The Social Network- Docu-Drama

Theory’s

  Props theory doesn’t really exist in this film. This could be because it is biased on a real life situation, which means the 7 characters cannot be staged into the film. In this film there isn’t a really clear character, whether they are 100% hero or 100% villain. This shows the good and bad side of people.

    Levi Strauss –There are binary opposites in the opening scene, where Mark and his girlfriend are speaking. She is good looking, looks ‘normal’ and speaks ‘normal’. Whereas Mark looks nerdy, speaks intelligently and in the conversation we find out he is in higher education than her. These are opposites and yet they were boyfriend and girlfriend.

     Todorov-There is a clear Todorov theory in this film. There are bits in the film which have smaller disequilibrium but we know the actual main disequilibrium is.

    Equilibrium- In the beginning, after the supporting scene, Mark is in his room and creates a webpage but because the page became instantly popular the system crashed. There is a slight Disequilibrium here because they are going to get in trouble for that, and also because his ex girlfriend found out that he was writing about her publically, in a rude way.

  Disequilibrium –This is when the twins try to sue Mark because he ‘stole’ their idea. Here Marks old best friend is also trying to sue him, or get a higher percentage of the company, because he helped create the business.

 New equilibrium – it begins with the issues getting solved. Then it goes on to how the company succeeds and what happened to the characters involved.

Narrative structure

The film has two narratives. One is the court case, and the other one is the process from the idea of Facebook to the creation and success of Facebook. One narrative is in the past and one is more further back. From the scenes shot in the room with the judge, the story flashes back in to the past. Even though it flashes back throughout the whole film, the two storylines going on are in chronological order, so the audience can follow both. The whole film flashes back and forward in time, even though the film does this, both storylines are in chronological order.

Mark sounds like a stereotypical geek, the tone of voice he has, the works he chooses to use, and the kind of things he says. He seems emotionless through his voice, which is the type of character description he has. That he doesn’t really care about anyone.

Mark has a voice over through some scenes. He says what he is thinking and what is going on through his brain. So we are listening to his thoughts.

Structure

This film begins with the main character (Mark Zuckerberg) having a conversation with his girlfriend. This is a scene to support the film. It lets the audience know that he had a girlfriend, and why and how they split up. This gives some background information about the main character, which is enough for the film. Then it goes on to show he is at Harvard uni – he is smart. And it shoes what he can do. He sets up a website and speaks about what he has done, which sounds very confusing. Then after this scene it goes on to Mark in

The locations and costumes aren’t a big factor in determining that this is a drama documentary, apart from the fact that these factors are ‘normal’ and drama documentaries are situated in everyday life.

Throughout this film there is mainly diegetic sound, which shows it is documentary/ real life. There is music in the first scene but it is diegetic, the music playing in the pub they are at. There is music in between the scenes rather than through the scenes.

The ending is closed. It tells the audience the answers to all their questions and tells them what happens to all the characters. Is shows the character and how they are doing in the future. Then at the end writing comes up telling the audience what happened to each person and what they are doing at the moment. This technique is used in many docu-dramas for informing the audience about the people’s current status, and answering their questions.

Technical factors

The camera work seems very realistic showing what is happening from simple shots. The content is realistic. Which could suggest that it is a documentary based film. The picture is quite dark and looks like all natural light.