The How: Elements That Push
The transition from novel to film is never an easy one; however in the DVD commentary of the film, David Fincher explains that he wanted to keep the movie true to the novel while only changing smaller things. Basically he wanted to keep the ‘feel’ of Chuck Palahniuk’s writing alive. In total, Fincher shot 1500 rolls of film (3 times the average of a Hollywood movie), 300 scenes, and over 200 locations. David Fincher uses many creative techniques to withhold the novel’s truly unique feel. Fincher describes many of these various techniques as ways to portray “Jack’s” thought process, or as Fincher describes as his “manic dissociative state” or how quickly he thinks. The opening title sequence of the movie includes this theme of Jack’s thought, as the camera seemingly begins within Jack’s brain, Fincher describes this as capturing the fear through nerve impulses. The camera later explodes through a pore in Jack’s face. This animation was created through ‘electron microscope photography’, an L-System originated by a medical illustrator, and a process called ray tracing to create the depth in the brain. Many other scenes attempt to illustrate Jack’s unique thought style through many processes such as CG modelling, animation, compositing, and scanning. Fincher uses cinematic techniques such as angles and transitions to allow for the perception of Jack’s thought to be expressed. Fincher hired Jeff Cronenweth to head the cinematography of this film using a program known as Super 35. Fincher instructed his make-up artists to create many of the characters to have a ‘lurid’ or shiny appearance which he describes to be “A visual metaphor of what (the narrator) is heading into” [Fincher].
Some of the best scenes in the movie include examples of the creative techniques described above, from the beginning of the film in which the camera pans from Jack and Tyler, down through all the levels of the building into the van and across the parkade. This scene was created through a three dimensional composition of nearly 100 photographs. Or the scene in which Jack thinks about the explosion of his apartment the camera becomes the gas once again showing Jack’s truly unique thought process.
Some of the best scenes in the movie include examples of the creative techniques described above, from the beginning of the film in which the camera pans from Jack and Tyler, down through all the levels of the building into the van and across the parkade. This scene was created through a three dimensional composition of nearly 100 photographs. Or the scene in which Jack thinks about the explosion of his apartment the camera becomes the gas once again showing Jack’s truly unique thought process.
During many of the fight scenes in the film the camera is often held stationary in one position, throughout the course of the film the camera makes the transition from stationary to a first-person view of the fighter.
Many scenes in the film are products of influences that have appeared throughout Fincher’s life. Much like Chuck Palahniuk, Fincher uses real-life events to present interesting twists that enhance the film’s plot and characters. For example, Fincher talks about the first ‘cave scene’ in which he draws upon the famous short story The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1939) by James Thurber. Fincher wanted the similar dream-like state or “flights of fantasy” presented by Thurber to appear in this scene as well. A second appearance of Fincher’s real life experiences influencing the film is during Jack’s ‘dream’ sex scene with Marla. Fincher states in the DVD commentary that this scene’s interesting cinematography was influenced by one of the Rolling Stones ‘still camera’ style music videos, and later used in the Matrix film series.
Many scenes in the film are products of influences that have appeared throughout Fincher’s life. Much like Chuck Palahniuk, Fincher uses real-life events to present interesting twists that enhance the film’s plot and characters. For example, Fincher talks about the first ‘cave scene’ in which he draws upon the famous short story The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1939) by James Thurber. Fincher wanted the similar dream-like state or “flights of fantasy” presented by Thurber to appear in this scene as well. A second appearance of Fincher’s real life experiences influencing the film is during Jack’s ‘dream’ sex scene with Marla. Fincher states in the DVD commentary that this scene’s interesting cinematography was influenced by one of the Rolling Stones ‘still camera’ style music videos, and later used in the Matrix film series.
Camera angles play a critical role in developing and directing the perception of the audience. In the novel Chuck Palahniuk is able to convey to the reader the most innate details to the reader without much trouble.
"The film is great. When you consider how much of the convoluted plot is intact, and how many ideas and surprises are presented in such a short time, it's staggering. In the same way I love to use non-fiction forms within fiction, Fincher uses so many brilliant non-entertainment visual forms such as the furniture catalog, the security camera, the television news, to tell the story. He's the master of computer animation, using it in short powerful sequences that never outlast their impact” - Chuck Palahniuk
There are so many options that directors must consider when filming regarding camera angles. Length of shot, close-ups, angles, profiles, point of view; all of these techniques provide director’s with resources necessary to deliver information, impact, and explore hidden motives. While making the transfer to film, David Fincher explains his choices for specific camera angles.
