Week 9

In week 9, we discussed the idea of consistency in cinema relating to coverage. Audiences are willing to accept the world the director gives them if the world appears consistent. And this constancy moves across, into the way the director approaches coverage. The idea that the way you cover your scene can have a huge effect on the tone and pace of the film is something I never really thought about. However, I definitely think it’s true. When reflecting on good films, consistency in coverage does have a massive impact on the way things are perceived by Audiences.

A favourite Director of mine, David Fincher, is very consistent in his coverage across all of his films. As his style of coverage has very much become his signature. Fincher is very particular about his coverage, very mechanical and very purposeful. His ideas come across very well on screen and, I believe, really help the tone and pace of his films. All of Fincher’s films have very a consistent tone and pace, and this usually makes Fincher’s work easy to spot. I think a lot of his tone comes down to camera coverage and movement. For Example, He will rarely use close ups, and will only use them when something is important. Because audiences subconsciously or not, will recognise everything in a closeup as important. A quote I like from Fincher is “They know you can do anything, so the question is what don’t you do. Not what do you do”. This is very reflective of his coverage and his coverage decisions. And it’s his consistent decisions about his coverage that create a consistent tone and pace in his films. However, when being inconsistent about coverage, make sure you’re doing it with a good purpose.