Erik Messerschmidt

Made films the shows talk about.

Counted as cinematographer. The films the hosts said they shot, which the two lists below run through too: Mindhunter (2017); Mank (2020); Ferrari (2023); The Killer (2023); Mindhunter (TV). Count them as craft (1 film) instead.

Draws on

What the speakers say they, or a film of theirs, drew on. Each is a speaker's account: “the maker said so” when they report the maker's own words, “the host's read” when the read is theirs.

The Killer (graphic novel) (1998): 3 lines

  1. lineage (adaptation) · through The Killer (2023), which they shot: The Killer (graphic novel) ⇒ The Killer (the maker said so: interviews (Fincher 'gave some interviewers')). Fincher told interviewers he was adapting a French graphic novel about an assassin that he had always liked.
    “he gave some interviewers, like, we're working on this Chinatown thing, and then he was like, I'm also playing with adapting this French graphic novel about the assassin that I've always liked.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · The Killer with Marie Bardi (Ad-Free) · 0:27:27 · unknown (host) (0.30 sure it was them)
  2. lineage (adaptation scope) · through The Killer (2023), which they shot: The Killer (graphic novel) ⇒ The Killer (the host's read). The film takes almost everything from the first 200-odd pages of the comic; the series ran on to 2018.
    “it feels like everything from the movie is basically taken from the 1st 200 some odd pages”
    Blank Check — Patreon · The Killer with Marie Bardi (Ad-Free) · 0:12:09 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
  3. unmapped (adapted from) · through The Killer (2023), which they shot: The Killer (graphic novel) ⇒ The Killer (the host's read). Paramount acquired the graphic novel in 2007; the film is Fincher's latest.
    “In 2007, Paramount acquires the rights to some little graphic novel called The Killer.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · The Social Network (Ad-Free) · 0:18:42 · David Sims (0.50 sure it was them)

Citizen Kane (1941): 2 lines

  1. lineage (visual influence) · through Mank (2020), which they shot: Citizen Kane ⇒ Mank (the maker said so: David's interview with cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt). Messerschmidt told the interviewer he wanted low, deep-focus photography evoking Citizen Kane, not noir.
    “He's like, no, I want to do it low to the ground, lots of deep focus, evoking citizen Kane.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Mank with Sean Fennessey (Ad-Free) · 1:13:08 · David Sims (0.80 sure it was them)
  2. lineage (subject / source) · through Mank (2020), which they shot: Citizen Kane ⇒ Mank (the host's read). Mank is partly inspired by Pauline Kael's essay on who truly authored Citizen Kane.
    “it's in part inspired by that very famous Pauline Kale, story raising Kane, about the true authorship of Citizen Kane”
    The Big Picture · Emergency Mailbag: The Oscars Are Streaming and Hollywood Is Fighting Over Trolls | The Big Picture · 0:58:09 · Sean Fennessey (0.55 sure it was them)

Andrew Kevin Walker: 1 line

  1. unmapped (idea credit) · through The Killer (2023), which they shot: Andrew Kevin Walker ⇒ The Killer (the maker said so). Fincher credits Walker with the contemporary consumerist and technology angle of the film.
    “Walker with the sort of like contemporary consumerist angle that this movie has, right?”
    Blank Check — Patreon · The Killer with Marie Bardi (Ad-Free) · 0:47:20 · unknown (host) (0.30 sure it was them)

Brock Yates: 1 line

  1. lineage (lineage) · through Ferrari (2023), which they shot: Brock Yates ⇒ Ferrari (the host's read). Ferrari adapts the Brock Yates book on Enzo Ferrari.
    “by Brock Yates”
    The Big Picture · ‘Ferrari’ and Top Five Michael Mann Movies · 0:05:18 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)

Haywire (2011): 1 line

  1. people (casting origin) · through The Killer (2023), which they shot: Haywire ⇒ The Killer (the maker said so: the Q and A at the screening). Fincher cited Haywire, with Prometheus, as the Fassbender movies that made him cast him.
    “He said it was Prometheus and Haywire, which makes sense.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · The Killer with Marie Bardi (Ad-Free) · 1:17:06 · David Sims (0.55 sure it was them)

Jack Fincher: 1 line

  1. lineage (script origin) · through Mank (2020), which they shot: Jack Fincher ⇒ Mank (the maker said so: Fincher's own account as read from the dossier (outlet not named)). Fincher's father wrote the original Mank script, which David set aside until years later.
    “I'm handed this script that my dad wrote about all powerful directors ruining storytelling”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Mank with Sean Fennessey (Ad-Free) · 0:48:09 · Griffin Newman (0.60 sure it was them)

Jean-Pierre Melville: 1 line

  1. theme (genre ancestry) · through The Killer (2023), which they shot: Jean-Pierre Melville ⇒ The Killer (the host's read). The sparse expressionless killer film riffs on Melville, Kurosawa samurai movies and Walter Hill's The Driver.
    “This is a Melville movie, this is a Curasawa samurai movie. This is all that stuff, right? This is the Walter Hill, the driver movie.”
    The Big Picture · ‘The Killer’ Is Cold-Blooded Genius. And Something More · 1:08:14 · Sean Fennessey (0.70 sure it was them)

