The+Social+Network

Hey! Join our 12EN film study page on The Social Network.
Links that give us background and history to Facebook and Social Networking: []

Have a look at some film critic comments about The Social Network:
From: //I Like Film// []

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‘ It is deeply ironic that in the movie, the founder of Facebook, a social networking website that is supposed to be a channel for communication, is unable to communicate well with others. This irony is one of many which indicates that despite its progress in communication technology, the internet generation, like Zuckerberg, has regressed in its ability to communicate with others.’

Theme: ‘The vacuity of the Internet generation’s interpersonal behavior”

‘Ultimately, the Social Network raises important questions about technology and challenges viewers to question how they use technology. It does not imply that having a Facebook profile de facto makes someone superficial nor that everyone should go deactivate their Facebook accounts after watching the film.’

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"The Social Network" has as its protagonist a character drawn in a Shakespearean mode, a high-achieving individual who carries within him the seeds of his own destruction.”

6:05 PM PDT 10/12/2010 by Kirk Honeycutt

The film, written by Aaron Sorkin, is based on Ben Mezrich's book "The Accidental Billionaires" and Sorkin's own research yet neither writer, predictably, was able to talk to Zuckerberg to get his point of view. So it is as a fictional construct -- based on ample public sources, however -- that "Mark Zuckerberg" achieves its Shakespearean dimension. **He gains the whole world but loses his most meaningful asset because of a fatal flaw on view in the very first scene.**


 * ‘… ** the **flaw** is most ironic -- the guy who will revolutionize the way people communicate can't communicate himself. He is virtually blind to anyone else's perspective.’

‘The story thus becomes a tale of power, fame, betrayal, revenge and responsibility.’

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Newspaper Articles about Facebook
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Newspaper Article about Facebook and the new film Bling Ring: []

The article below raises the fact that prospective employers now search Linked In, Facebook and to a lesser extent Twitter, to check people out against their CV clalms and see if they really are connected to a wide group, if their profile makes then a good prospect etc. ‘Social Media and recruitment go hand in hand.’

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OLIVIA WANNAN Web intruders put family ties to the test NICOLE MATHEWSON
 * 'Generation Net loneliest of **** all' **
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**Film Techniques: In the Level 2 Visual Text essay, you need to show that you are familiar with film techniques and terms, and use them in your writing.**
From a movie-maker’s list:

‘11 Essential Film Techniques – With Pretty Pictures!' Animations illustrate each shot.
 * 1) ** Over-the-shoulder shots **
 * 2) ** Tilt shots **
 * 3) ** Panning shots **
 * 4) ** Zoom shots **
 * 5) ** Tracking shots: sideways camera movement **
 * 6) ** Crane shots **
 * 7) ** Track-in shots **
 * 8) ** Track-in shots with secondary foreground object **
 * 9) ** Over-the-shoulder track-in shot **
 * 10) ** Dutch angles **
 * 11) ** Mixing focal lengths in a scene to make one character dominate over the other **

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 * Intro to Film Technique and Terminology **

This compilation, using clips from Peter Jackson's The Fellowship of the Ring, introduces the terminology and devices of film:


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 * Film Techniques and Examples – You Tube A ** series of examples of ** basic film techniques ** to be used for educational purposes. Turn the soundtrack off!

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[|Teaching with Film] : Film Techniques

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Flash Cards for learning film techniques and definitions:

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Lesson Bucket.com is an Australian website that is full of resources for students studying film techniques:

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[] Lighting choices (and dark ironies) in //The Social Network//
 * ** Excerpt from: Ten Minutes With: “The Social Network” Cinematographer Jeff Cronenweth ** ||
 * ** A discussion about working on the film and working with David Fincher ** ||
 * By Marjorie Galas ||

….The task of shooting “The Social Network” was not a simple one. Because the subject matter is so contemporary and familiar to the audience, Cronenweth had to find a shooting style that blended lighting, rhythm, and clever camera angles to reveal the inner workings of Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg), the Harvard computer whiz who founded Facebook.

