The two latest feature films lensed by Erik Messerschmidt, ASC have him once again in the awards season conversation--director Michael Mann’s Ferrari (Neon) which will debut in U.S. theaters on Dec. 25, and David Fincher’s The Killer (Netflix), which has been already released theatrically and is now streaming on Netflix.
This installment of The Road To Oscar will focus on The Killer, which continues a longstanding collaborative relationship between the cinematographer and Fincher. Messerschmidt is no stranger to Academy Award banter, having won a Best Cinematography Oscar in 2021 for Fincher’s Mank. The film also garnered ASC and BSC Award wins for Messerschmidt.
Fincher has played a prominent role in Messerschmidt’s career. It all started back when Messerschmidt served as a gaffer for cinematographer Jeff Cronenweth, ASC, most notably on the Fincher-directed Gone Girl. During the course of that movie, Fincher had Messerschmidt do some promotional still work for Gone Girl and the two struck up a rapport. This eventually led to Messerschmidt becoming the DP on Fincher’s Mindhunter, the thriller series centered on an FBI agent’s quest to track down serial killers in the late 1970s. Messerschmidt in 2020 wound up garnering his first career Emmy nomination for his lensing of Mindhunter. He shot the lion’s share of Mindhunter episodes; the series represented his first major TV gig as his DP endeavors prior to that were primarily in commercials and other short-form fare. Fincher then further expanded Messerschmidt’s reach--first into the feature realm with Mank and then The Killer.
Based on a graphic novel by Alexis “Matz” Nolant, The Killer stars Michael Fassbender as a hired assassin. He’s a nameless master professional who boasts of a 100 percent success rate which comes unraveled when we witness him miss his target and hit an innocent bystander. Realizing the consequences of his failure, he races home to the Dominican Republic to find his woman clinging to life. In this case, he was the intended target and she the “collateral” damage. Suddenly Fassbender’s character is no longer the cool, detached pro who never lets things get personal. He seeks out the people who invaded his house as well as those who hired him--and them. The Killer takes us into the mind of a murderer, his clinical attention to detail and how he justifies his occupation and existence.
As for the process of arriving at the visual language for The Killer, Messerschmidt shared, “David and I have developed a strong shorthand over the course of the last few projects, so our communication is very economical. For The Killer most of our conversations revolved around the structure of the film David wanted to make. He was particularly interested in exploring pace and subjectivity so our conversations weren’t about the aesthetics of the film at first; they were about the composition of the film as a whole. As we scouted the film and chose the locations with production designer Don Burt, the film’s overall visual tone began to take shape.”
In terms of how his working relationship with Fincher has evolved over the years, Messerschmidt observed, “I think we have become closer collaborators. We are very honest with each other about how we feel and about a given question, situation, or problem that arises over the course of the production. David is clear about what he is looking for and he’s also uniquely aware how those expectations affect his collaborators. I think we have an enormous amount of trust with each other and now when we work together we hardly need to speak at all. It’s a very natural almost instinctual process.”
For The Killer, Messerschmidt explained, “We wanted each chapter, or location in the film, to have a distinct visual feel.” While he described this as “an exciting proposition,” the challenge carried “a bit of anxiety as that concept always includes the risk that the film will feel disjointed. My process was one of trying to make sure each place felt unique, but not in such a way where the viewer was removed from the film as a whole.”
Relative to choice of camera, Messerschmidt related, “Both David and I have been shooting with RED cameras since their inception. I was sent one of the first Red V-Raptor camera bodies to test while we were scouting and was immediately struck by the vast improvement in dynamic range and spectral sensitivity. I simply love that camera. I have shot with the Leica Summilux [lenses] for many years now and they have become a security blanket for me. The choice was very easy for this film.”
Asked about his biggest takeaway or lessons learned from his experience on The Killer, Messerschmidt responded, “The Killer was all about stamina for me. We had many locations and numerous, different challenges--these can be incredibly distracting for a filmmaker. In the end those distractions, which seemed overwhelming at the time, are minuscule compared to the actual creative process. The thing I learned the most about myself was very similar to our main character. I learned to be more critical about my own obsessions with control and precision and how, ultimately, they matter less than the whole.”
In addition to his exploits for Fincher and Mann, Messerschmidt recently wrapped the pilot for Sinking Spring (Apple TV+) for director Ridley Scott. Earlier Messerschmidt lensed several episodes of the Scott-produced HBO Max original series Raised By Wolves. Among the DP’s other credits are the J.D. Dillard-directed feature Devotion which is based on the real-life story of a Black naval officer who befriends a white naval officer during the Korean War, with both becoming heroes for their selfless acts of bravery.
Messerschmidt also recently earned in tandem with Mann a Golden Frog nomination at Camerimage for their work on Ferrari.
(This is the seventh installment of a 16-part series with future installments of The Road To Oscar slated to run in the weekly SHOOT>e.dition, The SHOOT Dailies and on SHOOTonline.com, with select installments also in print issues. The series will appear weekly through the Academy Awards gala ceremony. Nominations for the 96th Academy Awards will be announced on January 23, 2024, The 96th Oscars will be held on Sunday, March 10, 2024.)