David Fincher: "And the Other Way is Wrong"

David Fincher is, without a doubt, one of the finest, most visually precise of all living American filmmakers. With his marvelously twisty -- and twisted -- new film Gone Girl just out, editor Tony Zhou -- who's previously broken down the style of other directors like Edgar Wright and Michael Bay -- has put together this terrific, illuminating look at Fincher and what he does (or more so, doesn't do) in his work. If you haven't seen the bulk of Fincher's films, spoilers follow, so approach at your own peril.

Breaking Down "Bayhem"

Is there currently a more widely lambasted director on this planet than Michael Bay? Though critics softened slightly for his last film, the dark true-crime comedy Pain and Gain, the knives are out once again -- perhaps even sharper than before -- with the release of Transformers: Age of Extinction, the fourth entry in the blockbuster franchise that has continued to stuff Bay's pockets with ridiculous amounts of moolah. So is there anything more to Bay than what we already know, i.e. fast cuts, sexy chicks and explosions? In this video essay, Tony Zhou incisively analyses what makes Bay, essentially Bay, and love or hate him, there's no question that the man's a step above the the blander, hack-ier likes of McG or Brett Ratner, at least on an aesthetic level:
Meanwhile, the critical mauling of Age of Extinction has been so bad that talk show host Jimmy Kimmel decided to get a few critics together to say something nice about Bay:

Anatomy of a Trailer

By now moviegoers should be familiar with the generally hyperbolic audio-visual sensation offered by modern Hollywood trailers (i.e. increasingly fast-cutting of money shots set to loud booming music). But if you really want to get into the details of trailer analysis, New York Times have taken it a step further by breaking down the trailers for 5 of this year's 9 Best Picture Nominees into cleverly devised interactive graphs that show shot length and exactly where in the movie the clips are taken from. You can see some fascinating patterns emerging from the different approaches. Click here to read more. Very cool stuff.

Paul Thomas Anderson's Career in Five Steadicam Shots

For those film geeks out there who like picking apart shot construction etc, here's an excellent analysis of how Paul Thomas Anderson's camerawork, in particular his use of the Steadicam, has evolved over his first five films: Hard Eight, Boogie Nights, Magnolia, Punch-Drunk Love and There Will Be Blood. We see a masterful director very much in command of film language, but one who's gradually refined and toned down his showy style for a subtler approach without losing its impact nor ambitiousness. Anderson's highly anticipated The Master will be released in NZ on 17th January from Roadshow (no 70mm screenings doh!).