What was your attitude towards the use of CGI to accomplish these impossible camera moves?
[Fincher] To me it was a selfish means to an end. It wasn't about, Oh it would be cool to try something like this. In the book there are these long passages of description about how nitroglycerin gets made, and what could have happened to cause the explosion at the narrator's condo, and we were going, How do we illustrate that? "The police would later tell me the pilot light could have gone out, letting out just a little bit of gas" - but you can't just cut to a stove, you've got to become the gas. I always loved the threatening nature of the telephone in Scorsese's After Hours. Every time the phone rang, the camera rushed right at it as somebody picked it up and you didn't want to find out who was going to be on the other end. Well, if we were talking about how this tea smells, we'd just push in so we knew we were talking about the tea, and show you the steam coming up, and then follow the steam and see that there's other people in the room, and end up on somebody sniffing. There's a way to tell that story as a narrator's telling you that stuff. That's what makes Chuck's writing so funny - there's this cynical, sarcastic overview, and at the same time when he gets into detail about how things are done, it's sort of wonderfully compulsive. Here's something you need to know, here's the recipe for napalm.
It's the visual equivalent of stream of consciousness.
[Fincher] That's it, that's what the movie is, it's a stream of consciousness. And that's the thing that makes it so fun to follow. Because he's just doling out information as he thinks of it. We take the first forty minutes to literally indoctrinate you in this subjective psychotic state, the way he thinks, the way he talks about what's behind the refrigerator, and you go there. He talks about the bomb, and you zip out the window and the camera just drops thirty stories and goes through the sidewalk, into the underground garage, through the bullet-hole in the van and out the side. We take the first forty minutes to [establish], This is what you're gonna see, this is what he's gonna say, those two things are inextricably tied, this one comments on that one. And then we get to a point where we go: Oh yeah - remember where we were taking you and showing you this whole thing? You only saw this much of it- the other side of it is, this is what was going on.
"The film is great. When you consider how much of the convoluted plot is intact, and how many ideas and surprises are presented in such a short time, it's staggering. In the same way I love to use non-fiction forms within fiction, Fincher uses so many brilliant non-entertainment visual forms such as the furniture catalog, the security camera, the television news, to tell the story. He's the master of computer animation, using it in short powerful sequences that never outlast their impact” - Chuck Palahniuk
There are so many options that directors must consider when filming regarding camera angles. Length of shot, close-ups, angles, profiles, point of view; all of these techniques provide director’s with resources necessary to deliver information, impact, and explore hidden motives. While making the transfer to film, David Fincher explains his choices for specific camera angles.
What was your attitude towards the use of CGI to accomplish these impossible camera moves?
[Fincher] To me it was a selfish means to an end. It wasn't about, Oh it would be cool to try something like this. In the book there are these long passages of description about how nitroglycerin gets made, and what could have happened to cause the explosion at the narrator's condo, and we were going, How do we illustrate that? "The police would later tell me the pilot light could have gone out, letting out just a little bit of gas" - but you can't just cut to a stove, you've got to become the gas. I always loved the threatening nature of the telephone in Scorsese's After Hours. Every time the phone rang, the camera rushed right at it as somebody picked it up and you didn't want to find out who was going to be on the other end. Well, if we were talking about how this tea smells, we'd just push in so we knew we were talking about the tea, and show you the steam coming up, and then follow the steam and see that there's other people in the room, and end up on somebody sniffing. There's a way to tell that story as a narrator's telling you that stuff. That's what makes Chuck's writing so funny - there's this cynical, sarcastic overview, and at the same time when he gets into detail about how things are done, it's sort of wonderfully compulsive. Here's something you need to know, here's the recipe for napalm.
It's the visual equivalent of stream of consciousness.
[Fincher] That's it, that's what the movie is, it's a stream of consciousness. And that's the thing that makes it so fun to follow. Because he's just doling out information as he thinks of it. We take the first forty minutes to literally indoctrinate you in this subjective psychotic state, the way he thinks, the way he talks about what's behind the refrigerator, and you go there. He talks about the bomb, and you zip out the window and the camera just drops thirty stories and goes through the sidewalk, into the underground garage, through the bullet-hole in the van and out the side. We take the first forty minutes to [establish], This is what you're gonna see, this is what he's gonna say, those two things are inextricably tied, this one comments on that one. And then we get to a point where we go: Oh yeah - remember where we were taking you and showing you this whole thing? You only saw this much of it- the other side of it is, this is what was going on.
