Cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt began his acclaimed collaboration with iconic director David Fincher as a gaffer on Fincher’s 2014 thriller Gone Girl. That initial introduction led to Messerschmidt lensing 16 episodes of the acclaimed Netflix crime drama Mindhunter for which he received an Primetime Emmy Award nomination. That close collaborative relationship with Fincher then morphed into Messerschmidt’s breakout moment as a celebrated cinematographer, his Oscar-winning lensing of Fincher’s 2020 Mank. His black-and-white cinematography not only echoed Gregg Toland’s Oscar-nominated work on Citizen Kane, but it also fully immersed viewers in 1940s cinema, a goal for the film that Messerschmidt shared with other Mank artisans.
Now, Messerschmidt again collaborates with Fincher on an entirely different project, Netflix’s The Killer. The film thrusts both artists into a modern day world of a hired assassin (Michael Fassbender) as he botches a hit job and travels across the world to seek retribution. Traditionally, when approaching a project of this calibre, Messerschmidt would prep a “lookbook,” a collection of photographs intended to outline visual references for multiple aspects of the filmmaking craft.
But with The Killer, Fincher and Messerschmidt approached things differently.
“In the past when I’ve worked with [Fincher], I have sent him lookbooks, we’ll have references, or we’ll start with paintings or photography or other movies. We didn’t do that on this movie. We talked about pacing and timing and scene structure and point of view,” Messerschmidt shared. “The aesthetics of the look of the movie ended up being born through the process of exploration and scouting and location selection. Even though the movie is stylistic, it all comes from a place of realism, and that was always the intent.”
To follow The Killer on his world-wide journey, Fincher segments the film into chapters. Not only does this structure echo the graphic novel roots of the story (the film is based on the French comic by Alexis “Matz” Nolent and Luc Jacamon), but it also sets the tone within the larger world of its edgy, pulp fiction ancestors. Given that structure, Messerschmidt faced unique lensing challenges as The Killer moves from chapter to chapter.
Chapter One: The Window in Paris
When we first meet The Killer in Chapter One, he’s set up camp in an under construction WeWork space in Paris. The vantage point gives him prime viewing opportunities of the street below, of the door to the building directly across the street, and of the penthouse suite occupied by his target. In reality, Messerschmidt revealed that the Paris-set scene is a combination of three distinct locations: the WeWork interior was a built set, exterior points-of-view shots were filmed from an unrelated apartment building, and the penthouse apartment across the street was another set build that was digitally woven into the existing exterior of the building. Filming in these three locations required extensive planning as shooting took place over the space of several months.
The point of view (POV) shots were captured first as subsequent shots stem from the information they contain. Filmed in tight close-ups and with steady camerawork, those moments in addition to the preparation, including time for yoga, are all about a download of information to the audience. Not only the logistics of what he’s attempting, but also detail about who The Killer is as a character.
“Look how disciplined he is. Look how completely in control and confident he is. Look how fastidious he is. Look how he unfolds the waterglass. Look how he brushes his teeth. Look how he makes sure he doesn’t leave any trace of himself. All of these shots are meant to reinforce aspects of his character in redundancy,” Messerschmidt explained. “David talks about the things that are important for him in the scene, and then we try to find the best frame that illustrates that point. It’s a very methodical process. We’re not picking any camera positions because they just look good. It’s all because they’re contributing something to the story.”
When The Killer finally takes his shot, he misses, setting up a subsequent series of events that will carry him across the world for the remainder of the film. This failure to connect emerges as one of the unique attributes within The Killer that make it such an extraordinary film. We’re exploring not just an assassin who is extremely good at his job normally; we’re also exploring someone who makes an uncharacteristic mistake.
That mistake shakes The Killer to his core, and Messerschmidt reinforces that shift in perspective through his camerawork. Previously, he employed slow, steady takes to underscore The Killer’s state of mind as he prepares to take the shot. Yet, once he misses the shot, his mental and emotional state becomes shaken. Messerschmidt’s camerawork shifts to a handheld camera that embraces shakiness and haste as he quickly evacuates the scene.
Chapter Two: The Compound
The handheld, shaky camerawork continues into Chapter Two as The Killer leaves Paris and heads to his home base in the Dominican Republic. However, when he arrives at his compound’s front gate, he’s immediately alerted to danger. He approaches on foot, and Messerschmidt’s camera tracks The Killer’s swift, quiet footsteps with a long tracking shot before switching to a handheld camera as he enters the damaged compound.
