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I can’t think of a better Valentine’s Day gift than a new music video from David Fincher, and this year we get some of his sexiest, classiest pieces of work ever. In fact, I’d almost call it the 21st century, masculine take on his classic “Vogue” video for Madonna, putting it among his very best work in the medium. Check it out, and make sure to knock it up to HD:
Justin Timberlake’s return to the radio after seven years or so is, of course, an event, and definitely the kind of thing that merits Fincher returning to his music video stomping grounds for his Social Network star. I’ll admit the song has been growing on me over the last few weeks (even if Hova 
doesn’t bring his best) after initially underwhelming, but even if the song isn’t up your alley, I have a feeling the video will still do something for you.
Shot in gorgeously rich black and white, the video mixes in performance and recording, staged set pieces and casual moments, iPads and whiskey. There’s plenty of swagger here as JT has himself rolled around in a bed, chills with Jay-Z over cereal, and takes a smoke break during Jay’s rap breakdown. Lots of old school gentlemanly posturing is involved, complete with the lingeried woman writhing atop a microphone stand. Macklemore this is not, but if you’re going for the fuck you money lifestyle video, do it right. And they did. Per usual with Fincher, there’s a sophisticated engagement of architecture, space, and the contrast of low-key and high-key imagery.
Interesting geeky note: Back in September of last year I told you about RED’s new camera, the EPIC-M, notable because it is a black & white only camera. You can read more about what the means in that piece, but put simply it greatly increases the actual resolution of the images when the chip is ignoring color. Supposedly Fincher was already working with the camera then, though I’m not sure on what project that was the case. I suspect this video was shot on the camera though, so it might be some of the first publicly viewable footage. If so, damn. I’d probably kill you to see this projected in 4k in a theatre.
Actually, maybe not. That might just be too sexy for me to handle.