“The story is so relevant and on everyone’s mind,” said Cronenweth. “Dealing with this type of subject matter, the goal is to find interesting opportunities to push characters to the foreground. We wanted to allow the more mischievous and sinister situations a darker look, to visually play on the themes, but we had to be careful. We never wanted to tip our hand. We wanted to leave that for the audience to decide.”

The first challenge came in lighting. To maintain the immediacy of the contemporary story, Cronenweth wanted to retain the look of the Harvard campus. Because Harvard would not allow the production to shoot in their buildings, other locations, primarily John Hopkins University, were used as stand-ins. Cronenweth used the real lighting features found in the Harvard dorms as starting points, keeping the rooms dark with light bouncing off the walls. He also played with the lighting that fell on the characters to modify the mood. In some cases, unusual devices were used as a light source, as found in the scene when Zuckerberg and Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield) meet Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake) at the Ruby Sky Bar.

“There was a jpeg movie we created to match the soundtrack,” said Cronenweth. “We projected this from a computer embedded in their Lucite table, and it replayed upon their faces. This really created a sinister environment, and helped to empower Justin’s character. It really changes the dynamic in the scene.”

Read on: [] = = =**//The Social Network//**= = Screenplay by Aaron Sorkin = = Based on the book //The Accidental Billionaires// by Ben Mezrich = = = = Note: Here are two excerpts from the opening scene in the film. Open the link below to read the full script. =

FADE IN:

INT. CAMPUS BAR - NIGHT MARK ZUCKERBERG is a sweet looking 19 year old whose lack of any physically intimidating attributes masks a very complicated and dangerous anger. He has trouble making eye contact and sometimes it’s hard to tell if he’s talking to you or to himself. ERICA, also 19, is Mark’s date. She has a girl-next-door face that makes her easy to fall for. At this point in the conversation she already knows that she’d rather not be there and her politeness is about to be tested. The scene is stark and simple….

ERICA: I have to go study. MARK: You don’t have to study. ERICA : Why do you keep saying I don’t have to study?! MARK : Because you go to B.U.! ERICA stares at him... MARK (CONT’D) (pause): Do you want to get some food? ERICA: I’m sorry you’re not sufficiently impressed with my education. MARK: And I’m sorry I don’t have a rowboat so we’re even. ERICA: I think we should just be friends. MARK: I don’t want friends. ERICA: I was being polite, I have no intentionof being friends with you. MARK: I’m under some pressure right now with my OS class and if we could just order food I think we should-- ERICA takes MARK’s hand and looks at him tenderly... ERICA (close) : You are probably going to be a very successful computer person. (MORE) ERICA (CONT'D): But you’re going to go through life thinking that girls don’t like you because you’re a nerd. And I want you to know, from the bottom of my heart, that that won’t be true. It’ll be because you’re an asshole.

And with that stinger, ERICA walks off we slowly push in on MARK. A fuse has just been lit…

…INT. DORM ROOM - NIGHT We should instantly know that this dorm room is different. It’s more modern and with less character and history than the others. In the background a GIRL is at her computer and in the foreground ERICA is sitting in bed taking notes from a textbook. GIRL (ERICA’S ROOMMATE) : Oh shit.

(to the other GIRL) : Albright? ERICA’S ROOMMATE: He blogged about you. ERICA looks at her for a moment, then gets up to look at her roommates computer-- ERICA’S ROOMMATE (CONT’D: ) You don’t want to read it. ERICA ignores her roommate. We see her mortification as she reads, and at that moment THREE GUYS appear in her open doorway. They’re baked and smiling and one of them is holding a bra. COLLEGE GUY : Erica.

ERICA looks over at the guys-- COLLEGE GUY (CONT’D): Is this yours? I stole it from a tranny. ERICA’S ROOMMATE: Get the hell out of here! The three guys go on their drunken way as we SLOWLY PUSH IN on ERICA who’s frozen in her humiliation …

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**__Article about Facebook paying hackers__**
Here's an arctile about how much Facebook pays hackers for hacking the website guys. Published 31 of May 2012 -Mikayla []

=Article and film trailer for the new movie //The Bling Ring.// It shows the effects of social media on today's Facebook generation. Make sure you get to see it whenever it becomes available in New Zealand:=

‘The Bling Ring: Does modern life make kids deluded?’ By Tim Stanley New Zealand Herald 30/5/13


