Cinematography Style: Erik Messerschmidt

INTRODUCTION

Erik Messerschmidt’s visual preferences go a bit against many of his peers. The images he shoots usually don’t feel overly textured, soft or organic - but rather lean on a sharp, precise, crisp, digital, detail oriented look.

This comes from his choice of camera gear, his experience as a technician, the kinds of directors he works with and his reliance on digital post production effects. So, let’s get into how this DP does what he does by unpacking his thoughts and philosophy on photography and looking at what gear he chooses in this episode of Cinematography Style.     

BACKGROUND

Messerschmidt’s entry point into cinematography is an interesting one. After leaving film school and doing a stint of interning at Panavision, he developed a career as a technician, first as a grip and eventually as a gaffer - the head of the lighting department. 

As a gaffer he needed an incredibly strong technical knowledge of lighting gear and what tools he could use to achieve the look that the cinematographer he worked for was after in the best and most efficient way.

This depth of technical knowledge on grips and lighting would later be immensely helpful when he started working more as a director of photography. 

One of the cinematographers he worked for as a gaffer was Jeff Cronenweth - David Fincher’s DP. He worked on Gone Girl as a gaffer, then on Fincher’s next feature project Mank, he got an opportunity to take over as cinematographer.

VISUAL LANGUAGE & REFERENCES

In his work with David Fincher, and indeed with other directors too, such as Michael Mann, or Ridley Scott, he appreciates them approaching projects ahead of time with a clear vision for the film.  

“I like to work with directors that have a real distinct sense for what they want out of their film. It’s nice to come to the table when someone has a real developed passion for their film.”

He takes this direction, ideas, or references from each director he works with and translates that into a visual style which he will then plan and execute using his knowledge and experience as a technician. 

One of the first questions he likes to ask directors as a jumping off point for the visual style is: “What do you want me to look at?”

For Michael Mann on Ferrari this was referencing paintings by Caravaggio, which he used to apply a dark, chiaroscuro style of single source, low key lighting to the interiors.   

For David Fincher on Mank, Messerschmidt compiled a whole book of black and white photography references ranging from noir to more modern monochromatic imagery.

While other Fincher projects he worked on like Mindhunter or The Killer, conformed a bit closer to his usual neutral, off-yellow colour palette.   

“David, he does the prep. He thinks about the film and he develops an idea. I think he had aesthetic sensibilities that he leans towards. We’re lucky in that I often share a lot of the same sensibilities with him. So it makes the conversation really easy for us.”

PERSPECTIVE & CAMERA MOVEMENT

A visual component in Fincher’s movies apart from his purely aesthetic sensibilities, comes from what perspective the camera takes on and how this is informed by the story.

When it comes to perspective and camera movement, more often than not Messerschmidt likes motion to be motivated and for the perspective to be objective.

The movement of the camera will almost always mimic the blocking of the actors. So, if the subject is stationary, then the frame will be locked off and unmoving. When a character does start to move the camera will smoothly track with them and come to a stop again if the character stops.

In this sense, the camera acts as a passive, objective observer - like someone seated across the room watching action unfold.

More often than not the angle of this perspective is also quite neutral.     

Occasionally this language will be broken and the camera will have more of a subjective, noticeable, stylised presence by shooting from either a low angle that looks up at the subject or from a high angle that looks down on them. Another time this subjective perspective comes in is for very specific moments where they decide to shoot with a handheld camera.

Because Messerschmit errs so much on the side of objectivity, when the camera does break into a more subjective language it is all the more noticeable and effective.

For example, when in The Killer the camera language changes from its very clinical, objective, locked off frames when the subject is in full control of the situation to a more frenetic, subjective, handheld language when things stop going according to plan.  

POST PRODUCTION

Many of the cinematographer's whose work I’ve covered on this channel enjoy achieving their photography practically in camera wherever possible - using different filters in front of the lens to alter the image, operating cameras with their own handheld touch, or pushing to shoot effects practically whenever possible.

Messerschmidt doesn’t share this same nostalgia for in-camera photography. Again, this aligns with Fincher’s taste and style of working - which incorporates a large amount of visual effects and image manipulation in post production.

