“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” It is somewhat contrary to David Fincher’s filmography. While not devoid of darkness, it is far more concerned with grappling with emotional impact and heavy existential themes than Fincher’s usual somber depictions of crime and corruption. So the captivating and nostalgic visuals of celluloid would have fit perfectly into the movie if it weren’t for the sheer amount of CGI needed to counteract its aging and anti-aging effects on Brad Pitt.
The story is essentially about a man aging backwards, starting life as a (honestly, irritating) old baby and aging to become a real baby by the end of the movie as he gets older. To convincingly demonstrate such an ambitious effect, Fincher and his team were asked to take Pitt’s performance and translate it into CGI, where it would be appropriately aged and eroded. It involved A rig of 28 cameras to capture facial expressions shot separately from Pitt’s actual onstage performances. According to VFX Supervisor Eric Barba, these physical performances were shot on a soundstage with four HD cameras, using “image analysis technology to derive animation curves and timings.”
This was a time before Marvel started to lower the age of its stars. young Luke Skywalker started appearing on streaming shows and before Harrison Ford got the best She did her life’s makeover with the upcoming “Indiana Jones and The Dial of Destiny”. In 2008 Fincher needed to find the best workflow to accommodate his massive project, and the movie just couldn’t do it.