Perspective in this sequence shifts back and forth between a first person as The Killer navigates the scene and third person as the audience watches Fassbender’s focused, yet deeply concerned, visage. Both The Killer and the audience are uncertain if anyone’s in the house, so the audience shares in nor only the revelation of the moment from The Killer’s eyes but also an understanding of the deep violation this intrusion brings into his world.
It’s an unsettling moment that, whether the audience realizes or not, emerges as an extraordinarily unique one for the character.
“He’s never watched. He watches everybody else. So if the camera’s just a little bit too close or it’s kind of personality-less, then it’s because it’s a very unusual point of view to have on this particular character,” Messerschmidt said. “That interested David. He was curious about what happens if the audience is in this guy’s space, a space that is never occupied.”
Chapter Four: The Brute
During Chapter Three, The Killer gains information from his employer in New Orleans. These scenes again shift the color palette employed within the series as it adopts more night-set sequences. Shots are held longer as The Killer begins to reassert control over his circumstances. That leads to Chapter Four where he travels to St. Petersburg, Florida, to “handle” one of the intruders in his Dominican Republic compound, The Brute.
The epic fight sequence between The Brute and The Killer is a visual highlight of the film, one that took months of careful preparation and design work. Planning started in a collaboration with Dave Macomber, fight coordinator, as well as the determination that the interior seen in the film would be realized from a built set. Location scouts found a house that fit the needs of the project just outside of New Orleans, but the interior of the house was much too small. Production designer Donald Graham Burt then built the interior of the house as a doughnut-shaped creation with a master bathroom in its center. The wider spaces on the built set would then allow Messerschmidt to sparingly use a handheld camera.
That layout also influenced the way Fincher and Messerschmidt decided to film this epic showdown between The Killer and the much larger The Brute. The team wanted the sequence to take place in each room of the house, allowing for a better understanding of spatial orientation on the audience’s behalf. For example, when The Killer drops a gun near the door he enters, then the audience should understand that, as the two fight each other in a circular motion, the fighters are returning to the room that contains the gun.
It’s a detail worked out through tight collaboration with multiple crafts departments and director Fincher.
“It’s quite common these days in fight photography tp shoot on really long lenses, disorient the audience, make it confusing, have stuff tumble in the frame. It makes it exciting, but it doesn’t lead the audience down the path. It just tells you where the punch is coming from,” Messerschmidt explained. “So, we decided to be a little bit more nuanced than that. We stay really dogmatic to screen direction. We make sure that the audience understands where they’re going and where they’ve come from.”
Messerschmidt also decided to make each room have a distinct color. The kitchen has a specific look. The master bathroom is the brightest room in the house. The living room is the darkest room in the house, lit only by dim streetlight coming in through the windows.
“We tee all that up in the opening shots as he’s walking through with a gun, and he’s looking around. There’s the kitchen, and it looks like this. The bathroom looks like this. The room where he grabs the bong looks like this. The living room looks like this. The audience immediately has an understanding and gets a sense for the layout of the house visually and geographically.”
Chapter Five: The Climax
While the film concludes with a sixth chapter, Chapter Five truly wraps The Killer’s journey. Here, he tracks down The Expert (Tilda Swinton) and eventually assassinates her. You could even consider this sequence something of a parallel to the opening Paris-set sequence, but here, everything goes perfectly for The Killer. There are no mistakes, so Messerschmidt’s camerawork continues in the steady, controlled, and clinical path, reflecting The Killer’s regained precision.
Messerschmidt’s camera generally focuses on a 2-shot approach within the restaurant where The Killer chooses to reveal himself to The Expert. We occasionally break into a third perspective to set the scene within the context of the kitchen, providing the audience the opportunity to determine whether or not The Expert has an escape route.
But the power here remains with The Killer. He’s watching, always watching, and listening to her final story. He’s working out everything in his head, likely noticing but not revealing that she’s grabbed a knife to use for protection.
Messerschmidt’s camera then allows the remainder of the scene to play out.
“The Killer is a chess player. He’s just working out the moves. He knows the answers to every question, and he’s not gonna take any chances,” Messerschmidt remarked. “By the time he gets to Tilda, he’s like we both know how this is going to end. Your fate has been written. The audience knows that too.”
The Killer streams exclusively on Netflix.
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