Category I: One Hour Period or Fantasy Single-Camera Series
S1:E1 Episode 1
S1:E4 Episode 4
S1:E9 Episode 9
Steve Arnold
Production Designer
steve-arnold.com
Category: Collaborators
People and companies that have worked with David Fincher.
MINDHUNTER Soundtrack CD out on December 15
Jason Hill
Instagram
: Mindhunter (A Netflix Original Series Soundtrack)
And at the top digital music platforms.
MINDHUNTER: Inside the mind of composer, David Fincher collaborator Jason Hill (part 1)
Kyle Kohner
November 9, 2017
RIFF Magazine
MINDHUNTER: Composer Jason Hill, of Louis XIV, never complacent (part 2)
Kyle Kohner
November 15, 2017
RIFF Magazine
How Stephen Shore’s Photographs Inspired Netflix’s Mindhunter
Alexxa Gotthardt
November 23, 2017
Artsy
In the first scene of the Netflix crime show Mindhunter, the camera trails a car through the run-down streets of small-town Braddock, Pennsylvania. We don’t know that it’s 1977, or that someone will be offed in the next five minutes—but the setting provides clues. It’s a rainy night lit only by moody street lamps and the beams of an AMC Matador police car. The nearby buildings ooze seediness.
The scene is lonely, unglamorous, and wildly intriguing. It’s also resolutely American—and whisks viewers swiftly back to the 1970s.
It’s perhaps unsurprising, then, that the show’s creators were inspired by the pioneering U.S. photographers of that decade—namely, the great Stephen Shore, whose career spent capturing backroads, motel rooms, and lunch counters across America is currently being celebrated in a retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art. “Since Mindhunter is a period piece, photography from the era was hugely helpful to all of us,” the show’s cinematographer, Erik Messerschmidt, tells me from Los Angeles.
Mindhunter director Asif Kapadia on Ed Kemper and learning David Fincher’s style
Christopher Hooton
Nov 6, 2017
Kernels (Independent)
How do films make you feel? The Independent gets personal about cinema and TV with actors, directors, cinematographers and other people from the continually evolving world of “content” in a new fortnightly podcast hosted by Culture Editor Christopher Hooton.
Netflix‘s new original series Mindhunter has enrapt a legion of viewers with its smart, reserved style. Chris sits down with episodes 3 and 4 director Asif Kapadia to look at how it came together, how Brad Pitt‘s DVD of Senna led to his signing, directing an actor as serial killer Ed Kemper, learning from David Fincher on set, and how a season of TV’s episodes are carved up for different directors.
David Fincher on the Music of ‘Mindhunter’
By Paula Parisi on October 23, 2017
Max the Trax
Director and producer David Fincher wanted a backing track that “didn’t sound like music” for his new Netflix series Mindhunter, which is exactly what he got in the 10-episode show’s original score by composer Jason Hill. Hill, a veteran of the early aughts indie rock scene with throwback style, invented a library of original sounds he processed into music. “I didn’t use any sound libraries,” said Hill, proprietor of the Department of Recording & Power. “I do use a computer, in terms of capture, but everything pretty much starts with a bunch of analog, weird stuff. I kind of get mad scientist brain when I press play.” Pitch perfect for a show about the genesis of the FBI’s elite Behavioral Sciences Unit, formed in 1978. An inspired touch — the sound of Hill running his fingers around water-filled wine glasses — has become something of an audio signature for the series, which also features a rigorously curated complement of 1970s tunes.
Fincher is known as a meticulous craftsman who not only chooses great material, but applies his exacting style to bring it to the screen in a way that is both visually and narratively compelling. While his talent as a musical tastemaker has certainly been acknowledged, it’s emphasized to a lesser extent against the dazzle of his other gifts. But Fincher’s record stands: best score Oscars for Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross for 2010’s The Social Network, and a best soundtrack Grammy for the duo’s 2012 The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo as well as a nom for their work on Gone Girl.
Fincher received his own Academy Award nominations for directing The Social Network and 2008’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (which also earned Oscar and Grammy nominations for composer Alexandre Desplat). And that’s before even getting to the part about how in the ’80s he helped invent the music video genre as a founder of Propaganda Films (including Don Henley’s cinematic “The End of the Innocence” and helming entries for Madonna and Nine Inch Nails (as well as Loverboy and Rick Springfield, among many others. He’s collected his own Grammys for directing the 1994 clip for The Rolling Stones‘ “Love is Strong” featuring the band and their friends as giants cavorting through Manhattan), and more recently, in 2014 for Justin Timberlake’s “Suit and Tie” (feat. Jay Z). Fincher spoke to MaxTheTrax editor in chief Paula Parisi about the music for Mindhunter, his music video roots and (small!) contribution to Trent Reznor’s career as a film composer.
MINDHUNTER. A Netflix Original Series Soundtrack. By Jason Hill
Jason Hill (Instagram, Facebook):
“The Mindhunter Album is officially out today digitally! iTunes, Spotify, etc. Physical CD’S will be available on December 15, just in time for the Holidays! I am very proud of it and worked for almost 2 years on it. I set out to build a very unique soundscape, unlike any other. I think I was able to do that. I did not use any sound libraries as many composers do, everything was played by me and the sounds made from scratch. Special thanks to the incredible talents of Davide Rossi who plays violin on two tracks as well and Jonathon Stevens for helping me put this together. Hear so much more than what is on the show! I hope you like it!”
