THE CINEMATIC CHAMELEON
I was the kid with the shortest attention span in the history of short attention spans.
So my adult incarnation is more than a bit shocked when I think about some of the films the kid version of me actually sat down and quietly watched. One of them was a black & white British comedy called “Kind Hearts and Coronets.” To be real, the reason I was drawn to the flick was because it stared Alec Guinness, aka Obie Wan Kenobie. When Star Wars was released way back in 1977, I’m pretty sure I went to see it 27 times. So I bet ya dollars to donuts the TV intro bumper for “Kind Hearts and Coronets” mentioned the Star Wars tie-in, just to hook in little bastards like me. It worked.
Still, even just to trip on seeing Obie Wan in a black and white film probably wasn’t enough to keep my attention. There had to be something to keep me tuned in, and that “something” was murder. Those of of you who have seen the film you know that “Kind Hearts” is a dark, dark, dark comedy. From IMDB…
“A distant poor relative of the Duke of D’Ascoyne plots to inherit the title by murdering the eight other heirs who stand ahead of him in the line of succession.”
All eight heirs were played by Alec Guinness. The deaths were fun, creative and hilarious. The murderer, our anti-hero, killed off each incarnation of Guinness with air of arrogance and pomposity. I loved it.
What I didn’t realize at the time was that I was watching the work of a man who decades later would become one of my idols, Douglas Slocombe, BSC. I’d later see his work in “Close Encounters Of The Third Kind,” (the India sequence), “Rollerball,” and finally with all three Indian Jones movies, “Raiders Of The Lost Ark,” “The Temple Of Doom,” and “Indian Jones And The Last Crusade.” The Internet Encyclopedia of Cinematographer describes his “chameleonic.” Where you might be able to spot one cinematographer’s fingerprint from film to film, Slocombe’s style was reborn with each project.
This is why the guy could jump from “Kind Hearts” to “Jesus Christ Superstart” to “The Great Gatsby” to “Rollerball,” all without missing a beat. M’ boy Bruce Lee said it best…
“Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way round or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves. Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water my friend.”
Slocombe’s work is water, and not that shit from the tap.
A couple of weeks ago, I watched “Raiders of the Lost Ark” in IMAX, shot by our boy, Slocombe. It was incredible. Unfortunately the Raiders trilogy would be the last project he would shoot before being forced into retirement. The poor guy went partially blind in left eye thanks to a jeep accident. Then he he lost sight in his right eye, thanks do botched laser surgery, of all things. A cinematographer who no longer had sight, a tragic hero, indeed. “Indian Jones and the Last Crusade” would be his last film.
As of print time, Doublas lives on, 99 years young. He’s a living legend.
If the re-issue of “Raiders” is playing in your town, please go check it out. And when Douglas Slocombe’s credit fills the screen, give a little golf clap or an “atta boy,” or pour a little of your soda down on the floor for him. The dude has earned your respect. Give it to him.
Douglas Slocombe OBE, BSC, ASC.
~
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WHY DAVID FINCHER WANTS TO BURN MY POSTER
Director, David Fincher
In the late 80’s, I use to keep a VHS tape in my deck at the ready to record any of my favorite commercials or music videos that happened to pop onto the screen. Sometimes, I’d just record hours of MTV programming, and then manually edit my selects onto that VHS tape, just so that I could make sure I snagged every frame of the brilliant work.This was decades before youtube and desktop editing. All I had was a Sylvania TV and two cheap VHS decks. There was a lot of shitty drop-out and rolls of hideous static, but it was worth it because that tape was the BOMB.
“Real Love” : Jody Watley : 1989
Directed by David Fincher | Click image to see video.
That precious VHS was a visual mix-tape of the hippest commercials and music videos of the late 80’s and early 90’s. The work ranged from the innovative Levi 501 commercials to music videos by Aerosmith, Madonna and Bobby Brown.
I was later accepted to AFI’s cinematography program and I moved to Los Angeles with my trusty VHS tape in tow. At some point I remember inviting some folks over to chill. As we sprawled about my room chatting, my VHS tape played in the background. After 30 minutes or so, this girl friend of mine finally looked up at the screen and then said, somewhat annoyed…
“Wow, like, you’re all over David Fincher’s jock, huh?”
“Who’s David Fincher?” I asked.
She looked at me like I had ten heads.
“What do you mean, ‘who’s David Fincher’?” she responds. “He directed half of the shit on your tape!”
She snatched the remote from my hand and rewound the tape to the top. She then shuffled forward through the mass of late 80’s/90’s culture, and rattled off Fincher’s name whenever a commercial or music video was credited to him or to the boutique commercial shop he helped found, Propaganda Film.
“Fincher.” Fast Forward. “Fincher.” Fast Forward. Fast Forward. “Propaganda.” Fast forward. “Propaganda.” Fast Forward. Fast Forward. Fast forward. “Fincher”…
This went on as I sat on the corner of my bed, staring at the TV like a slack jawed hick. I had inadvertently created a “Best Of Fincher & Propaganda Films” VHS tape; and I couldn’t believe that one guy, one shop, was responsible for all that unadulterated coolness. Thus my fascination with Fincher and Propaganda was born.
