Se7en," "Fight Club," "The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button," and most recently, "The Social Network." With each new film, he challenges the audience not only with critical moral and ethical dilemmas, but also with his mastery of the visual arts. Each film is unique in its own right because of the different direction he goes in with them, ranging from the use of cinematography to even different types of panning shots. He is one of the many reasons I am interested in filmmaking, and here's why.


Given the extreme success of his newest film, "The Social Network," I will be highlighting that particular film in his impressive canon to show his different techniques. Written in the fast-paced style by Aaron Sorkin, Fincher maneuvered through each scene with a kind of nuance and grace that young aspiring filmmakers should make a note of. His manipulation of focus and depth of field in each scene, whether it be about a brooding Mark Zuckerberg in heated discussion with lawyers, or a rowing race. The focus is always on the main characters in the scene, with the background being blurred out, as evidenced in the rowing scene.




During this Henley Race Scene, all the focus is placed on the main actors/rowers, while most, if not all, of the background is extremely out of focus. Fincher uses this as a way to make sure the audience pays attention to where the real action is: the rowers' emotional struggle and determination to win. It is conveyed not only in their faces, but through the wide variety of medium, close-up and extreme close-up shots. Each shot in this short two minute scene does a perfect job of telling the story playing out in front of us. Some of the best moments are the medium and close-up shots involving the main actor and focusing squarely on him while having a blurred focus on the other rowers directly behind him. This manipulation of focus and even depth of field shows that Fincher knows who he wants the audience to pay attention to.

David Fincher is clearly a director who understands how to use even basic techniques involving focus and framing to tell a wonderful, vivid, and engaging story. With his recent success, it's only going to go up from here. Here's hoping that he will continue to make amazing entries into the history of film.