2013. House of Cards. Season 1 – The Fincher Analyst

Frame & Reference Podcast Extras: David Fincher’s Directors of Photography

Kenny McMillan
August 12, 2025
Frame & Reference

Frame & Reference is a conversation between Cinematographers hosted by Kenny McMillan. Each episode dives into the respective DP’s current and past work, as well as what influences and inspires them. These discussions are an entertaining and informative look into the world of making films through the lens of the people who shoot them.

This is a compilation of selections from past interviews with David Fincher‘s Directors of Photography, discussing their experiences working with him: Erik Messerschmidt, ASC (2022), Erik Messerschmidt, ASC (2024), Eigil Bryld (2023), Tim Ives, ASC (2021), Igor Martinovic and Vanja Černjul (2024), Jeff Cronenweth, ASC (2022).

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Netflix’s Origin Story: How the Streamer Killed Blockbuster Video, Snagged ‘House of Cards’ From HBO, and Changed Hollywood Forever

Brent Lang
March 20, 2025
Variety

“No late fees.”

When Netflix launched as a DVD rental service in 1998, that was its most effective pitch to potential customers — an unmistakable reference to the thing that people hated the most about Blockbuster. With more than 9,000 locations, Blockbuster was the biggest video rental chain in the world, but it was alienating members because its profits came from charging hefty fines for movies that weren’t returned on time.

“It was an obvious sore spot,” Reed Hastings, Netflix’s co-founder, says. “People loved renting movies and watching them at home, but the late fee became the symbol of everything painful about that model. So we decided to create something different.”

Netflix didn’t just do away with late fees by allowing customers to keep movies for as long as they wanted. It offered subscribers unlimited rentals for a monthly flat fee. As a bonus, it delivered DVDs directly to customers’ homes, eliminating the hassle of having to drive to the local Blockbuster to scour aisle after aisle of movies in search of something to watch.

That gamble paid off. Twenty-eight years after it debuted with little fanfare, Netflix, now under the leadership of Hastings’ successors, Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters, dominates Hollywood. Its market cap of $392.68 billion surpasses those of Disney, Warner Bros., Discovery, Paramount Global, and Comcast combined.

Reed Hastings on Ted Sarandos committing to spending $100 million on House of Cards, picking the show up for an unheard-of two seasons, before a pilot had even been shot, and agreeing not to give David Fincher any notes and guaranteeing him full creative control:

“I wasn’t comfortable with it. It seemed perilously aggressive to me, just on the edge of reckless. We’d been working together for a decade, so I’d come to trust Ted’s instincts. But they were definitely not my instincts.”

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Lex Fridman Podcast: Kevin Spacey, Power, Controversy, Betrayal, Truth & Love in Film and Life

Lex Friedman
June 5, 2024
Lex Friedman Podcast

Kevin Spacey is a two-time Oscar-winning actor, who starred in Se7en, The Usual Suspects, American Beauty, and House of Cards, creating haunting performances of characters who often embody the dark side of human nature.

OUTLINE:

0:00:00 – Introduction
0:02:44 – Seven
0:06:24 – David Fincher
0:14:16 – Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman
0:19:46 – Acting
0:28:10 – Improve
0:36:54 – Al Pacino
0:40:38 – Jack Lemmon
0:49:55 – American Beauty
1:10:04 – Mortality
1:12:52 – Allegations
1:30:50 – House of Cards
1:49:25 – Jack Nicholson
1:52:27 – Mike Nichols
1:58:01 – Christopher Walken
2:05:08 – Father
2:14:00 – Future

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How Laray Mayfield Became Director David Fincher’s Go-to Casting Director

Neil Turitz
March 1, 2024
Casting Networks

Laray Mayfield got into casting the way a lot of other professionals got into it, by accident.

She was doing another job and someone said, “Hey, you should do this,” and once she did, it stuck. That’s not an unusual story. What makes this unusual is that the person who told her is arguably the best American filmmaker working today, David Fincher, with whom she’s been working for nearly 40 years.