Spotify – Apple Music – iTunes – Amazon Music – YouTube
Tracks:
01. Main Titles (3:14)
02. Four Windows (3:28)
03. Weird Thing (2:21)
04. Wendy Suite (4:13)
05. Beyond the Pleasure Principle (3:46)
06. A Bird in the Fan (2:10)
07. Fantasies (4:11)
08. Welcome to Nowhere (3:35)
09. Tell the Parole Board (3:07)
10. Deviant Terminology (2:47)
11. An Unguarded Response (3:22)
12. From a Motel Phone (2:32)
13. Academics (2:26)
14. Rose Confession (7:42)
15. I Know You’re Not Just Here To Teach (1:47)
16. A Walk Through the Zoo / A Friendly Nuisance (4:38)
17. Ed Kemper’s Cage (4:05)
18. Crime of the Century (4:13)
19. The Man From the Alarm Company (2:49)
20. A New Hairdo for Beverly Jean (3:21)
Art of the Shot: Mindhunter cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt
Working with David Fincher, the RED XENOMORPH, CW Sonderoptic Leica Summilux-C lenses and shooting for Netflix
By David Alexander Willis
October 23, 2017
ProVideo Coalition
Shot with a tailor-made RED camera, the RED XENOMORPH, auteur David Fincher chose cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt to helm camera for his latest, and possibly most ambitious project, the 10-episode Mindhunter series. Based on the novel Mind Hunter: Inside the FBI’s Elite Serial Crime Unit, Messerschmidt lensed actors Jonathan Groff and Holt McCallany during the extended production as they play FBI agents Holden Ford and Bill Tench. Focusing on the precocious criminal psychology work of the 1970s, the show centers on the duo as they attempt to understand the mind of a serial killer. Mindhunter is available to watch via Netflix now.
Thanks to Joe Frady
The MINDHUNTER Teaser Blood Animation by Joe Fleming
Joe Fleming is a motion designer and animator based in New Orleans, LA. Originally from Omaha, NE, Joe has always had a passion for art and design. He developed his craft while studying Graphic Design at Loyola University in New Orleans. He fell in love with the city and its rich creative scene. While working with clients and colleagues from around the world, he is able to draw from their unique styles and techniques.
Art Direction & Design: Neil Kellerhouse
Edit + Sound + Color: Kirk Baxter, Studio Exile
Blood + Logo Animation: Joe Fleming
Click to enlarge:
(Joe Fleming, JoeMotion.tv)
Hooked on Sonics: David Fincher, Composer Jason Hill Bend Sound and Time on ‘Mindhunter’
10/14/2017 by Paula Parisi
Billboard
The year is 1972. On May 7, Tony Orlando & Dawn is in the middle of a four-week ride atop the Billboard Hot 100 with “Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Old Oak Tree,” and Edmund Kemper is indicted on eight counts of murder in Santa Cruz, Calif. Welcome to the world of David Fincher’s Mindhunter, a circa 1970s crime drama that debuts on Netflix this weekend.
Set within the FBI’s elite Behavioral Sciences Unit, the show delves into the psyche of high-profile serial killers because, “How do we get ahead of crazy, if we don’t know how crazy thinks?” In other words, as sophisticated a study in depravity as audiences are likely to see outside of a theater showing a Fincher film, and he wanted the music to match.
Fincher’s facility with score has been validated with an Oscar, a Grammy and two noms for his past four films, which include Gone Girl, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. House of Cards, another show Fincher executive produces for Netflix, has accumulated five Emmy nominations for composer Jeff Beal (who won this year). And he famously convinced Trent Reznor to score 2010’s The Social Network, resulting in Oscars for the Nine Inch Nails principal and collaborator Atticus Ross. But Fincher is surprisingly modest about accruing any of that acclaim.
“I just hire people that are great and get out of their way,” says the man who was the enfant terrible of ’80s music video.
The muted, subterranean Mindhunter soundtrack is composed by erstwhile alt pop comet Jason Hill — he soared, he shined, he fell short of being a star with bands Louis XIV and Vicky Cryer. But the 42-year-old rose to the occasion for Fincher, who asked him to craft a score that wouldn’t sound, literally, like music.
Why David Fincher’s ‘Mindhunter’ DP Believes ‘There Are No Rules’ in Lighting
Hawkins DuBois
October 13, 2017
No Film School
‘Mindhunter’ DP Erik Messerschmidt shot the darkly intimate show with custom-made RED Xenomorphs.
When it comes to cinematography, every filmmaker, every movie or show, and every shot is different. While there may be a “textbook” way to approach a scene, there is no “correct” way. Even so, patterns and styles always emerge, and few filmmakers have developed a look as distinctive as David Fincher‘s. While Fincher is best known for his mysterious and gritty films, ranging from Fight Club to The Social Network, he’s recently ventured into the realm of streaming television, where he has produced and directed the critically-acclaimed House of Cards, and now seeks to expand on that success with the recently-released Mindhunter for Netflix.
Mindhunter tells the story of a pair of FBI agents, played by Jonathan Groff and Holt McCallany, as their work in the Elite Serial Crime Unit leads them down a dark path where they interrogate and explore the mindsets of serial killers and rapists. It’s another psychologically tense world from the mind of Fincher, and a significant part of what brings this world to life is the work of cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt, who keeps audiences grounded and in the moment.
Messerschmidt, a longtime gaffer in the industry, built up years of knowledge while working alongside some of the best DPs in Hollywood, and his unique background allowed him to creatively solve problems and accentuate story with his camerawork. No Film School recently sat down with Messerschmidt to talk about his career and Mindhunter, including his decision to come up through the lighting department, mastering crew-management skills, and how to incorporate natural lighting into your shots.
The Fincher Analyst 