According to David Fincher on his DVD commentary, the idea of having the film literally jump from the gate was a way to convey to viewers the intensity of moment. As Tyler crystallizes his manifesto and begins to develop his philosophy beyond the Fight Clubs and into Project Mayhem, things become so intense that even the celluloid itself can no longer handle or contain the intensity, and therefore it jumps in the projector; it is as if Tyler's words are so powerful and important that they are affecting everything around them, even the film on which the scene is printed.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0137523/faq
Visual abstractions and symbols: visual abstractions and symbolism can provoke much thought and feeling within a reader, director’s must be able to conceptualize a theme through a series of symbols to the viewer. This may seem easier than it actually is, consider the symbol of soap presented throughout both the novel and the film. Although the novel has more scenes in which soap is involved, the scenes in the movie that involve soap must convey the same importance. David Fincher explains some of the difficulties with visual abstractions and symbolism in the film:
What was the thinking behind the opening shot?
[Fincher] We wanted a title sequence that started in the fear center of the brain. [When you hear] the sound of a gun being cocked that's in your mouth, the part of you brain that gets everything going, that realizes that you are fucked - we see all the thought processes, we see the synapses firing, we see the chemical electrical impulses that are the call to arms. And we wanted to sort of follow that out. Because the movie is about thought, it's about how this guy thinks. And it's from his point of view, soley. So I liked the idea of starting a movie from thought, from the beginning of the first fear impulse that went, Oh shit, I'm fucked, how did I get here?
Where did the Ikea catalog scene come from? That was the moment where I knew I'd never seen a movie like this before.
[Fincher] In the book he constantly lists his possessions, and we were like, How do we show that, how do we convey the culmination of his collecting things, and show how hollow and flat and two-dimensional it is? So we were just like, Let's put it in a catalog. So we brought in a motion controlled camera and filmed Edward walking through the set, then filmed the camera pan across the set, then filmed every single set dressing and just slipped them all back together, then used this type program so that it would all pan. It was just the idea of living in this fraudulent idea of happiness. There's this guy who's literally living in this Ikea catalog.
David Fincher explains his idea behind the infamous Ikea/Furni catalogue scene as “the visual representation that we are the bi-product of the armour we select to let people know who we are”.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0137523/faq
Visual abstractions and symbols: visual abstractions and symbolism can provoke much thought and feeling within a reader, director’s must be able to conceptualize a theme through a series of symbols to the viewer. This may seem easier than it actually is, consider the symbol of soap presented throughout both the novel and the film. Although the novel has more scenes in which soap is involved, the scenes in the movie that involve soap must convey the same importance. David Fincher explains some of the difficulties with visual abstractions and symbolism in the film:
What was the thinking behind the opening shot?
[Fincher] We wanted a title sequence that started in the fear center of the brain. [When you hear] the sound of a gun being cocked that's in your mouth, the part of you brain that gets everything going, that realizes that you are fucked - we see all the thought processes, we see the synapses firing, we see the chemical electrical impulses that are the call to arms. And we wanted to sort of follow that out. Because the movie is about thought, it's about how this guy thinks. And it's from his point of view, soley. So I liked the idea of starting a movie from thought, from the beginning of the first fear impulse that went, Oh shit, I'm fucked, how did I get here?
Where did the Ikea catalog scene come from? That was the moment where I knew I'd never seen a movie like this before.
[Fincher] In the book he constantly lists his possessions, and we were like, How do we show that, how do we convey the culmination of his collecting things, and show how hollow and flat and two-dimensional it is? So we were just like, Let's put it in a catalog. So we brought in a motion controlled camera and filmed Edward walking through the set, then filmed the camera pan across the set, then filmed every single set dressing and just slipped them all back together, then used this type program so that it would all pan. It was just the idea of living in this fraudulent idea of happiness. There's this guy who's literally living in this Ikea catalog.
David Fincher explains his idea behind the infamous Ikea/Furni catalogue scene as “the visual representation that we are the bi-product of the armour we select to let people know who we are”.
