The Social Network Reflection

One of the most interesting aspects that I was able to observe about the film, The Social Network, was the lighting that was used throughout the various scenes. Initially what grabbed my attention was the first scene where Mark and Erica are at a restaurant where it is dim, and there is barely any adequate light. It seemed interesting to me that a blurry setting would be the scene that the director wants to introduce us to in the first minutes of the film. But as the movie progresses, the viewer is able to realize that it is not just the introduction that has somber tones, but the film in general. Take Mark’s dorm room for example. It is dark, messy, and inadequately lit. Sure, this may be the case for some dorms, but it is clearly a creative decision to set the scenes in a dorm that is of this type and not one that is properly lit, as many college dorms are. At the Alpha Epsilon Pi frat party, it is also very dark and the lighting is very dim. All of these scenes in where there is dim lighting, some sort of shady activity within the characters occurs. Another example of this is the restaurant where Mark and Eduardo have dinner with the founder of Napster, and the house in California where Eduardo arrives drenched. All of these scenes don’t happen in daylight or even at night with proper lighting, but in obscurity. In my notes, I wrote down the words “secretive” for several of the moods that were conveyed in these scenes. Looking back, I think that this feeling is exactly what the director was trying to capture with this creative decision. The plot of the film hides several layers of secrets that are only revealed later on as the film progresses. For example, it was never made clear who planted the story about the chickens on the Harvard newspaper, and at the time it wasn’t clear that Eduardo’s shares would be diluted to have no value. I think that the directive decision hinders some of the visual appeal of the film, as it is sometimes hard to focus on such dull and dim settings, but in terms of meaning and symbolism, adds quite a bit, making it an interesting and creative directive decision.