He’ll often shoot interiors inside a carefully constructed set in a studio with greenscreens set up outside the windows - which will later be keyed out and replaced by plate shots which they film ahead of time in the real world.

Another example of post production image manipulation is how they created a feeling of handheld movement for a fight scene in The Killer completely artificially - by filming the footage with a stabilised movement and then, counter-intuitively, de-stabilising it in post.

“There’s actually only one or two actual, truly handheld shots in that sequence. Everything else has been post de-stabilised. We thought it would be interesting to play with the pace of the shake throughout the fight and that’s a very difficult thing to orchestrate practically when the camera is on your shoulder. It’s the most I’ve been involved in post-production on any film I’ve done.”

LENSES

Another piece of visual effects work that he often uses with Fincher is to create lens flares artificially in post. There is an interesting inconsistency here between the lenses he likes shooting with and the fake flares.

Messerschmidt stays away from anamorphic lenses by exclusively shooting his long form work and much of his short form content too with spherical lenses. Spherical lenses produce more rounded flares and anamorphic lenses produce horizontal flares. 

In his work with Fincher they shoot with spherical lenses, but overlay fake anamorphic flares in post-production, creating a contradictory combination of spherical bokeh and anamorphic flares.

Remember when I mentioned the importance of perspective in his work, well, a tool he uses to control this, as well as what information is in the frame comes from his selection of focal lengths.

Telephoto focal lengths magnify and compress frames, while wide angles expand and distort images. The way these lens choices control information can be as simple as using longer glass to isolate single characters, while using wide angle lenses to incorporate more characters in frames in tight spaces.

However, these decisions also affect what background information other than the characters are given to audiences. Shooting wides with everything in focus that establish the world of the film which audience’s can peruse, or latching the perspective onto a single object by shooting it close with a shallow depth of field.  

CAMERAS

When it comes to choosing cameras and lenses there are three common denominators he often lands on: one, a Red cinema camera, two, Leica Summilux-C primes and three, a Fujinon zoom lens. 

He’s used this same camera package on numerous projects, although he has also recently used the Venice 2 and Panavision Panaspeed primes. 

His attraction for this consistent gear selection may be based on his preference for sharp, modern, ergonomic lenses, and a camera that revolves clean images, has a high dynamic range and records at resolutions high enough to aid post-production visual effects and stabilisation. 

To do this he’ll usually shoot at a high resolution such as in 6K 17:9 mode, then apply frame lines with a centre crop around 17% which he will use to frame the film. This leaves room on the edges of each shot which can later be used for stabilisation or to aid visual effects work in post if necessary. 

He isn’t precious about the ‘look’ of the digital cinema camera that he shoots on, as a good colourist will be able to get the footage to the look that he and the director are after.

He prefers to shoot the negative clean, without any diffusion or effects filters in front of the lens. Then, if he wishes to add a diffusion effect it can be introduced in post - such as this heavy Pro-Mist effect which blooms the highlights and was achieved artificially with a plugin for Da Vinci Resolve called Scatter. 

GRIPS

To more quickly get coverage and be able to consistently cut action or even dialogue scenes together from a single take he’ll often use multiple cameras. 

A setup he likes to use for walk and talks is to rig a Ronin 2 gimbal or an M7 Evo stabilised remote head onto a dolly. That way his dolly grip can more accurately control the pace and stops and starts of the lighter dolly without an operator sitting aboard it, while his operator can use wheels to very precisely and remotely operate how the camera tilts and pans.

LIGHTING   

His interior lighting is usually motivated by real life sources. He especially likes pushing a strong 18K HMI key light in through windows - which he softens with frames of diffusion. 

Then, with the production designer and director, they will decide on the placement of practical sources inside the room - which he can use to fill in the actors. 

A trick he uses to maintain some detail in the shadows when he lights with a strong key light and sometimes no fill light, is to pump in some smoke or haze onto the set.

Light striking haze lifts the amount of detail that can be seen, so that shadows don’t completely get crushed to black, and simultaneously gives the source's shape - allowing beams of light to be picked up by the camera.