Over Thanksgiving break I listened to a really good podcast with Matt Damon where he talked about A-list director David Fincher.
If you’re not familiar with Fincher, he’s the guy behind movies like Fight Club, Se7en, The Social Network and Gone Girl.
Anyways…
On the pod, Matt Damon told a great story in the about how ruthless Fincher is when it comes to the tiny details in his movies.
For example…
When he was shooting Gone Girl with Ben Affleck, there’s a scene in the library where Ben and Rosmund Pike are having a conversation.
And right at the beginning of the scene, some of the extras are walking around the library.
Damon said he was on set that day to watch, and when Fincher called action the extras started walking around the library (like they were supposed to).
Ben and Rosmund then started their scene. And they did a brilliant job. They acted their hearts out.
Yet when Ben and Rosmund finished, Fincher called “cut” and started mumbling under his breath.
But he wasn’t bitching about Ben or Rosmund.
He was bitching about the way that the first extra walked across the screen.
Damon said that Fincher turned around in his chair, and said…
“Who the fuck walks like that? Nobody walks like that.”
Damon said he started laughing cause he knew exactly what he was talking about.
The way the extra walked across the screen just didn’t feel right.
People don’t walk like that in real life.
At the same moment, Damon said one of the hair and makeup ladies came on set to powder Rosmund’s face inbetween takes.
She hustled in, started powdering her, and then got out.
Fincher looked at Damon and said “you see that? that’s how people fucking walk”.
Damon said it was an eye-opening experience to see just how ruthless Fincher was about a small detail like this.
And when I heard the story on the pod, I could immediately relate to what he was saying.
Why?
Cause the same thing happens in copy.
I see it all the time when people try to write emails with dialogue in it.
The dialogue might be well written from a technical perspective.
But it’s not written in a way that people would actually talk.
No one who’s overweight says “Doc, I need to get rid of this brown fat from my stomach”.
That’s just not realistic.
But copywriters try to write like this.
And it ends up making the copy feel forced.
Point being…
Just like Fincher is ruthless about the details in his movies…
Be ruthless about the detail in your copy.
Cause in the end, it’s all about how the copy FEELS.
Keep that in mind.
– Justin
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