Mayfield has since built an impressive career, with an Emmy award for the first season of House of Cards and two Artios awards —the highest honor the Casting Society offers— to her name. Her latest collaboration with Fincher, The Killer, is streaming on Netflix. She spoke with us from her home in Nashville.

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Clubhouse Conversations: “The Killer” Cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt, ASC

Wally Pfister, ASC
November 16, 2023
American Cinematographer

In this episode, cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt, ASC is joined by interviewer Wally Pfister, ASC to discuss his work on The Killer — the neo-noir thriller from director David Fincher that follows an assassin on the run after a botched hit job.

In The Killer, the titular antihero misses one of his intended targets for the first time in his career, and is forced to flee and survive the inevitable consequences. The film marks the second Fincher-directed feature shot by Messerschmidt, following the 2020 film Mank, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Cinematography.

In this interview, Messerschmidt discusses the film’s Paris-inspired color palette; how he shot scenes “loosely” or “rigidly,” based on the main character’s degrees of control over varying situations; how he approached the lighting for a complex fight scene; how he incorporated planned postproduction decisions for lighting, flares and camera destabilization into his workflow; and what he learned about what an audience sees versus what it hears.

Erik Messerschmidt, ASC first emerged as a filmmaker when he was hired by Society member and mentor Mark Doering-Powell on several features as a grip and later gaffer. After Messerschmidt served as Society member Jeff Cronenweth‘s gaffer on the David Fincher-directed Gone Girl (2014), Cronenweth encouraged Fincher to hire Messerschmidt to photograph the Netflix series Mindhunter. Messerschmidt would reunite with Fincher for their 2020 feature Mank, which earned him an Academy Award for Best Cinematography.

Wally Pfister, ASC is a filmmaker whose cinematography credits include the Christopher Nolan features Batman Begins (2005), The Prestige (2006), The Dark Knight (2008) and Inception (2010). He was nominated for an Oscar for Best Cinematography for all of these works, winning one for Inception in 2011.

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Find all episodes in our ASC Clubhouse Conversations series

The Vice Guide to Film: David Fincher (2016)

VICE, 2016

Ben Affleck, Director of Photography Jeff Cronenweth, Writer Kiva Reardon, Jesse Eisenberg, Robin Wright, and Director Tamra Davis, examine the films of David Fincher, whose mixture of craftsmanship and showmanship has created thrillers that cast a dark shadow over American cinema.

Frame & Reference Podcast: “Extrapolations” DP Eigil Bryld

Kenny McMillan
July 13, 2023
Frame & Reference

Join me as I chat with Eigil Bryld, a hardworking Director of Photography, and we explore his recent projects – Extrapolations, The Machine, and No Hard Feelings, which had a very quick turnaround. Listen in as we share our thoughts on the writers’ strike against studios, its difference from the COVID-19 situation, and the luxury of being able to refuse work. We also discuss how saying no has sometimes led to even better opportunities.

We go on to discuss how Eigil’s background in documentaries has shaped his work in cinema, influencing his naturalistic approach to cinematography. His journey from documentary filmmaker to cinematographer is truly fascinating, as is his work on films like Wisconsin Death Trip. Hear about his approach to shooting films and the importance of placing the camera perfectly to capture the dynamics of a scene.

Bryld (left) operates one of the two cameras during the shot of a House of Cards Season 1 scene.

Finally, we spend a good chunk of time discussing his work with iconic director David Fincher and the lessons that came with it. Eigil shares his experience on House of Cards and the techniques he used to capture the perfect shot. We also discuss his approach to lighting, the importance of quick setup and breakdown of equipment, and the dance between the camera and the actors. All this and more in our enlightening conversation with Eigil Bryld!

Eigil Bryld won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Cinematography, for the episode “Chapter 1” of House of Cards (2013).

