Chapter 204 "Unmainstream" Biopic

The first to question was Green Nutt, as the first "character" to see the script, he didn't care about his pitifully small part in the script, but expressed dismay at Lin Ming Yang's portrayal of himself as a "loose cannon" character. He was not concerned about his small part in the script, but expressed his dismay at Lin's portrayal of himself as a "loose cannon".

"Even if you write Mark as a scheming person, and even a bit sinister, you don't have to write yourself in such an exaggerated way. Whether Mark is a scheming person or not is something we all actually know in our hearts, but you're a public figure, isn't it a bit ill-considered to self-destruct your image like that. Even though the newspapers often read gossip about you, we all know that you're a guy who lives a very disciplined life."

Lin Ming Yang froze, Green Nutt's words made him feel ashamed, in fact, his private life was not even close to the word "discreet", it could even be said to be chaotic.

He smiled heatedly, "What's on the surface can never be relied upon."

Green Nutt did not hear the heavy self-parody in his words, from the perspective of literary appreciation, his evaluation of the script is still objective, "The biggest problem with this script is that you have a very difficult and conservative trade-off between the real and the dramatic, he is not outright fictional, but I can hardly say that it is in the documentary."

"When I was writing this book, I didn't want it to be a simple story related to success, because if I followed that line of thought, then it's actually not that different from other inspirational books about successful businessmen on the market." Lin Ming Yang shrugged, "I think what people are more curious about is how a young man in his early 20's grasps such a huge fortune, and what kind of obstacles has he encountered on this great road to success?"

Half of Green-Nat's body was reclined on the sofa, sort of nestled inside, while Lin Mingyang stood in the center of the living room, and apart from the occasional clasped hands in contemplation, he spent most of his time constantly elucidating his point of view.

"I wanted to show everyone a billionaire's upbringing that was different from what people expected, and in Mark's case, it does have those elements. He's a genius, he's gone through some crises in his life and he understands psychology very well himself, he dissects himself a lot and will struggle with himself in two very different points of view, and I felt this profoundly when I lived with him, he's a combination of contradictions, so I wanted to portray this contradiction within him."

"Not many audiences want to see the kind of biopic in the theater where they don't have to think to understand what the story is about. The Social Network is not a documentary, and it's not just Mark's real-life experiences replicated on the big screen. I'm adding some of my own perspective to the real thing, maybe in terms of the underlying connections of certain things that are not so readily apparent, but if I tease out that connection and show it to the audience, the audience will feel that there's this unimaginable layer of storytelling that's going on. So The Social Network i.e. is a biographical movie, but at the same time you can also see it as a drama that has some connection to reality."

Green Nutt nodded, "I'm starting to understand a little bit what you mean, the Mark in your script is more like a character that only exists in the virtual world, no one would believe that such a person actually lives in our world, so when people know that this is a real billionaire, everyone will be amazed, and in this way you've achieved the purpose of making this movie. "

----

Just because Greene Nutter was able to understand Lin Ming Yang's intentions didn't mean that other people were able to think the same way. The person who couldn't figure it out the most was, of course, Billy Olsen, because in Lin Ming Yang's script, he was still an insignificant minor character. Lin Ming Yang focused all of the conflicts of the entire plot on the Winklevoss brothers and Saverin, and Olsen could only be considered a drag queen character in the entire story.

On the contrary, his good friend Jesse Eisenberg got lucky this time, and after Lin Ming Yang decided to make this movie, Jesse, who looks like Mark Zuckerberg, became the first confirmed character actor in the drama.

Olsen came up with another trick when one failed. He gave up his own weightless role in the drama and instead began to actively lobby Lin Ming Yang for the role of Vesalyn in the movie.

"Vesalyn is handsome and poised, he's always been a socialite when he was in school, and you're nothing more than a clown clowning around on the internet!" The cold war between Grim-Nat and Olsen had never ended, and he was present when Olsen was pleading with Lin Mingyang, making sure to spare no effort in hitting his opponent.

Olsen didn't have the time to fight with him at this moment, he looked at Lin Ming Yang blearily, his gaze full of expectation.

But Lin Ming Yang still shook his head firmly, "I don't agree with Nat's statement, but you really aren't suitable for this role."

Strangely enough, Olsen's eyes rolled, and his face actually didn't have the same kind of frustration that he had when he was rejected before. Lin Ming Yang was just wondering how this guy suddenly wanted to open up when Olsen's fox tail finally revealed itself.

He hemmed and hawed, "Actually, I also know that I'm not suitable for this role, but I always have to fight to show my attitude, or else I'll be laughed at by some people." As he said this he deliberately glanced towards Green Nutter's side, "I can skip this role, but can I recommend you a candidate for the role?"

"All I need for this shoot are professional actors." Lin Ming Yang was telling Olsen with such certainty that there was no room for negotiation in this matter.

Olsen finally showed his cards, "I'm going to recommend Mark's ex-girlfriend to you, the character that only appeared in the beginning of the script, is this something you're going to look for a professional actor for as well?"

"This role..." Lin Ming Yang hesitated, Mark's fictional ex-girlfriend, is a key character that leads to the plot, but her role in the entire movie is a drag queen. Olsen recommended this role to Lin Ming Yang to play, if he refused, not only would he look a bit petty, but it would also damage the relationship between him and Olsen.

After all, it is not an important role, Lin Mingyang happy to generously do this favor, he nodded his head, Olsen jumped up happily, and when he was excited, he said that he missed the point.

"I'll tell Ginny about this right away..."

"Ginny?"

Hearing this name, Lin Ming Yang's mind couldn't help but conjure up that beautiful blonde girl. When they first enrolled in school, the two used to get very close, but since the College Student Film Festival the year before last, the relationship slowly began to rust. Ginny was still the same feisty reporter from the Harvard Crimson, except that she no longer had an exclusive interview with Lin Ming Yang. In addition to Lin Mingyang's deliberately low profile, there were of course some unknown reasons.

----

With his growing fame, it was now difficult for Lin Mingyang to sit quietly in an off-campus cafe for an afternoon without being disturbed like before. That cafe that he used to frequent, he hadn't sat there for a long time. He suddenly thought of this place when he was meeting up with Ginny Viet place.

Still the same window seat that he used to often sit in before, Lin Ming Yang opposite Jin Ni today did not deliberately dress herself up, still tied a ponytail as usual, and her face was only lightly made up, but it showed a kind of plain and chic flavor. Although staring at a girl's face is a very impolite behavior, but Lin Mingyang's eyes still have no qualms about staying in Jin Ni's face for at least three minutes.

In the end, Ginny had to knock on the table and glared at him in an unfavorable manner. When Lin Mingyang snapped and withdrew his gaze, Jinni felt a little more lost in her heart. In the past, when Jin Ni dressed up exquisitely to get Lin Ming Yang's attention, he was oblivious to her beauty; now she didn't have the same thoughts as before, but Lin Ming Yang started to appreciate her beauty, so it had to be said that such a contrast was full of irony.

"Can we get down to business?" Ginny suppressed the loss in her heart and made a very indifferent expression on her face.

Lin Ming Yang laughed, "But we've already started!"

Ginny frowned slightly, she didn't know what kind of medicine Lin Ming Yang was selling in his gourd.

Seeing her face full of doubt, Lin Ming Yang had to explain, "Don't you want to play the female lead in the movie? Through my observation just now, you've already passed the preliminary exam!"

Ginny visibly froze for a moment, "But Olsen told that the script only has less than five minutes of acting passages for this character, how can such a character be called a female lead?"

"Olsen didn't lie, but for the positioning of this role, you and I think a little differently." Lin Ming Yang shrugged his shoulders and continued, "In terms of the proportion of scenes, your role can definitely not be called a protagonist. But for the plot role, you can't underestimate this character who appears for less than five minutes, she is the key character that triggers the entire story."

Ginny laughed noncommittally, then teased with a playful tone, "Directors like to tell those unimportant actors that your roles are important, and apparently there's nothing new in this rhetoric of yours."

"There will be a lot of female characters in this movie, but none of them will be on camera for more than half a minute. From this perspective, the female character with the longest screentime in the entire movie is naturally the movie's female lead!" Lin Mingyang replied cunningly.

Knowing that Lin Ming Yang was being sly, but Ginny didn't take it seriously, in fact, she had other purposes for wanting to join the cast.

"I'm curious about the way you made this movie, I don't need any payment for that role, but I want to do a fully documented follow up on the filming of the movie, this shouldn't be too much to ask for, right?"

Lin Ming Yang smiled at her meaningfully, there was a flavor in his expression that meant something unspeakable, "You want to hear the truth?"

"Why not?" Ginny nodded her head seriously.

Lin Mingyang moved his body forward, then beckoned Ginny to come closer as well. Although she was a bit skeptical, Ginny did as she was told.

Lin Ming Yang whispered in her ear, "I've always hated reporters...but you're an exception!"

----

The first scene about The Social Network is in a bar where Mark and his girlfriend are on a date. The content content of this part of the script alone was baffling to Ginny. Prior to filming, Ginny had been complaining about the unreadability of the plot, let alone finding any hidden meanings in it.

It wasn't difficult to shoot this part because there weren't many images of the two appearing on camera at the same time, so all those lengthy lines were written on a teleprompter board, and neither of the two actors needed to struggle to memorize them, but they had to understand the content of this conversation because Lin Ming Yang did conceal a lot of ambiguities for the plot that would come later in the show in this conversation.

"The purpose of this scene is to outline the plot, a lot of dialog provides a lot of information, because the focus of this film is on Mark as a person, the opening scene allows the audience to quickly understand the main characteristics of the character." When explaining the scene to Ginny before filming, Lin Mingyang appeared to be very patient.

Ginny stretched her two hands, "But other than the illogical language jumps, I don't see anything else."

"Well, that means you've gotten into your character well." Lin Ming Yang shrugged, this had become a habitual action when he answered questions.

"First of all Mark is very smart, in the play he mentions the SAT, he got into Harvard with a perfect score, and his rapid speech habits show that his brain is quick to react and think fast, he can think about multiple issues at once and is able to switch seamlessly."

Hearing him explain it that way, Ginny then felt as if it was really true.

"Secondly he's cocky, Mark opens with the question: both have perfect SAT scores, how can I be different? The question appears to be a question to his ex-girlfriend, but it's actually a brag to him. And the girlfriend unsurprisingly responds with admiration: you actually got one question right? Got it right in one sitting? Without checking? That response made Mark smug."

"Surely no one in reality would like that smug guy." Ginny's view of Mark's reality hadn't fundamentally changed because she knew Lin Mingyang.

Lin Ming Yang didn't think much about it, "In reality the character Erica is fictional, why would such a pretty girl like Mark? He's neither tall nor handsome, and he can't say nice things to make a girl happy. So I always have to find a reason for her to like Mark, and that reason is - smart and talented.Erica goes out with Mark out of admiration for his talent, after all, she herself just went to Boston University."

Lin Ming Yang's drawling analysis made Ginny's thoughts slowly start to clear up, "And?"

"Mark has low self-esteem!"

Ginny's mouth opened wide in surprise, "That guy would feel inferior?"

Lin Ming Yang was in no hurry to explain, continuing to analyze methodically, "This can also be seen from the conversation, first of all, it is reflected in Mark's unilateral belief that girls will all like those rowers, tall and muscular. Just like men like girls with big breasts and fat asses, it's a normal physiological tendency. In fact, this is true, but the wrong is at least Erica is not so, she likes Mark, it shows that she appreciates more talented people, rather than looking at those big and stupid jocks. It's just that Mark has an inferiority complex, so he's overly sensitive to the word rower, and when Erica jokes about liking jocks a lot, he immediately flips out."

"When Erica asks Mark which club is the easiest to join. Once again, Mark misunderstands her and he feels that Erica is being sarcastically sarcastic, believing that even with his abilities he can only find the easiest club to join, not the best one. These are reactions to his internalized low self-esteem. He has a genius brain, but is not good at communicating, and one could even say that he doesn't know how to communicate with people at all."

After listening to Lin Ming Yang's analysis, Ginny asked curiously, "Is Mark in reality like this too?"

Lin Ming Yang returned and said, "The character's personality in the movie script is definitely exaggerated to a certain extent, but in reality, Mark is indeed an unsociable guy, but he doesn't have low self-esteem."

"Yeah, he put all the pictures of the girls in the whole school on the internet, that's really a great feat, how could someone like that have low self-esteem?" Ginny's words carried a strong sense of sarcasm.

"It seems like when we first met, you had the same tone when you were commenting on Mark." Lin Ming Yang laughed and shook his head, "Even though he founded Facebook and became the youngest billionaire in the US, none of this has been able to change your attitude...women's resentment is really scary."

"Maybe he's a great IT talent...it's not that he's headstrong, because he's just an asshole!" Ginny looked at Lin Ming Yang with a light and shallow smile, "That's what I consider to be the most classic line in the entire show, and it's the most appropriate to use to evaluate that guy...besides, it's what you said!"

Lin Ming Yang began to "play dumb" as he looked at Ginny with a blank expression, "Did I ever say such a thing?"

"You didn't say that directly, but that's what you wrote in your script!" Other girls might be confused by Lin Ming Yang's expression, but not Ginny, who let go of the script in her hand and then found supporting evidence for her point.

"Don't think I'm going to take this Erica's parting words as a girl's gaslighting, I know there's a deeper meaning hidden within. Even to the point where this could essentially be interpreted as the main idea of the entire movie. Or a guessing game in which you actually open the movie by telling everyone the answer to the riddle right off the bat, only none of us were paying attention."

Lin Ming Yang clasped his hands and looked at Ginny with a smile on his face, "And then?"

"At the end of the script, the female lawyer also said to Mark on her parting shot as well: you're not an asshole, although you're working very hard towards that goal. Don't tell me it's just a coincidence that you're implying your own attitude into this, am I right?"

"You're only half right, the truth is that I have no ill feelings towards Mark, but the reality of his success is that there are two very different views: some see him as an asshole who will do anything to achieve his goals; but others see him as a social entrepreneur who benefits all of mankind. I continue to emphasize that this is a biopic, so I'm merely using different characters in the film to show these two views."

"What Mark did, from the point of view of his ex-girlfriend or a third party, could be described as despicable and just short of nasty. However, from Mark's own point of view, he didn't do anything wrong, he only did what he thought was right or what he should have done, he didn't lie, he didn't subjectively and deliberately cheat, he just wanted to do a great job and let the whole world know about him, that's all!"