Blog Number 7

Scene Deconstruction


The Social Network:

Theme:

            The movie The Social Network is considered to be a biography and a drama. The film is about Mark Zuckerberg, a Harvard student who created the now popular social networking site, Facebook, in 2003. The two major themes of the movie are power and loyalty. In the movie, all of the characters are either in power or are trying to gain power in some way. Also, those characters that are in power use their power to impact other characters. For example, Mark’s girlfriend Erica uses her emotional power to dump him, and in turn, he creates a blog that defames her publicly. Loyalty is also a major theme of the movie. Zuckerberg's loyalty is with the development of Facebook, instead of the people in his life like his girlfriend and friends. Therefore, he loses his friendship with his best friend Eduardo Saverin and his girlfriend Erica. Zuckerberg creates this social networking website that focuses on people making connections with one another, but he cannot seem to keep the connections he had with his friends. These themes would be didactic because they teach the viewer that loyalty is an important characteristic to possess, while having power can be a both positive and negative characteristic to possess. 


Critique:
            The themes of power and loyalty are reinforced throughout the scene because of line and movement. In the beginning of the scene, Eduardo is walking out of the conference room and all of the lights in the room behind him point towards his character, which give him a sense of power. Also, the lines of the door point in the direction of his body, which help reinforce the fact that he is very angry and has the power in that particular spot. Even though at this point he is far away from Mark, his eyes draw a virtual line that leads to Mark’s eyes. There are other virtual lines drawn when many people in the building begin to look at Eduardo because he is constantly screaming out Mark’s name.

            Tension is created when Eduardo approaches Mark and throws his computer on the desk because he is angry that his share within the company has dropped drastically. This tension immediately catches the viewer’s attention, and it is apparent that Mark is in power because he lowered Eduardo’s share in the company and remains completely calm in the entire scene. This enforces the theme of loyalty and the fact that Mark’s loyalty is with Facebook, and not with his former best friend. Also, there is contrast between the parts of the scene where Eduardo is yelling at Mark and where Eduardo is walking out of the conference room. The conference room scene focuses more on lines that are being drawn, both actual and virtual, whereas the scene where Eduardo is yelling at Mark focuses more on Mark being in power and Eduardo being powerless and angry.

            There is a lot of movement throughout the scene. There is camera movement throughout the scene when Eduardo is walking towards Mark and then away from him at the end of the scene. Also, the people in the background create movement, as some of them walk completely through the frame. Secondary movement is created when Eduardo is constantly pointing at Mark and Parker because he is angry. His body is moving along with his arms, which make his arm movements secondary.