The editing style of David Fincher

Fincher has directed TV commercials for clients that include Nike, Coca-Cola, Budweiser, Heinekin, Pepsi, Levi'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, Stevie Winwood, The Motels and, most recently, A Perfect Circle.

In my mind, Fincher reached his creative and technical peak between 1989-1990, when he was directing music videos for Paula Abdul, George Michael, Billy Idol and, most impressively, Madonna. Is any image filmed in 1990 more iconic than this frame, from Fincher’s video for Madonna’s “Vogue”?



Fincher’s best video works actually function in part as tribute to the very concept of the close-up glamour shot, and he reached his absolute peak using the more-than-willing Madonna. Three of his Madonna videos ('Vogue', 'Express Yourself' and 'Oh Father', all of which made the Top 15 of Slant Magazine’s Top 100 Greatest Music Videos list) are so good that even now, 18 years on, watching them occasionally makes me go.. wow! In terms of his Madonna videos, Fincher’s close-ups are the most intimate images of the star that we have ever known.

As a music video director, Fincher had a number of signature close-ups:

- Short, seemingly inexplicable cuts to close-ups of things like teapots, leaky faucets, corporate logos, or in the case of the “Straight Up” video, to Arsenio Hall laughing. The images have no meaning on their own, but are imbued with mysterious significance by the cuts they’re sandwiched into. My favorite instance of this is in “Freedom“, when Christy Turlington apparently sets fire to George Michael’s Faith-era leather jacket–with her eyes.

- The incorporation of bloopers or outtakes. These are always close shots, so it’s possibly that they’re scripted spontaneity. See Madonna laughing while tugging on a blond curl in 'Vogue'.

- Angled close-ups of the star’s face, either lip syncing or pointedly not.

These are the key building blocks of Fincher’s music video masterpieces, and his rare missteps during this time period notably lack them. These shots are often lit and framed from above, that at times exactly replicate standard Hollywood publicity shots or film stills of the studio era.

The editing style of Guy Ritchie

Guy Ritchie was an iconic figure in the music and film industry in the 1990s and onwards. In 1995, Ritchie got a job as a runner and this proved to be the start of his film career. He quickly progressed and was directing music promos for bands and commercials by 1995. The profits that he made from directing these promos was invested into writing and making the film, The Hard Case (1995), which is a twenty minute short film that is also the prequel to his debut feature Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998).

Guy Ritchie is a very good filmmaker, some would call him the first of the MTV music video turned feature film directors. Although, MTV music videos tell a story with its fast cut editing style than actual cinematic shots, and Ritchie's films are nothing like that. Yes, he does use quick shot to shot editing techniques to set up a situation and/or scene, but when he gets into the nuts and bolts of a conflict in his films, Ritchie almost always keeps the shot going without any cuts.

In fact, I would consider Ritchie a landmark filmmaker. This is a man who understands the camera and it's lenses, film stocks and camera toys and he uses them with such style while he tells his plot heavy and multi-character stories with a modern musical soundtrack to carry the emotional beats of its story.

I watched the film RocknRolla directed by Guy Ritchie to really get a feel of his style. I also viewed this interview where Ritchie talks about RocknRolla and other films he has directed.



A typical Ritchie scene works like this:

- a seamless transition from the past scene to the new scene by dollying the camera and giving us something different while also keeping the same art direction style intact.

- first focus on the person and/or prop that is the focal point of the scene.

- cut to the antagonist of the scene. The person and/or thing that will get in the way and set up the overall conflict.

- cut back to the first focus as the camera moves inward, outward or side-to-side to give us the overall master shot and whereabouts of the location.

- same shot as we move towards the main conflicting situation with the character.

- same shot as we move back as the situation resolves.

- camera dollies to next scene.

Myleene Klass

I looked at Myleene Klass's promotional video for her new album. This is a highly professional video and will particularly help me in the stages of editing.


This is a really striking opening shot of Myleene as it is not a position we would expect to see as she has her back to us and is poised over the piano. The camera then introduces Myleene's face by an upwards crane shot.

Myleene's video also includes shots of her alone, which inspired me to do the same.

I noticed how the camera shots and angles of Mylenne playing the piano vary as not to appear repetitive, so I will need to make sure there are a variety of individual piano shots in my own video.







The clever lighting has a dramatic effect as viewers. Often in this video, bright light shines through the window often obscuring our view of Myleene for a split second. I personally love this effect and will approach similar lighting in a few of my shots (long shot of piano in the main school hall, and the medium shot). I tried to copy the lighting effect by using fade to white transitions during my video.

I particularly love the setting of the old house with the white floorboards and doors and partly furbished walls. It really suits the mood of the music.

This shot starts exactly on the first beat of the bar, i.e in time with the music. I think this is needed in some parts of a music video to emphasise the rhythms of the music. I too will use this idea in my music video.

I really liked the camera angle here and used one similar in my music video. I love the strong lighting to make the colour balance/contrast of the shot appear uneven.

This is a type of video effect used to create a new visual way of seeing a camera shot. In this shot, the video effect is called 'cyanotype'. I used a number of video effects available on iMovie called 'dream', 'beach bypass'.