Music is played in many key scenes within the film. However, most of this music is instrumental perhaps to not take away from the dialogue and instead of having the ability to over power the scene, it instead reinforces the critical moment in the film. Music is often used to promote suspense and anticipation, when songs appear within the film with lyrics it does a tremendous role in developing emotion and importance on the scene. I think the best example of this is in one of the final scenes of the film:
Fincher was concerned that bands experienced in writing film scores would be unable to tie the movie's themes together, so he sought a band which had never recorded for film. He pursued Radiohead, but ultimately chose the breakbeat producing duo Dust Brothers to score the film. The duo created a post-modern score that included drum loops, electronic scratches, and computerized samples. Dust Brothers performer Michael Simpson explained the set-up: "Fincher wanted to break new ground with everything about the movie, and a non-traditional score helped achieve that.”
Contexts: Where, When, Why
The novel Fight Club can be considered as a form of adaptation of
Chuck Palahniuk’s life.
“If you looked bad enough, you could get away with anything and people wouldn’t call you on it.”
The first idea of fight club came to Palahniuk while he was out hiking with his friends. A group of people set up camp right beside them and played loud disco music all night. Palahniuk decided to go over and get them to stop playing their music. This resulted in Palahniuk getting beat up so badly that his face was all black and bruised. When he went back to work the next day he saw that no one would acknowledge it, no one cared to ask him what happened. In fact he realized that people didn’t even want to look him in the face. Palahniuk realized then that if you looked bad enough, you could get away with anything and people wouldn’t call you on it. They just didn’t want to know these bad things about you. That’s when he began to write Fight Club.
“The real question is asked of the audience, will you pursue your dreams... or are you dead already?”
Palahniuk wasn’t always a writer though. He worked at a freightliner for 13 years on the assembly line. The only thing he wrote about during this time was the procedures for vehicle repair and modifications. It wasn’t until he attended a group awareness seminar that he decided to pursue writing. To quote Palahniuk, before I did the seminar, I was convinced the world was out to burn me at every turn. If it wasn’t for that seminar, I wouldn’t be a writer. They taught me to see how closed down I was, to face my fears. Palahniuk then did just that, he went out to face his fears. He had a fear of being poor and homeless so he volunteered at a homeless shelter. After a while he thought to himself that being poor and homeless wasn’t too bad, he could do it if he had to. Palahniuk also had a fear of dying so he volunteered at a hospice. He saw how people died and what they had to go through and he thought that he could do this as well. It was by facing his fears that he was able to become a writer. This became one of the main themes of his book. Palahniuk realized that besides him, many people in society were afraid to pursue doing what they want to do. This paved the way for the rest of his novel. Palahniuk saw that there were many other problems that present day society was facing and the novel then became a means to express his concerns for these problems using his real life experiences.
“We don't have a great war in our generation, or a great depression, but we do, we have a great war of the spirit. We have a great revolution against the culture. The great depression is our lives.”
Palahniuk wanted to reach out to a specific generation of men, a generation in which there was no war to fight, no depression to overcome. In the words of David Fincher, “We're designed to be hunters and we're in a society of shopping. There's nothing to kill anymore, there's nothing to fight, nothing to overcome, nothing to explore. In that societal emasculation this everyman is created.” The generation of men whose fathers and fathers’ fathers were out fighting, leaving the current generation of men with nothing to fight for. These hunters that are left with nothing to hunt have to resort to expending their energy by engaging in consumerism. The masculine tendencies are suppressed in order to find alternate forms of satisfaction in their lives, letting themselves be consumed by consumerism. “We have been raised by women our whole lives, I really don’t think another woman is the answer.” Palahniuk said that he was told 85% of all fiction sells to middle-age women. He wanted to write a book for the men, saying that “there’s a reason men don’t read, and it’s because books don’t serve men.” Palahniuk addresses his novel to these men, “raised without a father in the home and have gone out into the world a bit angry that you can’t talk to that girl at work for fear of sexual harassment.” The men “that has to swallow his pride and shut down his own brain when the boss tells you that you are wrong and you will simply follow orders.” Palahniuk realizes that people are dissatisfied with the way their lives are, and in the novel the people are given an outlet called fight club.
“After a night in fight club, everything in the real world gets the volume turned down. Nothing can piss you off.”
