2016. The “Hydra” 1.0 (Patrick Harbron / Netflix)
Tag: Cameras
The Beauty of Large Format 8K
DXL Channel (vimeo)
December 20, 2017
Presented live at Camerimage 2017, this provocative presentation examines the psychology, physiology, and physical relationships between resolution and sharpness. Panavision and Light Iron experts Michael Cioni, Dan Sasaki, and Ian Vertovec present a fresh perspective on how the pursuit of cinematic smoothness is tied to the race for resolution.
Netflix Delivers a Killer Serial Killer Series: Production on David Fincher’s ‘Mindhunter’
In addition to serving as co-executive producer for Mindhunter, Fincher directed four hours of the 10-episode season.
By: Kevin H. Martin
10/26/2017
Creative Planet Network / Digital Video Magazine
The first masterpiece from filmmaker David Fincher was his feature film Se7en, a procedural featuring one of the most memorable serial killers ever committed to celluloid. Ten years ago he returned this dark territory with Zodiac, an adaptation of the true-life case involving a still-unknown killer who struck repeatedly throughout the San Francisco Bay area. In the years since, Fincher helped launch House of Cards (an adaptation of the successful UK series) for Netflix. He comes back to the crime investigation genre with Mindhunter, a 10-part streaming series that launched on Netflix on Oct. 13.
[…]
In addition to serving as co-executive producer for Mindhunter, Fincher directed four hours of the 10-episode season, with Christopher Probst shooting the pilot installment. The other directors were Asif Kapadia, Tobias Lindholm and Andrew Douglas.
Cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt shot part of episode two, along with the remaining eight episodes. Messerschmidt had served as gaffer on Fincher’s most recent feature, Gone Girl. He pulled double duty on this fall’s Granite Mountain, gaffing and shooting 2nd unit—the latter a duty he performed for next year’s Sicario follow-up, Soldado, as well. “Fincher was very involved in the process, which is to be expected. He was there every day,” Messerschmidt says.
Patrick Harbron / Netflix
Crime Scenes: Evolving the Postproduction Process on ‘Mindhunter’
I recently spoke with Tyler Nelson, one of the four series editors, who was given the opportunity to move from the assistant chair to that of a primary editor on ‘Mindhunter.’
By: Oliver Peters
10/26/2017
Creative Planet Network / Digital Video Magazine
DP Erik Messerschmidt on Shooting Netflix’s Mindhunter with a Custom Red Xenomorph
Matt Mulcahey
October 26, 2017
Filmmaker
When mere mortals gear up for a job, they are restricted to selecting cameras currently in existence. Not David Fincher.
Fincher has long hated all the gak required to make a digital cinema camera functional: a wireless transmitter to get signal to video village, the add-ons to provide wireless iris and focus control, the assistant camera’s onboard monitor hanging off the side — all the things that turn a small, lightweight camera body into a labyrinth of cables and breakout boxes.
Red Digital Cinema responded by making Fincher his own set of custom Weapon Red Dragons for use on the new Netflix series Mindhunter—each with the features listed above built into an ergonomically friendly camera christened the Xenomorph. Put a lens on the front and a battery on the back and the Xenomorph is ready to rock and roll.
On Mindhunter, cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt reaped the benefits of that smaller camera footprint. Messerschmidt spoke to Filmmaker about his work on the new series, which follows the fictionalized story of the agents (Jonathan Groff’s Holden Ford and Holt McCallany’s Bill Tench) who started the FBI’s psychological profiling program in the 1970s by interviewing incarcerated serial killers.
![2017-09-22 Alison Leigh Evans (Instagram) - Mindhunter Camera Department Xmas Decorations [EDIT]](https://thefincheranalyst.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/2017-09-22-alison-leigh-evans-instagram-mindhunter-camera-department-xmas-decorations-edit.jpg)
Mindhunter Camera Department Xmas Decorations (Alison Leigh Evans, Instagram)
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
A little behind the scenes teaser for Mindhunter
The Mindhunter Plate Van Ready for Action
The Ultimate Plate Van for MINDHUNTER
From Jarred Land (Facebook) with Matthew Tremblay (Facebook), and Christopher Probst (Instagram)
Christopher Probst: “The idea behind the setup is, 11-12 cameras are rolled simultaneously covering all pre-determined angles, focal lengths, heights and degrees of tilt that will be shot of the actors in the corresponding picture car on our custom greenscreen process stage.”
Jarred Land (President at RED):
David Fincher‘s insane Plate Van for Mindhunter. 11 Epic Dragons on Global Dynamics United Tilt Plates all triggered by one detonator. Great Design Colab between Fincher, Myself and Christopher Probst.
All things considered, this wasn’t actually as expensive as it would seem.
I had a bunch of the 80/20 extrusions left over from previous projects and those Black Magic monitors I bought for super cheap online. My engineers built the 11 camera trigger out of a left over battery shell for about $40 in parts.
The initial design process was super efficient because 80/20 has plugins for SolidWorks so Fincher and I spent a lot of time on the computer pre-visualizing everything and we could figure out the weak links very quickly before we even had the van.
The GDU low profile bombproof tilt plates which Fincher, Matthew Tremblay and I designed we built just for this (which became the GDU tilt plates) seemed exotic but was actually way more cost effective than buying or renting dutch or tango heads that were expensive and not really made for what we were using them for. Remember this is a multi-year show so they actually are saving a ton of money designing it and building it rather than just renting everything for such a long period of time… it likely has already paid for itself.
This is just the prototype of something Fincher and I have been working on for a few years now and it’s going to get way way more badass as time goes on.
Patrick Harbron / Netflix
Christopher Probst:
Click to enlarge and read descriptions
It has mutated and spawned…
Has the “Xenomorph” mutated?
Last year, RED built a fully customised camera for David Fincher to shoot his upcoming series “Mindhunter” for Netflix:
David Fincher’s Custom RED Xenomorph for Netflix’s “Mindhunter”
by Richard Lackey | 6th May 2016
Cinema5D
Has it mutated?:
The Fincher Analyst 