Introducing Characters - 2: The Social Network
The Social Network
Rather than depicting a character in a heightened situation as with Pirates of the Caribbean, The Social Network establishes its characters in an everyday familiar setting; what could easily be an ordinary day in their lives. The bar is crowded and the scene is visually busy. The lighting is low, an the colour is graded to be de-saturated. All of this is done to convey a mood, and to tell the audience that this is not a bright fantasy world, but the world we know.
The filmmakers use an abundance of dialogue to create a picture of who its characters are, and does this by establishing a key fact about them; what do they want?
Mark Zukerberg is obsessed with social status, fame, and infamy, and the opening scene establishes this from the get go. He speaks about his ambitions and belittles his date for not having yet made decisions about what she will do with her life. He is a character with a specific goal.
What makes him an interesting character is that the obstacle to that goal is his own personality. The script describes Mark as "hiding a complicated and dangerous anger", and this is on display in this opening scene. Socially awkward characters are a staple of cinema, but Mark's disdain for the people around him goes beyond that, establishing himself as a person furious with the world for not recognising him the way he sees himself.
Conclusion
While these two opening scenes use radically different techniques to establish their characters (ie dialogue vs visuals), both rely on costuming, mis-en-scene and shot composition to establish empathy, and both of them are essentially conveying the same three pieces of information.
What does the character want?
What is stopping them from getting it?
What strategies do they use to try to achieve it?
Jack Sparrow wants the traditional pirate life we know from countless other films. The obstacle is that he has no ship, no crew, and no competence. His strategies for achieving his goal are luck, confidence, charisma and frantic improvisation.
Mark Zuckerberg wants social status, and to be recognised. The obstacle to this is that he has no social skills and people don't like to be around him. His strategies for achieving this goal are to sink further into his bad habits, close himself off from those around him and commit to rage.
These three questions will be key to establishing any character.
Rather than depicting a character in a heightened situation as with Pirates of the Caribbean, The Social Network establishes its characters in an everyday familiar setting; what could easily be an ordinary day in their lives. The bar is crowded and the scene is visually busy. The lighting is low, an the colour is graded to be de-saturated. All of this is done to convey a mood, and to tell the audience that this is not a bright fantasy world, but the world we know.
The filmmakers use an abundance of dialogue to create a picture of who its characters are, and does this by establishing a key fact about them; what do they want?
Mark Zukerberg is obsessed with social status, fame, and infamy, and the opening scene establishes this from the get go. He speaks about his ambitions and belittles his date for not having yet made decisions about what she will do with her life. He is a character with a specific goal.
What makes him an interesting character is that the obstacle to that goal is his own personality. The script describes Mark as "hiding a complicated and dangerous anger", and this is on display in this opening scene. Socially awkward characters are a staple of cinema, but Mark's disdain for the people around him goes beyond that, establishing himself as a person furious with the world for not recognising him the way he sees himself.
Conclusion
While these two opening scenes use radically different techniques to establish their characters (ie dialogue vs visuals), both rely on costuming, mis-en-scene and shot composition to establish empathy, and both of them are essentially conveying the same three pieces of information.
What does the character want?
What is stopping them from getting it?
What strategies do they use to try to achieve it?
Jack Sparrow wants the traditional pirate life we know from countless other films. The obstacle is that he has no ship, no crew, and no competence. His strategies for achieving his goal are luck, confidence, charisma and frantic improvisation.
Mark Zuckerberg wants social status, and to be recognised. The obstacle to this is that he has no social skills and people don't like to be around him. His strategies for achieving this goal are to sink further into his bad habits, close himself off from those around him and commit to rage.
These three questions will be key to establishing any character.
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