Palahniuk was inspired by his fight during his hiking trip. It was his first time in a fight and he thought that it was a great release. Sure it’s painful, but you live through it and it gives you that release we all need. After that, Palahniuk said he never hesitated to get into fights. In fact he even said “There was a period where I was in fights pretty regularly. My friends never wanted to go out with me, because I was always looking.” Nowadays Palahniuk trains with a fighter a couple times a week. He believes that “everyone wants to be challenged and that everyone would like a good honest fight to exhaust their frustrations.”
“If you looked bad enough, you could get away with anything and people wouldn’t call you on it.”
The first idea of fight club came to Palahniuk while he was out hiking with his friends. A group of people set up camp right beside them and played loud disco music all night. Palahniuk decided to go over and get them to stop playing their music. This resulted in Palahniuk getting beat up so badly that his face was all black and bruised. When he went back to work the next day he saw that no one would acknowledge it, no one cared to ask him what happened. In fact he realized that people didn’t even want to look him in the face. Palahniuk realized then that if you looked bad enough, you could get away with anything and people wouldn’t call you on it. They just didn’t want to know these bad things about you. That’s when he began to write Fight Club.
“The real question is asked of the audience, will you pursue your dreams... or are you dead already?”
Palahniuk wasn’t always a writer though. He worked at a freightliner for 13 years on the assembly line. The only thing he wrote about during this time was the procedures for vehicle repair and modifications. It wasn’t until he attended a group awareness seminar that he decided to pursue writing. To quote Palahniuk, before I did the seminar, I was convinced the world was out to burn me at every turn. If it wasn’t for that seminar, I wouldn’t be a writer. They taught me to see how closed down I was, to face my fears. Palahniuk then did just that, he went out to face his fears. He had a fear of being poor and homeless so he volunteered at a homeless shelter. After a while he thought to himself that being poor and homeless wasn’t too bad, he could do it if he had to. Palahniuk also had a fear of dying so he volunteered at a hospice. He saw how people died and what they had to go through and he thought that he could do this as well. It was by facing his fears that he was able to become a writer. This became one of the main themes of his book. Palahniuk realized that besides him, many people in society were afraid to pursue doing what they want to do. This paved the way for the rest of his novel. Palahniuk saw that there were many other problems that present day society was facing and the novel then became a means to express his concerns for these problems using his real life experiences.
“We don't have a great war in our generation, or a great depression, but we do, we have a great war of the spirit. We have a great revolution against the culture. The great depression is our lives.”
Palahniuk wanted to reach out to a specific generation of men, a generation in which there was no war to fight, no depression to overcome. In the words of David Fincher, “We're designed to be hunters and we're in a society of shopping. There's nothing to kill anymore, there's nothing to fight, nothing to overcome, nothing to explore. In that societal emasculation this everyman is created.” The generation of men whose fathers and fathers’ fathers were out fighting, leaving the current generation of men with nothing to fight for. These hunters that are left with nothing to hunt have to resort to expending their energy by engaging in consumerism. The masculine tendencies are suppressed in order to find alternate forms of satisfaction in their lives, letting themselves be consumed by consumerism. “We have been raised by women our whole lives, I really don’t think another woman is the answer.” Palahniuk said that he was told 85% of all fiction sells to middle-age women. He wanted to write a book for the men, saying that “there’s a reason men don’t read, and it’s because books don’t serve men.” Palahniuk addresses his novel to these men, “raised without a father in the home and have gone out into the world a bit angry that you can’t talk to that girl at work for fear of sexual harassment.” The men “that has to swallow his pride and shut down his own brain when the boss tells you that you are wrong and you will simply follow orders.” Palahniuk realizes that people are dissatisfied with the way their lives are, and in the novel the people are given an outlet called fight club.
“After a night in fight club, everything in the real world gets the volume turned down. Nothing can piss you off.”
Palahniuk was inspired by his fight during his hiking trip. It was his first time in a fight and he thought that it was a great release. Sure it’s painful, but you live through it and it gives you that release we all need. After that, Palahniuk said he never hesitated to get into fights. In fact he even said “There was a period where I was in fights pretty regularly. My friends never wanted to go out with me, because I was always looking.” Nowadays Palahniuk trains with a fighter a couple times a week. He believes that “everyone wants to be challenged and that everyone would like a good honest fight to exhaust their frustrations.”
Thomas Meisner, Eric Cheng, Juno Kim, Spencer Traher
English 227 UBC: Adaptations through Prose
Dr. Erika Paterson
English 227 UBC: Adaptations through Prose
Dr. Erika Paterson
