The Social Network Script
Michael Cera : More than anything people recognize me from “The Social Network,” which I was not in.
so, a week ago i went to a library called ‘Contrapunto’, one of my friends took me there and while looking around i found two books about films and editing so ofc being the demented obsessive that i am, the first thing i looked for was The Social Network and the bits i read i found really interesting and i thought i’d share with you so i took some pictures (yes, i am horrible). this first book’s called ‘FilmCraft: Editing’ by Justin Chang. the interview is with both of TSN Editors Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter, Academy Award winners for said movie. it’s in spanish so i’ll try to translate the most important bits of it the best i can. if you have any corrections make sure to let me know!
(3) Wall spent three weeks perfecting the opening sequence for The Social Network, a 6 minutes long discharge of dialogues between Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) and Erica Albright (Rooney Mara) which demanded a fast montage of the scene and a precise interpretation of the characters, as well. He divided the scene on 5 sections and built each one separately before putting them all together. “It was an important scene, it sets the tone of the movie -he says-. It’s some kind of a warning for the spectators, for them to know they’ll have to be attentive throughout the movie.”
(4) “Tears can be easily seductive”, says Baxter, explaining why he ended up using the less emotional take (…) of Andrew Garfield during the (break-up) scene between Eduardo and Mark. “It’s was a tough decision (…) but in a movie like this, if there’s a peak (…), everything else falls out of proportion”
(4) Baxter. “You can be easily seduced by tears on the dailies, because they’re hard to produce. It must be recognized that they require good interpretation. I remember Angus and I were worried that Eduardo might seem too weak and a bit of a killjoy. If that happened, no one would’ve like it.”
(4) Wall. “There’s a scene where Eduardo says to Mark: ‘I was your only friend’. On the dailies, on a scale of one to ten, Andrew Garfield was a nine and a half. His eyes were full of tears and was an emotional wreck because it seemed like an emotional peak on the script. I guess this was a problem for the editing and Kirk decided for the less intense easy. It was difficult because at the time we were completely stunned with his performance. (…)”
(5) Baxter. “Eduardo’s quote ‘My father won’t even look at me’, I buried it deep into the material. We had a lot of close-ups of Andrew, but everything ended much more discreet”
(5) Wall. “There are moments you have to reconsider one of the characters and think ‘Is this the right direction for this character?’ (…). Another challenge on The Social Network was that we had to work with a 160 pages script. There’s was an evident desire that it lasted less than 2 hours. David literally asked Aaron Sorkin to read the script to him and he did it in less than 2 hours. So we ended up with a compact assembly, in fact, the first assemble on The Social Network was two minutes shorter and the final version. David still had to shoot one scene for the Henley race.”
(5) Baxter. “We had a dialogue per moment, even those scene where nothing happened it’s like a siren went off saying ‘Dead point! Dead point!” The mistakes started rising on their own.”
(5) Wall. “In the end there were scene where we had to add time to because everything was happening too fast. We had to incorporate 9 to 10 frames for the audience to take a breath, digest what had happened and move forward.”
(5) Baxter. “In a movie that moves at such and exciting rhythm, ten frames are a good pause.”
getting emotional haha. tell me what you thought about it! and let me know if you want me to publish or translate a specific paragraph or change any particular translation you’re not okay with and if you’d like the second book i found!
“A lot of people say ‘oh my god it was so great, we had such a great time, we’re all gonna stay in touch…’ but I seriously think we’re gonna stay in touch.”-Andrew Garfield
David Fincher on Jesse Eisenberg’s reaction after watching The Social Network for the first time (x)
Erica Albright’s a bitch. You think that’s because her family changed their name from Albrecht or do you think it’s because all BU girls are bitches? For the record she may look like a 34C, but she’s getting all kinds of help from our friends at Victoria’s Secret. She’s a 34B, as in barely anything there. False advertising.
Erica Albright’s a bitch. You think that’s because her family changed their name from Albrecht or because all B.U. girls are bitches? Folks, for the record, she may look like a 34D, but she’s getting all kinds of help from our friends at Victoria’s Secret. She’s a 34B, as in barely anything there. False advertising.
