Music Video Director - David Fincher

Fact File
Name: David Andrew Leo Fincher
Age: 52 (2014)
Born in: Denver, Colorado, United States of America
Date of Birth: August 28th 1962
Height: 6'0"
Occupation: Film Producer, Film and Music Video Director

His Career
In early life, David Fincher moved to ashland in Oregon, where he started making short movies with his 8mm camera at the age of just 8, inspired by the works of 1969 classic Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Fincher was later employed by Korty films, then Industrial Light & Magic, where he worked on a number of films like Return of the Jedi and Indiana Jones and the temple of doom. His big break came when he created a commercial for the American Cancer society, featuring a smoking fetus, which soon caught the eye producers in Los Angeles who gave David Fincher the opportunity to direct The beat of the Live Drum in 1985. From this point onward he went to make commercials for the likes of Pepsi, Levi's, Nike, and also went on to explore the world of directing music videos. Fincher is a critically acclaimed music video director, picking up two grammy awards for best music video and three MTV awards for best music video director. Now recognised as an established and highly regarded music video director, he has worked with internationally popular artists such as Madonna, Justin Timberlake and Michael Jackson. Amongst the vast collection of popular films he has directed, David Fincher has joined the likes of Spike Jonze to become one of the most awarded music video directors of all time.

His Work
David Fincher has worked with a variety of renowned artists. Below is a shortlist of some of songs he has directed music videos to.

• "The Way That You Love Me"  -  Paula Abdul   (1988)
• "Straight Up"  -  Paula Abdul   (1989)
• "Forever Your Girl"  -  Paula Abdul   (1989)
• "Cold Hearted"  -  Paula Abdul   (1989)   
• "Express Yourself"  -  Madonna   (1989)
• "Oh Father"  -  Madonna   (1989)
• "Vogue"  -  Madonna   (1990)
• "Bad Girl"  -  Madonna   (1993)
• "Janie's Got a Gun"  -  Aerosmith   (1989)
• "Freedom '90"  -  George Michael   (1990)
• "Who Is It?"  -  Michael Jackson   (1992)
• "Love Is Strong"  -  The Rolling Stones   (1994)
• "Suit & Tie"  -  Justin Timberlake and Jay-Z   (2013)

His Style

Despite focussing on David Fincher's filming styles in direxting movies, tge following video lists some of his most iconic directing styles that are very relevant and visible in his music videos too.

 

His Influence on the industry
David Fincher has made a huge impact on both the film and music video industry with his crittically acclaimed award winning directing. Winning 55 awards and 53 nominations including 2 oscars. This is just a small sample of the level of impact he has and still is making on the music video scene. Iconic music videoas like Maddonas Vogue has set the standard for music videos and music video directing, which has been set extrodinarily high by David Fincher. I can take plenty of inspiration from his variety of his expertly crafted work being one of the worlds best directors.