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David Fincher
 Famous for portraying dysfunctional
characters – eg Se7en, Fight Club, Panic Room
 Meticulous direction – notorious for the number of
takes per scene. For instance, the opening scene
of The Social Network had 99 takes!
 Here’s his list of films:
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Alien 3
Se7en
The Game
Fight Club
Panic Room
Zodiac
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Social Network
And the upcoming US version of The Girl with the
Dragon Tattoo
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Aaron Sorkin
Based the screenplay on Ben Mezrich novel The
Accidental Billionaires.
THE SOCIAL NETWORK IS NOT A
DOCUMENTARY!!
Most famous for his work on the hit TV series The
West Wing
Intense and often fast-paced dialogue is his hallmark
Extremely well-respected in filmmaking circles
Here’s a list of some of his films/TV shows:
 A Few Good Men
• Malice
 The American President • The West Wing
 Charlie Wilson’s War • The Social Network
As you (re)view the film take note of:
- how the main characters’ relationships
change as the film progresses – think
about why this happens
- how the events are portrayed with
events cut and pasted in time
- how the filmmakers create and sustain
the drama
Make sure you know what the
CHRONOLOGICAL order of events is
(as opposed to how they appear in the
film).
 TASK: Create a TIMELINE from
October 2003 to 2009

Boston – Harvard
 See the Wikispace for a Google Map of
Harvard and the city of Boston
 Research: Why is Harvard such an
important and prestigious University?
 What are Final Clubs?
 Which one did Mark want to get into?
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Palo Alto, California
See the Wikispace for Google Maps of LA
and the city of Palo Alto
Research: Why is Palo Alto an important
place to run a technology company?
Find out a little about Stanford University
Make some contrasting comments
between Harvard and the Californian
settings of the film.
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What are your experiences of Facebook? What do you see
as its benefits and drawbacks?
What did you think of the film? How did it make you feel?
How did you respond to Mark?
'There's a difference between being obsessed and
motivated,' Mark assures his girlfriend. What is Mark most
passionate about? How much is he prepared to sacrifice in
pursuit of his goals?
'I was your only friend - you had one friend,' Eduardo tells
Mark across the deposition table. What is Mark and
Eduardo's friendship like? Why did it break down?
What did you make of the film's portrayal of Harvard's elitist
culture? How did this influence the main characters?
'I'm six-five, 220 pounds and there are two of me,' says Tyler
Winklevoss. What are the Winklevoss' strengths and
weaknesses?
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Sean Parker: 'You know what's cooler than a million
dollars?'
Eduardo Saverin: 'You?'
Sean Parker: 'A billion dollars.'
How are the themes of 'coolness' and money played out
through the film?
Facebook has around 500 million members worldwide. What
impact has it had on our culture?
'Who are you? . . . I mean, what do you do?' Mark asked
junior lawyer Marylin Delpy. In what ways does Facebook
encourage us to define ourselves? How does this affect our
concept of identity?
'As if every thought that tumbles through your head was so
clever it would be a crime for it not to be shared,' Mark's ex
Erica snaps at Mark. Why are people drawn to the idea of
broadcasting their personal lives on the internet?
'The internet's not written in pencil, Mark. It's written in
ink,' states Erica, seething at the comments he blogged
about her. Why is the typed word so powerful? Why is
it tempting to misuse this power online? What positive
things can social-networking sites achieve when used
to their full potential?
 '[Mark's] from a logged-in, left-out generation that
knows little of beauty and even less of feeling,' says
Empire. Do you agree, and why/why not? How might
this generation resolve these problems and learn to
connect with people on a deeper level?
 By the end of the film, what judgments - if any - do you
think the film ultimately makes about Mark and the
creation of Facebook?

Mark Zuckerberg
 The Protagonist
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 What does this term mean?
 In what ways is Mark a protagonist?
 Does the audience like or dislike him (or both)? Why?

Describe his:
Physical attributes
Personality
Key Relationships
Eduardo Sauverin
 The Mentor
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 Despite their falling out, Eduardo is
Obi Wan Kenobi to Mark’s Luke Skywalker. In
what ways? Why does Mark ‘betray’ him?