Prometheus (2012): 1 line

  1. people (casting origin) · through The Killer (2023), which they shot: Prometheus ⇒ The Killer (the maker said so: the Q and A at the screening). Fincher said at the Q&A that seeing Prometheus made him note Fassbender as a good sociopath for later.
    “I go to see Prometheus and I go, hmm, sociopath.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · The Killer with Marie Bardi (Ad-Free) · 0:31:01 · David Sims (0.55 sure it was them)

Rear Window (1954): 1 line

  1. lineage (homage) · through The Killer (2023), which they shot: Rear Window ⇒ The Killer (the host's read). The Paris hit sequence is a clear homage built on watching rooms across the street.
    “it is a kind of rear window monkey. You know, it is like an attempt to recreate the across the street path, vision of what is happening in rooms in another building, and clear homage to that film.”
    The Big Picture · ‘The Killer’ Is Cold-Blooded Genius. And Something More · 0:20:19 · Sean Fennessey (0.70 sure it was them)

The Cable Guy (1996): 1 line

  1. lineage (callback joke) · through The Killer (2023), which they shot: The Cable Guy ⇒ The Killer (the host's read). The TV-character aliases gag was already a joke in The Cable Guy (50s characters there, 70s and 80s here).
    “that was a joke of the cable guy just to give credit where it's to.”
    The Big Picture · ‘The Killer’ Is Cold-Blooded Genius. And Something More · 1:22:52 · Adam Nayman (0.70 sure it was them)

The Lost Weekend (1945): 1 line

  1. craft (visual echo) · through Mank (2020), which they shot: The Lost Weekend ⇒ Mank (the host's read). The election-night drunk sequence in Mank is called self-consciously reminiscent of The Lost Weekend.
    “almost self-consciously reminiscent of the last the lost weekend”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Mank with Sean Fennessey (Ad-Free) · 2:03:48 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)

Drawn on by

What the speakers say drew on them or a film of theirs, marked the same way.

Jackie Brown (1997): 1 line

  1. lineage (lineage) · through The Killer (2023), which they shot: The Killer ⇒ Jackie Brown (the host's read). Jackie Brown has a monologue about The Killer, showing Woo's aesthetic was known to Western audiences.
    “Jackie Brown has a whole monologue about the killer.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 0:33:35 · David Sims (0.35 sure it was them)

What the speakers said they did

Photography (10) everyone in photography

Craft (1) everyone in craft

What was said about them, by kind

people (2)

  1. people (people): David Fincher → Erik Messerschmidt. Messerschmidt, with Baxter and Walker, is credited as essential to what Fincher's movies are.
    “these movies are not what they are without Kirk Baxter and and Eric Mezerschmidt and Andrew Kevin Walker”
    The Big Picture · ‘The Killer’ Is Cold-Blooded Genius. And Something More · 0:17:39 · Chris Ryan (0.50 sure it was them)
  2. people (shared crew): Erik Messerschmidt → David Fincher. Messerschmidt shot Mindhunter and then Mank, his first Fincher feature.
    “It's the 1st time he's working with Venture film wise.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Mank with Sean Fennessey (Ad-Free) · 1:12:44 · David Sims (0.60 sure it was them)

unmapped (3)

  1. unmapped (recommended viewing): Le Samouraï → Erik Messerschmidt. The cinematographer was recommended Le Samouraï to watch (Fincher is named as having mentioned it).
    “was recommended to watch a little film called La Samurai.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · The Killer with Marie Bardi (Ad-Free) · 0:59:50 · unknown (host) (0.30 sure it was them)
  2. unmapped (gaffer to DP): Erik Messerschmidt → Ferrari. Gone Girl's gaffer is now the director of photography on Ferrari (and Mindhunter, Mank, The Killer).
    “He also is now the DP on Michael Mans Ferrari.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Gone Girl with Esther Zuckerman (Ad-Free) · 2:43:35 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
  3. unmapped (hired a lighting mind): Michael Mann → Erik Messerschmidt. Mann told the speaker he likes Messerschmidt because he was a gaffer and cinematography is lighting.
    “And he was like, you know why I like that guy because he was a gaffer. And to me, cinematography is all lighting and no one understands lighting anymore.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Gone Girl with Esther Zuckerman (Ad-Free) · 2:43:43 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)

Fun items about them

  1. fun, about Erik Messerschmidt: Michael Mann told the speaker he likes Messerschmidt (Gone Girl's gaffer, now DP on Ferrari) because cinematography is all lighting.
    “to me, cinematography is all lighting and no one understands lighting anymore.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Gone Girl with Esther Zuckerman (Ad-Free) · 2:43:46 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)