David Fincher is an American film director, producer and music video director known for directing psychological thrillers and mystery films such as Seven (1995), Fight Club (1999), Zodiac (2007), The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011), and Gone Girl (2014). Some of his most well known films are The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008), for which he received his first Academy Award nomination for Best Director, and The Social Network (2010), for which he won the Golden Globe and BAFTA Awards for Best Director. Fincher is also recognized for his signature directorial styles which include the use of single frame inserts, downbeat endings, and silhouetted characters.

1. DAVID
FINCHER

2. KEY FACTS
Born August 28th 1962
American Film Director, Film producer, Television Director
and Music Video Director.
Nominated: Academy Award for Best Director (The Curious
Case of Benjamin Button 2008 and The Social Network 2010)
Won: Golden Globe Award for Best Director and BAFTA
Award for Best Direction
He is also known for having directed the psychological
thrillers Seven (1995), Fight Club (1999), the mystery thrillers
Zodiac (2007) and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) and
Gone Girl (2014), as well as being pivotal in the creation of
the critically acclaimed U.S. television series House of Cards.

3. EARLY LIFE
Born in Denver, Colorado to a mental health nurse from
South Dakota who worked in drug addiction programs, and
Howard Kelly Fincher, an author from Oklahoma who worked
as a reporter and a bureau chief for Life.
From a young age Fincher knew that he wanted to go into
Film Making. During high school he directed plays and
designed sets and lighting after school. He was a non-union
projectionist at a second-run movie theatre, production
assistant at the local television news station KOBI in
Medford, Oregon, and took on other odd jobs such as fry
cook, busboy, and dishwasher.
Fincher began his film making career at just eight years old
with an 8mm camera.

4. INFLUENCES
In an interview with Empire magazine in 2008, Fincher named
the following films as his favourites: Alien (1979), All That
Jazz (1979), All the President's Men (1976), American Graffiti
(1973), Being There (1979), Butch Cassidy and the Sundance
Kid (1969), Cabaret (1972), Chinatown (1974), Citizen Kane
(1941), Days of Heaven (1978), Dr. Strangelove (1964), 8½
(1963), The Exorcist (1973), The Godfather Part II (1974), The
Graduate (1967), Jaws (1975), Lawrence of Arabia (1962), Mad
Max 2 (1981), Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975),
National Lampoon's Animal House (1978), Paper Moon
(1973), Rear Window (1954), Taxi Driver (1976), The
Terminator (1984), The Year of Living Dangerously (1982),
and Zelig (1983).

5. BOX OFFICE
PERFORMANCE

6. TRADEMARK
• [single frame insert] His movies often features several single frames
that flash on the screen in the middle of a scene (Fight Club (1999)).
• His films often end in a suicide, either attempted or successful
• His films often have low-key lighting with green or blue tinted colour
temperature.
• Wide shots
• Downbeat endings
• Stationary shot, unfocused background with character walking into
focus
• Often displays end credits as slide shows (Fight Club, Zodiac, The
Curious Case of Benjamin Button) or scrolling downward (Se7en)
rather than the traditional upward scroll
• [Silhouettes] Frequently has characters in the shadows where you
cannot make out their face (Kevin Spacey in Se7en (1995) and Brad
Pitt in Fight Club (1999)).

7. THE CURIOUS CASE OF
BENJAMIN BUTTON
(2008)
Box Office
Budget: $150,000,000 (estimated)
Opening Weekend: $26,853,816 (USA) (26 December 2008)
Gross: $127,490,802 (USA) (17 April 2009)
Tells the story of Benjamin
Button, a man who starts aging
backwards with bizarre
consequences.

8. THE SOCIAL
NETWORK (2010)
On a fall night in 2003, Harvard undergrad and computer programming genius
Mark Zuckerberg sits down at his computer and heatedly begins working on a
new idea. In a fury of blogging and programming, what begins in his dorm
room soon becomes a global social network and a revolution in
communication. A mere six years and 500 million friends later, Mark
Zuckerberg is the youngest billionaire in history... but for this entrepreneur,
success leads to both personal and legal complications.
From director David Fincher and screenwriter Aaron Sorkin comes The Social
Network, a film that proves you don't get to 500 million friends without making a
few enemies.
The film is produced by Scott Rudin, Dana Brunetti, Michael De Luca, and
Ceán Chaffin and based on the book "The Accidental Billionaires" by Ben
Mezrich.
Box Office
Budget: $40,000,000 (estimated)
Opening Weekend: $22,445,653 (USA) (2 October
2010)
Gross: $96,917,897 (USA) (25 February 2011)

9. GONE GIRL (2014)
Box Office
Budget: $61,000,000 (estimated)
Opening Weekend: $37,513,109 (USA) (3 October 2014)
Gross: $167,735,396 (USA) (6 February 2015)
With his wife's disappearance having become
the focus of an intense media circus, a man
sees the spotlight turned on him when it's
suspected that he may not be innocent.