Describe his:
Physical attributes
Personality
Key Relationships
Erica Albright
 The Attractor
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 What is an attractor? Why is Erica so
important to Mark and the story line?
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Describe her:
Physical attributes
Personality
Key Relationships
The Winkelvoss twins
 The Nemesis
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 What does this mean and in what ways do
the ‘Winkelvii’ fulfill this role for Mark?

Describe their:
Physical attributes
Personalities (and how they differ)
Key Relationships
Sean Parker
 The Trickster
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 This classic character type is also known as a
“Shapeshifter”. Why is this an appropriate
description of Sean?

Describe his:
Physical attributes
Personality
Key Relationships

THE KEY THEME IS CONFLICT
 Between ‘us’ and ‘them’
 Within us
 Within them
In real life we try to avoid conflict, in art (and
especially movies) we are drawn to conflict.
Why?
- Exciting - Creates energy - Outcome is
uncertain - Emotional – It’s entertaining
List examples of conflicts we see in the film eg
Mark vs. Erica (at the beginning)
That theme is in play primarily between
Zuckerberg and Eduardo Saverin, but also
Zuckerberg and Erica (albeit a friendship
with an abrupt end), Zuckerberg and Sean
Parker (however Zuckerberg discovers
he's bonded with a Trickster), and the
general camaraderie of that initial
Facebook team.
 Most prominently with Zuckerberg and
Saverin, but also Zuckerberg and Erica,
Parker and his relationship with Zuckerberg,
Zuckerberg and the Winklevoss twins.
 Essentially Zuckerberg demonstrates loyalty
to development and growth of Facebook, but
none to any person other than Parker who in
the end commits an act of disloyalty by
getting busted and generating negative
press for Facebook.
 Zuckerberg and the Winklevoss twins,
Zuckerberg and the Harvard administration,
Zuckerberg and the Harvard elite,
Zuckerberg (buoyed by his success with
Facebook) and all his legal inquisitors.
 Arguably it is Zuckerberg's sense of
second-class status (in part) that fuels his
desire to succeed.
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Zuckerberg vs. Harvard elite (Mr.
Outside looking In), the Winklevoss
twins vs. Zuckerberg (for his success
with Facebook), Zuckerberg vs. the
world (his sense that everyone basically
is jealous of what he has created with
Facebook).
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Every major character in the movie is
either in power, wanting to gain more
power, out of power and wanting in, or
using whatever power they have to
impact someone else (e.g., Erica uses
her emotional power to dump
Zuckerberg, so he responds by using his
intellectual power to create a blog and
demean Erica publicly).
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Zuckerberg becomes a billionaire by creating a
social network platform based on the premise
of people wanting to make connections... while
he himself is unable to make any sort of
genuine human connection. This point is
driven home by the movie's brilliant final
scene:
Here is Zuckerberg, stripped of all the noise,
all the people, all the fury, revealed for what he
is: The Tragic King. He has built a mighty
kingdom. And yet has no real friends, reduced
to reaching out to a girl we've seen all of four
times in the movie.
Technique One – Time manipulation
The film mixes timeframes continually. It goes from two litigation
sessions (one with Eduardo Sauverin, and the other with the
Winkelvoss twins and their partner Divya Narendra) back in time to
retell events from different perspectives.
Why did the filmmakers choose to tell the story in this way?
In what ways was this technique confusing? Did you get used to it?
Would telling this story in a chronological order have made it a better or
worse film? Explain your response.
Technique Two – The Eyes
Eyes are significant in literature, theatre and of course cinema. The
Social Network’s director David Fincher has been described as a
‘portraiture director’ – storytelling through the face, and in particular the
eyes.
As you watch a scene, take special note of how each character’s eyes
are communicating and HOW the film achieves that.
Technique Three – The Soundscape
The Social Network’s soundscape is an integral part of the storytelling.
It is a film with intense and rapid dialogue which had to be heard but
also with the soundscape of realistic settings.
How would you describe the music used? Who wrote it?
From the Wikispace – check out the links for soundscape discussion