“Freedom! 90” : George Michael : 1990
Directed by David Fincher | Click image to see video.
Before there were David Fincher Fan Sites, before Fincher’s name appeared on a iPad digital slate on Apple commercials, before his first feature film, before anybody outside of Madison Avenue knew who the hell David Fincher was, I was already a student of this dude’s game. Soon after AFI, I snagged a job in the Feature Post Production Department at 20th Century Fox, my first lackey job. One day I was sent down to our vault to snag some supplies with another assistant. There I discovered a stack of conceptual illustrations slathered with Aliens drawings, as in “Ridley Scott/James Cameron” Aliens.
“Alien 3,” she said. “It’s in pre-production. You didn’t know that?”
She then witnessed me lose my shit.
My Alien toys from back in the day. My wife had me put these in storage.
Allow me to back up a bit. The first time I saw “Alien” as a kid is burned in my memory. The TV was in the Family Room, I watched it from the kitchen with the light on because it scared the shit out of me. Alien was also my first porn tape, as I rewound that low angle shot of a panty and t-shirt clad Ripley crawling into her space suit so many times that I’m pretty sure I wore the magnetic stripping off of the tape. Thank you Ridley for the brilliant mise-en-scène. When I finally discovered film, Alien was my jumping off point.
Okay, back to the Fox days… I was stoked that one of the first films I would witness go into production was an Alien sequel, but it got better when the original director dropped out. The other assistant told me that David Fincher would be directing “Alien 3”.
“Yes. THAT David Fincher. He’s directing. Why?” She asked.
She then witnessed me lose my shit, again.
My worlds were colliding and I was at its epicenter. Even though “Alien 3” would be shot largely overseas. I was working at Fox. I had the script, the call sheets, the production reports and the inside dope. And the moment I finally met Fincher in person in Building 58 is only topped by the day I met my fiancée face-to-face (in the very same building, as a matter of fact). It was during production that I became of student of Fincher’s work, as well as his colleagues at Propaganda Film, devouring the ¾ inch directing reels of Fincher, Dominic Sena & Alek Keshishian.
Clever transition from city street to bartender wiping down bar top.
“Bad Girl” : Madonna : 1993 : Directed by David Fincher.
Click image to see video.
Fox and Fincher went through hard times together on Alien 3. It’s now common knowledge that the show was shut down and brought back to Fox for reshoots. One day there was to be a meeting between Fincher and the executives to devise a plan for finishing the film. A Production Executive in my Department knew I was a big fan. So she had me work at a desk butted up next to the conference room door. She promised she would introduce me to him after the meeting, if he were in the mood for such a thing. The meeting finally ended and everybody exited the room looking as if they had gone to hell and back. Nobody looked happy. The executive almost forgot I had been waiting outside, but she kept her promise.
“Oh, David. This is Greg Earls. He’s a big fan of yours.” She said. David shook my hand and responded… “Well, I’m glad somebody at this studio likes me.”
…Big laughs from everybody. Everybody. I’ve been told that this dark humor is vintage Fincher, a trait that I would experience a couple more times. Back in 2000, I survived an apartment fire and one of the only personal possessions to survive was an oversized French language “Alien 3” poster, ironically enough.
My friends, Mike and Mark (both working on Fight Club at the time) begged Fincher to autograph the poster for me, but he refused because he had such a hard time on the film. But they wouldn’t quit… “Come on, man. He lost everything in the fire. You gotta sign it.”
Fincher finally gave in and autograph the sheet. What he wrote has become part of Fox back-lot lore.
Here it is…
“Greg — If only this had been in the house… sigh”
– Fincher
Later, Fincher would direct “Zodiac”. My boy Mark worked with Fincher on this film as well; and again he asked him to autograph a DVD and a one-sheet for me. Mark had an easier time of of it this time around…
“Greg — Please get rid of the Alien poster. Fincher”
“Greg — Now, burn the other one! — Fincher
After Alien 3 was completed, I remember hanging around with some friends, very few of them had anything good to say about Fincher’s directing skills at the time. However I told them confidently … “David Fincher is going to be the next generation of the great American filmmaker. That guy might pick up the mantle from Kubrick and Scorsese someday.” They scoffed, laughed at me actually.
My guess is that most of them figured he’d just go back to selling Coke to the Japanese (see below). Of course he went on to do films like “Se7en” and “Fight Club”, not to mention the fact that he’s nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director this year for “Social Network”. I know, Kevin Costner was nominated for an Oscar (and won) for Directing, too. So, whatever. But I have a feeling that I’ll have more posters from Mr. Fincher, at least on the films that my boy Mark works on; and each will have an autograph imploring me to burn the “Alien 3” poster, as he tops that original humble effort by miles. So here’s my message to David Fincher. If you know him, please pass it on…
Fincher! I ain’t never gonna burn the goddamn “Alien 3” poster, but please, keep trying to convince me, ‘cause I’m diggin’ the show.
And that, as I like to say, is the gist of it.
[Propaganda Films | “Blade Roller” | Client: Coca-Cola | Director: David Fincher]
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