Directors Statement
Sonia Zelenicka Directs David Fincher
When we first got the introduction to the Directions unit i was so excited, one of my favourite things is to Direct. During my first project i realised that screenwriting wasn't my thing but i still had to give it a go and try, when i then went on to film and direct my own project i loved every minute of it. This project taught me so much of how to be a brilliant director. First thing i realised is that i had to always treat my crew and team nicely, provide them with help and always be positive. If your crew feels like you appreciate their work they will work well with you and make sure that your project ends up perfectly. I absolutely loved to work with my crew and i hope to have them on my other projects. Another thing i really focused on this project was key lighting, we had a few workshops about lighting and now it became one of my favourite things to play around with while filming and also in post-production. It is crazy that lighting can change the mood and atmosphere by just tinting it a different colour, and a lot of my directors i have researched do this with their own movies.
When i realised that i didn't have to write a script from my own mind it put me under ease. I find this the most difficult part of a production. As i chose 'Fight Club' for my feature film i knew that the script would be very detailed about the locations and characters and that was one of the things i needed to really focus on. I wanted my locations to be on point, i got almost every location and almost every character. The script was my base for my production and i adjusted it every day when i hired actors it found my locations because i wanted to adjust it the way that i would like it/direct it. This is what Clint Eastwood usually does with all his scripts.
My casting was very smooth, it was one of my favourite things to do as part of my production. I used casting call pro for my actors and found hundreds of people, there was no limitations. I had many people applying for my roles or i myself started looking for actors and contacting them individually. It is important to a director to find the perfect actor to play your productions characters, i took time to pick my characters and made sure they are perfect for the role. I had a few actors drop out that were perfect, but these things happen, some people cannot make your shoot. But i kept looking and found some great people and had an amazing crew.
The locations were very important to me as i had planned a lot of long shots and mid close ups to establish the location and atmosphere. One thing i find particularly crucial to do as a director is to always show the viewers watching where they are placed and what the mood setting is. All of my locations were easy to find but it was harder to get permission. 1 of my locations was a Hilton Hotel but they did not allow me to film there due to having copyright issues, so i struggled to find a hotel until i reached out to Oakwood Hotel, thankfully they allowed me to have a hotel room for 4 hours. I also wanted a very detailed bar/restaurant to film my beginning scene and i was lucky enough to know someone who works in a Steak House that is beautifully detailed and laid out. In the bar it was hard to get the correct lighting tones and mood settings, but after playing around with the Tungsten lighting and their gels we got the perfect light. Lighting is also one of my key things i find important as a director as well as sound, without two of these things the production is nothing. It took me about 30 minutes to get the perfect lighting but it was worth it because it looks fabulous in post-production. We had trouble to also produce the correct sound as all the locations were quite small and we didn't have a lot of room to move around in, my sound man tried his best to receive almost every single detail of sound but sometimes my actors were too quite or too loud so post-production had to fix it. But these things to me are very important, if i couldn't fix it in post-production it would be worthless. The visual styles of almost every scene were dark toned and grainy due to Fight Club being a dark film. I used Blue/Green gels in almost every scenes to create a gloomy atmospheric feel. When we were filming i was so happy with the outcome of the visual styles and the attention we paid to small details.
My entire production was fantastic and i couldn't have been happier with the outcome. All of my actors helped me with the costumer designs since it was very simple but specific, as i said as a director i like to pay attention to small details. All of my characters had clear costumes designed just for them to match their characters personalities. David Fincher makes sure that all of his characters dress in simple costumes but it makes all the difference. In almost every scene i made sure that the viewers could see every small detail i added to my actors as seen in the picture below, i made sure that Tyler Durden has funky glasses, a cigarette in his mouth and a very colourful hawaiin T-shirt. All of these things add up and explain of what kind of a character i'm trying to portray through the screen. Also the messy hair and stubble facial hair shows exactly what kind of a character we are dealing with. I absolutely loved this shot.
Since i had planned many long shots and mid close ups, i did them for almost every single shot. I experimented with different angles and shadows so i could then choose which one looks better in post-production. I had a great camera operator and he gave me even more ideas of how to film specific shots, if i didn't take his advice and use his shots my film would have come out worse. I also made sure to listen to my entire crew because they might have better ideas then my own and some of them did which was brilliant. I had a almost areal shot in one of my scenes that my camera man came up with and i love it so much, it looks brilliant and adds a great visual style to my project! I really made sure to research how David Fincher films his productions to use some of his own shots.
Post-production is fun for me, i can experiment with colours and shots but also making my production come to life! I find that editing is one of the most difficult part of a production, because you have to pay attention to the detail, correct the colours and make sure that the sound is perfect. It's one thing to film the production but another to put it all together. I needed to add sound effects and change the lighting which was crucial to make sure it looks professional. I had to throw away some shots i filmed, or get rid of some sound because it was disturbed by something.
I have borrowed some books from the library to study on Directing and it helped me a lot with this project, i have also researched key styles of David Fincher.
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