The Social Network
(drama, USA, 116 minutes)
​
directed by David Fincher
cinematography by Jeff Cronenweth
edited by Kirk Baxter & Angus Wall
written by Aaron Sorkin
music by Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross

CAST
Jesse Eisenberg as Mark Zuckerberg
Rooney Mara as Erica Albright
Andrew Garfield as Eduardo Saverin
Armie Hammer as Cameron Winklevoss & Tyler Winklevoss

SYNOPSIS
As Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg creates the social networking site that would become known as Facebook, he is sued by the twins who claimed he stole their idea, and by the co-founder who was later squeezed out of the business.
(imdb.com)
"I have an enormous amount of empathy for Zuckerberg. I felt like it was easy to do the Revenge of the Nerds version of this, but there was something more compelling about his wanting to do it his way. Because he was right. It shouldn’t be done using an advertising model. The ultimate communication tool needed to be devised by someone who doesn’t have the best communication skills."
​David Fincher, interview with Vulture, September 2010 

The Director: Who is David Fincher?
Following time spent as a trainee and department head in the film industry, Fincher was employed at Industrial Light & Magic (George Lucas's visual effects company). He worked on Return of the Jedi as a technician, before leaving ILM to direct a shocking health TV advert where a foetus smokes a cigarette. This brought him lots of attention, which he focused on crafting music videos.

He directed 53 music videos between 1984 and 1993, working with Madonna, Michael Jackson and Aerosmith, among others. Many of his visual trademarks can be seen in his music videos.

YouTube playlist of Fincher's music videos
Playlist of Fincher's commerials

Fincher's Trademarks
Fincher is known for his moody low key lighting, locked-off camera that rarely moves and hard, cynical storylines.

Further Reading & Listening
The Fincher Analyst - An obsessive director gets an obsessive website devoted to his work
The Fincher Takes it All - Limited podcat series exploring Fincher's filmography

The Screenwriter: Who is Aaron Sorkin?
Sorkin is one of modern Hollywood's leading screenwriters. He began as a theatre playwright and his play A Few Good Men was adapted into an acclaimed film starring Tom Cruise in 1992. Following further adaptations of his work, Sorkin wrote and serves as the creator of The West Wing - one of the greatest TV shows of all time and won four consecutive Emmys for Outstanding TV Series.
Sorkin's writing is known for its intense dialogue, often delivered as important characters walk between rooms. His work almost always examines politics and media.
Sorkin has now become a film director himself, with The Trial of the Chicago Seven being nominated for Best Picture and Best Screenplay in the 2021 Oscars. He won the Best Adapted Screenplay Academy Award for The Social Network (as well as a BAFTA) and has received three other Oscar nominations.
Sorkin has presented a MasterClass teaching video class - available on our server!
As far as is possible for a screenwriter, Sorkin could be considered an auteur.
KEY FEATURES
'Walk and talk' 
Politics and media/communications
​Fast, intense, rhythmic dialogue
High-achieving, innovating protagonists
Real-life events
​High-pressure situations / characters facing their downfall
​
KEY SCREENWRITING WORK
The West Wing (TV)
The Newsroom (TV)
A Few Good Men
The American President
​Charlie Wilson's War
​The Social Network
Moneyball
Steve Jobs
Molly's Game (also directed)
The Trial of the Chicago Seven (also directed)

Further Reading
MasterClass: Sorkin's Top 8 Screenwriting tips

Cultural Context
The creation of Facebook

Further Viewing - The Cultural Effects of Social Media

Video Essays

The Screenplay, Dialogue and Narrative Structure
"The internet's not written in pencil, Mark. It's written in ink."
                                                                      ​- Erica
The Social Network screenplay.pdf
File Size: 353 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

Cinematography
Cinematographer Jeff Cronenweth has worked with Fincher many times, dating back to Fincher's music video for George Michael's Freedom '90. He served as camera operator on Seven, 2nd Unit DP on The Game and cinematographer on Fight Club and The Social Network, the​n The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Gone Girl. Cronenweth, the son of Blade Runner cinematographer Jordan Cronenweth, earned an Oscar nomination for The Social Network.
"“I think we came up with a visual quality which is naturalistic, so it won't wrench you out of the very human drama, but also has a few bold, Expressionistic undertones and some subtle stylization, which acknowledges the hyper-reality of youth – especially within the isolation of the old Ivy League colleges. It's important to remember the subjects of the story are still just kids finding their way in the world, and when you're young and the world is still a party, it has a slightly unreal emotional amplification to it."
cinematographer Jeff Cronenweth

“The moral compass of the story is murky and grey, and the ethics don't play out with any sense of certainty about the right answers,” says Cronenweth, “so we needed to match this with the visual tones and still have something exciting to look at. We decided to mute the colour pallete quite heavily in the college scenes, and keep a limited depth-of-field to make the place feel claustrophobic in contrast to San Francisco.”
​- Jeff Cronenweth (British Cinematographer magazine interview)
​

Further Reading
Forbes: Interview with Jeff Cronenweth for the 10th anniversary of the film
American Cinematographer: Tech-heavy discussion of the camera, lenses and lighting of the film
British Cinematographer: Very good interview with Cronenweth
RogerEbert.com: Analysis of the film's cinematography
"For me to photograph it, you always had to capture the performance in a way that supported that kind of dialogue and kept the tension increasing. Whether it was through length of lenses, shallow depth of field, or subtle movements to create a little bit more tension. Although it was hardly necessary with the cleverness of the dialogue and the interaction between the cast. 
And then the light. It was kind of driven by the tones of the wooden dorms at Harvard. And some of the exterior lights around Harvard were always kind of that yellowish sodium paper light. So, we kind of embraced those nuances to get us closer to what it is to be there, and found it through contrast, light choices, and lensing."

