A mistake in the best serial killer film of all time has been bothering David Fincher for 30 years – now he has finally corrected it

David Fincher’s perfectionism borders on obsession. At least that’s what some stars who have already filmed with the master director (Fight Club) may think: When in doubt, he is known for recording dozens of takes of a scene until he likes it. His creative vision is considered extremely precise and his productions are meticulously planned. But a mistake slipped through his fingers 30 years ago, in one of the best thrillers of all time: the serial killer masterpiece Seven. David Fincher improved the bar scene in the thriller masterpiece Seven after 30 years

A 4K edition of Sieben will be released for the first time on January 16th, which you can pre-order from Amazon, among others *. When asked by Collider about changes compared to the regular version, Fincher revealed that he Edit a scene with artificial intelligence let. According to the report, it’s about a bar scene between two characters in which a camera movement has bothered Fincher for 30 years. He explains:

There’s this unnecessary camera panning. A figure moved and the camera followed it, but did so too late and ended up showing more of the bar than intended. […] If you choose takes based on acting performance, you’ll occasionally have to deal with technical glitches like this.

Fincher does not specify which scene he means. But it is very likely that he has one Dialogue sequence between Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman’s characters speaks:

Because he liked the acting so much, the director didn’t want to use an alternate take. What bothered him was an actor’s arm being cut off by the edge of the picture, which made the annoying panning of the camera necessary. He makes do with AI:

We took three or four shots [des Arms] from the same day of filming and chased them through an AI. Then we took the bar background [aus dem Kameraschwenk] and put the two together.

Fincher also describes the approach as “the most exciting fix to a stupid mistake in the entire world“, since everything was aimed at making a barely visible flaw even more invisible. “If you can see it, we didn’t do our job properly“, he explains.

This thin line between visibility and invisibility also determines what is considered a mistake and what is not. Even many of the biggest Seven fans probably wouldn’t have suspected a mistake in the scene in question. Perfectionist Fincher had to suffer under him for 30 years. How nice that his ordeal is now over.

Seven revolves around two investigators (Pitt and Freeman) who hunt down a unique serial killer in the dark juggernaut of the big city. The perpetrator designs his actions based on the seven deadly sins and soon becomes closer to the two protagonists than they would like.