SAG-AFTRA Foundation (YouTube)
December 4, 2017
Q&A with Jonathan Groff of MINDHUNTER.
How do we get ahead of crazy if we don’t know how crazy thinks? In MINDHUNTER, FBI agents Holden Ford (Jonathan Groff) and Bill Tench (Holt McCallany) study the damaged psyches of serial killers in an attempt to understand and catch them, and in the process pioneer the development of modern serial killer profiling. The series launched globally October 13 on Netflix.
Premiere Pro Screenshot of Mindhunter Episode 1
Steve Hullfish
December 21, 2017
ProVideo Coalition
Mindhunter is one of those binge-able shows that has people talking. I spent a few days last summer at the Fincher production facility in LA where the show is cut and met one of the show’s editors, Tyler Nelson. One of the other editors on the series is Oscar-winner, Kirk Baxter, ACE, whom I interviewed previously for his work on Gone Girl. Both Gone Girl and Mindhunter were edited in Premiere Pro. (I was not able to talk to the third editor on the series, Byron Smith, who also cut the Netflix series, Altered Carbon.)
Kirk’s filmography includes numerous collaborations with director David Fincher. He was the additional editor on Zodiac. He also edited Fincher’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Social Network, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Gone Girl. He won back to back Oscars for Social Network and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. He also cut episodes of Fincher’s House of Cards.
Tyler Nelson recently cut the feature Rememory, and was the assistant editor on Gone Girl, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Social Network and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. He was also an assistant editor on House of Cards and The Good Wife.
This installment of Art of the Cut is a little different. I spoke to Kirk and Tyler separately about specific episodes of Mindhunter. Kirk spoke only about his work on Episode 10, the season finale. Tyler talked about several episodes that he cut from earlier in the season, so we’ll start with Tyler’s interview and then move to Kirk’s.
The series is available on Netflix and it may be useful to check out Episode 2, 3 and 10 prior to the interview… or cue them up as you’re reading! The series has been renewed for season 2.
Cannes, 2004
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.
A nice occasion to revisit it, read his interviews to A-list actors and filmmakers, specially the essential David Fincher set visits and career interviews for Total Film and Empire magazines, from Zodiac to Mindhunter, plus a retrospective piece on Fight Club (all fully available in PDF), watch the trailers for his short films, praised by Fincher and Mark Romanek themselves, and rejoice at the announcement that he is co-writing a TV series and developing the thriller Packaged, as co-writer and director, with executive producer… David Fincher.
Bricks (Short Film, 2015)
Migdalia Melendez
December 21, 2017
Screen Rant
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.
Late Night with Seth Meyers (YouTube)
December 19, 2017
DP/30: The Oral History Of Hollywood (YouTube)
December 21, 2017
Jason Hill
Instagram
: Mindhunter (A Netflix Original Series Soundtrack)
And at the top digital music platforms.
Kyle Kohner
November 9, 2017
RIFF Magazine
Kyle Kohner
November 15, 2017
RIFF Magazine
Matt Thrift
November 12, 2017
Little White Lies
The alchemist behind Fight Club and Zodiac discusses his newest true crime saga, the Netflix Original series MINDHUNTER.
Netflix has come a long way since the launch of its flagship in-house production, House of Cards back in 2013. The first two episodes of that landmark series saw one of American cinema’s most fastidious craftsmen make his first foray into television. Now David Fincher is back and doubling down, helming four episodes of 2017’s most anticipated binge-fest, an adaptation of the memoir by FBI agent John Douglas, the criminal profiler who served as inspiration for Jack Crawford in Thomas Harris’ bestseller, ‘The Silence of the Lambs’. Fincher gave us a call for an epic conversation about all things MINDHUNTER.
Netflix’s newest crime drama series is the culmination of a career-long obsession for the director.
Brogan Morris
October 22, 2017
Little White Lies
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.
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.
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)
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 Fincher Analyst 