 * Film questions if Facebook generation has lost touch with reality. **

Sometimes kids can look like they're living in another world. While the day whirls around them, they're lost in their mobile phones - photographing, tweeting, texting, emailing. Living life doesn't seem be enough; they have to record and share it, too. It raises the questions, "how widespread is this phenomenon" and "should we be worried about it?". Film director Sofia Coppola says it's gone too far and we're at risk of breeding a generation of brats who imagine they are movie stars. The "Me Me Me Generation" is ready for its close-up. For her latest movie, //The Bling Ring//, Coppola said she conducted research by hanging out with teenagers in Los Angeles. Her conclusion was that young people live in a "scary" world of constant self-surveillance. "Everyone was texting, taking pictures, and I tried to put as much of that in the film as possible. It was almost sci-fi, this idea that living does not count unless you are documenting it." Given the subject matter of //The Bling Ring//, it's understandable why Coppola was so disturbed. It's based on a true story about a gang of Hollywood adolescents in the Noughties who allegedly stole millions of dollars from celebrities. They did it by tracing the stars' movements on stalker websites and burgling their houses when they were out. The gang robbed socialite Paris Hilton five times and stole nearly US$2 million ($2.48 million) in jewels before she noticed anything was amiss. They snorted coke off her furniture and one boy pranced about in her high heels in a kind of victory dance. Paris Hilton is herself the product of youthful reality TV culture. The heiress of a hotel fortune, she made her name as a model, party girl and star of a notorious celebrity sex tape - a career that climaxed in a role in the Fox reality show //The Simple Life//. Paris was made famous by the very introspective, social media-obsessed culture that horrified Coppola and, arguably, motivated those Hollywood burglars.

It's interesting to note that teens don't tweet nearly as much as they use Facebook and text. Statistics show that adolescent tweeters are twice as likely to be female as male, which confirms the suspicion that most tweeting teens are simply online followers of Justin Bieber (he has 37.9 million). Studies of American teens show 93 per cent of them enjoy access to the internet and roughly two-thirds go online once a day. Over 70 per cent are on a social network and 41 per cent of Facebook users say they check their account obsessively. What are they looking at? Over 80 per cent are leaving comments on photos or updating their banal statuses (they're not debating macroeconomics or planning a bank heist, they're "liking" photos of cats). In all, the evidence suggests teens are big users of the internet but not really into "content creation" - they don't have a large amount of original things to say or share. That's not surprising: they haven't even started living yet. Is all of this unhealthy? For some, yes. But there's a risk that in the rush to condemn our teens as an army of the living dead, we miss much that is good about social media interaction. For a start, they are only doing what the technology their seniors invented allows them to do. And long before mobile phones, people had just as equal a passion for recording their lives - just not the materials with which to do it. Modern social media allow the sharing of events and, arguably, that has enhanced them. Rather than just experiencing the Eiffel Tour - led by the nose by a guide - Twitter encourages us to think about how we feel about it and then formulate a pithy comment. Then, thanks to the internet, thousands of people across the world can share that experience and add their own perspective. Rather than turning teens into zombies, it's possible that it's expanding their opportunity and ability to analyse situations critically - to own an experience and, perhaps, actually experience it more deeply than they might otherwise have done. Facebook lets them curate photos of the trip; text lets them articulate how exciting it is. Social media empowers us as individuals. For the lonely and awkward - and millions of teens fall into both categories - it's an opportunity to reach out and connect without actually having to meet in person. We read much about internet forums being a predators' playground but not nearly enough about how they've helped children build confidence and make friends. Of course, it's unhealthy to think of a generation lost in recording the adventure of their own lives and incapable of simply living it. But this is the price we pay for technological change, and as technology expands individual freedom so it will increase vanity and self-absorption. Those teens texting and giggling in the back row of the Odeon are the future, whether we feel "smiley face" about that or not. By Tim Stanley Daily Telegraph UK The link below contains the trailer to the movie //The Bling Ring// []

=ASSESSMENT MATERIALS for AS 2.2 / 91099=

[[file:91099-sxp-2012-excellence.pdf]]
Here is the 2012 Examination paper for AS 2.2 / 91099: