1. Assignment 6 (c/w): simple film
narrative structure analysis
Chelsea Fasholé-Luke

2. The Social Network (Drama)
• Harvard university student Mark
Zuckerberg creates a website called
‘Smashface’ on a late night after
being dumped by is girlfriend.
• He is approached by two other students
to help with a new idea they had to
create a new social network/dating
site exclusively for Harvard students.
• He comes up with the idea for
‘thefacebook.com’, a new social
network site where university
students can connect and share
photos etc. with each other
• With the help of a few friends they
create Facebook, resulting in a multi
billion dollar business and a couple of
lawsuits.

3. A) Has the institution created a text with a
conventional (stereotypical) narrative structure?
• No, however, the movie follows a non-linear narrative
structure which can be broken down into:
- Act one: set up
- Act two: conflict
- Act three: resolution

4. B) Explain how the film is narrative
implicit or explicit
Explicit Narrative Reasons Explicit Narrative Reasons
The man looks angry; his mouth is wide open as if Shows that he is angry.
nearly shouting, his brows are furrowed.
People in the background are jumping about, two
characters are shaking hands. Shows that they are
celebrating/congratulating.
The man in the background is out of focus (use of Shows that he is not paying
shallow focus) and the character in the foreground attention to the elderly man.
is turned away from him.
The man is moving away from the man in the Shows that the man if full
foreground, his face looks scared and he is moving view is threatened by the
his arms up towards himself, as if to protect character with his back to
himself. the camera

5. How the film uses unconventional narrative
structure (act one)
Act 1: set up
Mark creates a website that allows his peers to assess who is “hot or not” among his
college peers.
The break up The university Blog and hack

6. Act 1: continued
Meet Let the coding begin
Eduardo

7. Act 2
Act 2 moves between the past and the present, as the narrative goes back and
forth between the law suits against Mark Zuckerberg and the story of how and
why they happened.
Thefacebook.com The conflict The lawsuit
The threat
is live begins

8. Act 2: continued
The other law suit Sean Park enters the scene

9. Act 3
Act 3 focuses more on the past conflicts between those involved in
the expansion of Facebook. The conflict continues right up to the end
of the movie.
The expansion of Mark adds his ex
Eduardo gets Eduardo
Facebook girlfriend on
cut out threatens Mark
Facebook

10. Act 3: continued
Settlements are made The ‘happy’ ending

11. Which conventions have they subverted
(overthrown) or broken?
• Non-linear structure means
we jump between time • The issue at • The happy
zones. the end is ending is
resolved, more of an
but in a agreed-o
negative ending.
way. Everyone
leaves
satisfied but
not happy.

12. Why have the film makers used this
unconventional structure?
• To tell the story • Keeps the
without allowing audience
it to become
boring.
engaged as
they want to
know what
is to come
next.
• To keep a sense • Creates an enigma
of throughout that
unpredictabili means the
ty within the audience are in
film. suspense.

13. What impact does it have on the audience?
• By moving between • Confuses the • Refreshes the
the narratives, the audience at audience, as
audience is able to the beginning the majority of
see the answers to when the main mainstream
the enigmas we character is films follow a
are left with from shown in the chronological
the previous meeting about linear
scenes (like in the law suit. narrative.
‘Slumdog
Millionaire’). Moves straight from the
scene on the left (past) to
the scene on the right
(present).
Co-founder of
Facebook before
Scene where
the idea was
Eduardo is
hatched.
suing Mark.

14. What audience expectations have they established or
challenged by using this structure?
• Challenged:
- The expectation of
chronology
- The idea that stories only
make sense when told in
the right order
-
-

15. By Chelsea Fasholé-Luke