Nev Pierce, one of the finest British film journalists, with a career of 20 years, and now a thriving Filmmaker, has revamped his website, NevPierce.com.
Aaron Sorkin is lauded as one of the best screenwriters of our time whose films have generated more than $350 million dollar at the box office. A seasoned writer of twenty five years penning classics such as The West Wing, and A Few Good Men, it comes as no surprise that Sorkin would get the urge to direct. At one point he was attached to direct The Social Network until David Fincher came along, and Sorkin ended up taking home as Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay. Seven years later he was sent Molly Bloom’s autobiography, Molly’s Game, and became fascinated with the former high stakes poker queen after meeting with her.
The film adaptation chronicles Molly Bloom’s journey from Olympic skier to running a high stakes poker game in both Los Angeles, and New York. Apparently, A-List celebrities such as Leonardo DiCaprio, Ben Affleck, and Tobey Maguire were frequent players. However, things get ugly fast as soon as the Russian mob gets involved.
Producers Mark Gordon and Amy Pascal ran down a list of possible directors with Sorkin, but offered him another chance to take the director’s chair. He took it. With a tight turnaround from casting to wrapping, Aaron Sorkin’s feature film debuts on Christmas Day. Screen Rant sat down with the first time director and touched base on which director he has learned from the most, and about his quickfire dialogue.
The Netflix original series Mindhunter, from director David Fincher, has been delivered in 4K and high dynamic range (HDR).
Co-produced by Peter Mavromates and graded by colorist Eric Weidt, it is set in the late 1970s, and sees two FBI agents expand criminal science by delving into the psychology of murder. Grading took place on the Baselight X color grading system from FilmLight, alongside editorial and VFX, in Fincher’s Hollywood finishing facility.
In this exclusive interview, Peter Mavromates and Eric Weidt tell us more about how they created the desired look for the series, their collaboration with the director, editorial and VFX, and much more…
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.
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.
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.
“The Mindhunter Album is officially out todaydigitally! 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!”
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)
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.
: 
The Fincher Analyst 