- Jeff Cronenweth, Forbes interview (October 2020)

Editing & Post-Production
Rather unusually for a Hollywood production, The Social Network was edited with Final Cut Pro (AVID is usually used).
The film's fast-paced opening sequence took three weeks to edit - a very long time for a dialogue scene.
"I wonder aloud if editing, which is often called "the invisible art" is a bit like sculpture. You're chipping away at a huge featureless stone block and eventually you'll see a complicated three dimensional figure. The editors tell me that it's not dissimilar but Angus likens it more like pointillism. "You're not thinking about the big picture but that each color and drop of paint is right for that place and then you zoom out and look at the movie and go 'Oh yeah' or 'Oh no!'"
​- The Film Experience interview
“You may take a line from take 38, you may take a line from take 13, you may take a line from take 17, and you put the scene together with the best performances and camera work from the body of media you’re pulling from,”
Angus Wall (The Playlist interview)

Further Reading
IndieWire: How the opening scene was edited
Vanity Fair interview with the editors
StudioDaily: Good interview with the editors
The Playlist: Interview with editor Angus Wall
Post Magazine: Link to audio interview on the editing of the film
AWN: The visual effects of The Social Network
"The most difficult part of editing The Social Network was making sure we had wrung every gesture and syllable of great performance out of the footage, that we had exhausted every opportunity to infuse meaning into the dialogue."
- Angus Wall (co-editor of the film), MovieMaker interview (2011)

Sound and Music Design

Further Reading
Stereogum: A good article on the music score
"The general eeriness of The Social Network’s score feels prescient considering how large and chaotic a role Facebook would go on to play in disinformation politics.

“I could relate to the character on the page of Mark Zuckerberg,” Reznor said in a 2018 interview. “To the feeling of somebody that believed in something so much and maybe went to any length to get it to work and then realized, well, maybe I fucked some people over in the process, and that weird sense of unfulfillment or melancholy.” Considering Reznor’s own storied history of being a difficult genius, the scathing and icily confident music he created for The Social Network has a deep thematic resonance."
​
- James Rettig, Stereogum

Scene Breakdown
An interesting analysis of the telephone scene between Eduardo and Mark.

Interviews

How Did They Make a Movie Out of Facebook?
A feature-length documentary about the making of The Social Network

Further Reading
The Verge: 'In 2010, The Social Network was searing — now it looks quaint'
WIRED: The Social Network was more right than anyone realised
Vulture: The Social Network in more relevant than when it came out 
The Guardian on the real life figures behind the movie
​Complex: The Social Network tried to warn us
New York magazine: Excellent 2010 feature on the film and its making
Vulture: David Fincher interview on the film (full transcript)
​IndieWire: The film's editor discusses the opening scene of The Social Network
Baltimore Sun: What Fincher said about The Social Network
​Film Stage: The cultural importance of The Social Network
An ethical analysis of the film
​LA Times: Citizen Kane, The Social Network and the truth in Hollywood
​Film Comment: Revenge of the Nerd - 2010 review
CinemaBlend: 10 Films to watch if you liked The Social Network

CONTEXT
A brief history of Facebook as a media text
​World Economic Form: The digital revolution is not about technology - it's about people
Houston Matters: The film and the legacy of social media in modern life - podcast and article 
​Vulture: An explanation of Final Clubs
Guest of a Guest: What the film gets right and wrong about Final Clubs
“ I know what it’s like to be 21 years old and trying to direct and sitting in a room full of grown-ups who think you’re just so cute but aren’t about to give you control of anything,” says Fincher. “I know the anger that comes from when you just want to be allowed to do the things that you know you can do. So I feel it would be irresponsible to say this is the story of a guy who betrayed his friends.”
Fincher, quoted by New York magazine / Vulture, September 2010
​
NEW YORK magazine's superb 2010 feature on the making of the film - CLICK HERE

Sight & Sound (November 2010) article and review

Articles

Sight & Sound article & review (Nov 2010).pdf
File Size: 3575 kb
File Type: pdf
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Inventing Facebook (New York Magazine, Sept 2010).pdf
File Size: 3293 kb
File Type: pdf
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The Dislike Button (Film Quarterly, Spring 2011).pdf
File Size: 1115 kb
File Type: pdf
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Further Listening
Podcast discussions of The Social Network

FILMSPOTTING #319 reviewing The Social Network
Film critics Mark Kermode and Jack Howard discuss Fincher's best films (two parts)

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