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Because We Love Making Movies: Screenwriter Eric Roth

Eren Celeboglu
Because We Love Making Movies (Instagram, Facebook)

Part 1

May 22, 2021

Today, I sit down with legendary screenwriter Eric Roth.

We talk about his life and his craft and why we should all be more generous of spirit. Truth be told, Eric has been involved in creating so many iconic films that it would have been impossible to try… so I asked him about the films of his that meant the most to me, and he held court and digressed in the loveliest of ways. I hope you have as much fun listening as I did recording this interview. Enjoy!

Eric’s credits include: The Nickel Ride, The Drowning Pool, The Onion Field, Forrest Gump (for which he won an Oscar), The Postman (for which he won a Razzie), The Horse Whisperer, and then one of my favorite films ever, The Insider, followed by Ali, Munich, The Good Shepherd, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. He’s also worked in Television, and seen not one but two sea changes, first with HBO, and then with Netflix and House of Cards. And much more recently he wrote A Star Is Born, Dune, and the new Western being Directed by Martin Scorsese, Killers of the Flower Moon. He was also a producer on the Oscar nominated Mank, directed by David Fincher, from a script by Fincher’s father.

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Part 2

October 18, 2021

Today we welcome back the legendary Eric Roth. An Oscar-Winning Screenwriter & Producer.

We talk about how he writes, and blends craft with pure inspiration. He talks about working with Robert Redford. We re-visit Munich & The Good Shepherd. He talks about being re-written, and his unique creative partnership with Bradley Cooper & Lady Gaga on A Star Is Born. And last but not least, we talk about writing the new Dune film which he thinks just might be something very special.

It’s a wonderful conversation with one of the very best working in Hollywood today, whose generous not only with his talent, but his spirit. Dig it!

Recommended Viewing: The Horse Whisperer, Munich, The Good Shepherd, A Star Is Born (2018), and Dune (See it in IMAX on October 22, 2021)

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Frame & Reference Podcast: “Halston”, “Stranger Things”, and “House of Cards” Cinematographer Tim Ives, ASC

Kenny McMillan
June 3, 2021
Frame & Reference

Tim Ives, ASC, talks about the new Netflix series Halston, which tells the story of a man who leverages his single invented name into a worldwide fashion empire that’s synonymous with luxury, sex, status, and fame, literally defining the era. Outside of this series, you likely recognize Tim’s name from his work on series such as Stranger Things, House of Cards, and Manifest.

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When David Fincher Changed TV Forever

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of Se7en and the 10th anniversary of The Social Network, The Ringer hereby dubs September 21-25 David Fincher Week. Join us all throughout the week as we celebrate and examine the man, the myth, and his impeccable body of work.

Thanks to ‘House of Cards,’ the man so deeply associated with filmmaking may ironically be best remembered for his impact on the streaming revolution

Alison Herman
September 25, 2020
The Ringer

Try and think back, if you can, to 2013. Obama has just won a second term. “Netflix” still means DVDs in red envelopes. And the idea of a major director deigning to do TV is remarkable enough to turn heads.

David Fincher was hardly the first name-brand auteur to try his hand at the small screen. Most famously, David Lynch brought paranormal dread to primetime with Twin Peaks in 1989; Steven Spielberg directed multiple episodes of his NBC anthology Amazing Stories, with subsequent chapters helmed by Clint Eastwood, Martin Scorsese, and Danny DeVito. But Fincher is neither an irrepressible weirdo prone to counterintuitive career moves nor a middlebrow populist with a family-friendly sensibility. He is, in many ways, a textbook Film Director: an uncompromising visionary who makes dark, violent, and above all, precise movies for adults. Fincher is the last person you could picture taking notes from a network executive, or taking part in the logistical corner-cutting that marks so much of TV production, which naturally made him the first person an up-and-coming entertainment hub would call to signal they’re Not Like Other Networks.

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