Iconic Music Video Directors

Whilst very well known for his feature films, before his career as a film maker, David Fincher homed his skills as a music video director. David Fincher understood two basic things about music videos and it was that they are ultimately promotional material, showcasing the artist and the song. This is the reason why he chose to do a lot of pop music videos such as Vogue by Madonna. To emphasise this sense of promotion, he tended to shy away from shorter cuts and payed huge attention to detail, making the cuts and the characters in the shots have an impact because attention was payed to the music acutely.

Prior to this shot, there were a lot of ways in which David Fincher directed this video to fit with the music perfectly. The black and white colour scheme compliments the tone of the synths that are playing and the two superimposed images work well together, not only as long shots but also as a good editing technique that again, fits in with the tone of the introduction. In the still, it is depicted of a man who is doing some kind of dance gesture. This works well because when he does this, he actually does it to the beat of the song, emphasising this attention to detail which is not used so much in modern pop songs.

This shot is also very effective within a music video because of the fact that David Fincher chose to use long shots to define what the mega pop star does best. It's these types of shots that fit well with her image, portraying her as choreographed dancing. He focuses his shots and cuts around the dancing as to not demean the singer. Fincher knows the blend between what looks good and what is showing off, giving the right amount of time for the singer to do what looks good on screen. David Fincher also does this in another music video, Suit and Tie by Justin Timberlake, giving him lots of screen time as well to show off his choreography.