Response to “The Social Network”
I haven’t watched the movie, The Social Network, before but I did have some idea what it was about from previous conversations. I knew Thursday would be a busier day for my family so I chose to watch it ahead of time on Netflix.
The first gif I created was for one of my favorite scenes in the film: the Winklevoss twins are consulting the Harvard President about their case and issues with Mark Zuckerburg. Before arriving in his office, the twins had stated and clearly believed their outstanding reputation and connections would be enough leverage to woo him over to their side and help their case. To their surprise, and mine, their President was not interested in anything they had to say.
This scene was also a rare gem. Throughout the majority of the movie, viewers are following Harvard students, all are quite smart and always seem to have an intellectual answer to something. You repeatedly see them display this when it comes to assignments and in the process of creating Facebook. However, this screen with the twins didn’t have a lot of that. The twins were at a loss for words after what the President said to them. They didn’t have any arguments or back up plans because they were confident that the conversation would go well. Unfortunately for them, it backfired.
The next gif I created was using a photo from a popular meme three times and tilting it slightly each time to make it look like it’s moving. I created this one in response to many scenes throughout the movies that left me feeling shocked, or in teenage slang “shook.” There were moments where I wasn’t expecting a character to say or do something and it caught me off guard. For example, Eduardo Saverin’s outburst and violence in response to his discovery that he’s been basically cut from the company and will be receiving an incredibly small amount of money despite how much he’s put into the company. Another example would be Eduardo’s girlfriend, Christy, and her crazy side when she discovered he was back from New York with a “single” Facebook status. I wouldn’t consider this a suspenseful movie but there were definitely moments when I felt suspense.
The last gif I created isn’t the best but I’ll take a C for effort. This one is a screenshot from the ending of the movie where Mark Zuckerburg is sitting at his computer looking at Facebook, probably in his thoughts. It looks like he’s realized where he’s at in life and the company and how… alone he is now to get Facebook created. I feel bad now for laughing but as the saying goes “karma is a bitch.” I know Mark Zuckerburg is incredibly smart and knew what he was doing but I feel the way he treated people throughout the movie was horrendous and that he deserved what came to him. This seemed like one of those situations where you would finally reach a goal, look back on it and realize “Was it necessary to do A-Z to get here” or “Could this have gone any differently?” So I made this gif like he’s thinking “well.. now what?”
I was looking back on this last gif and realized something, Mark Zuckerburg doesn’t make very many faces, or the actor, Jesse Eisenberg, didn’t portray him with very many facial expressions. Throughout the majority of the movie, Mark Zuckerburg is seen with either a blank expression, joy because of a milestone for the company, or pissed off because of something not going the way he wants. There’s even an occasional slight smile, some might call it an evil smirk. I’m not sure if this was intended to show Mark Zuckerburg was pretty much only focused on the success of Facebook and didn’t want anything else getting in the way of that, or if Jesse Eisenberg didn’t make other facial expressions. It makes me wonder who is Mark Zuckerburg? Not Mark Zuckerburg, the Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Facebook, entrepreneur, and one of the richest men in the world Mark. Mark Zuckerburg, a man born in New York, currently 36 years old, and married with two kids. Without Facebook, what is he, who is he?
It’s incredible to see how much growth Facebook has had since Mark’s idea came about but still interesting to see a more detailed, and possibly exaggerated, version of it.
