Mark: I wasn't making a comment on your parents.
I was just saying that you go to BU.
I was stating a fact, that's all.
Narrator: This is the opening scene of \"The Social Network.\"
And this is what that dialogue looks like in a graph.
Mark: You don't have to study.
Erica: Why do you keep saying I don't have to study?!
Mark: Because you go to BU!
Narrator: "The Social Network" was written by Aaron Sorkin,
a writer whose scripts are often described
as "rhythmic" or "musical."
But those descriptors are vague,
and I wanted to find out
exactly why Sorkin's writing sounds so distinctive.
Administrator: I don't understand.
Mark: Which part?
Narrator: So I counted every syllable
in each line of dialogue and put it in a chart.
I did my best to pick several other two-person scenes
with similar attributes and compared the graphs
of these scenes to the one from "The Social Network."
And what you end up with is pretty amazing.
You can actually see the rhythm
of how Sorkin writes compared to other writers.
I also compared this particular "Social Network" scene
to other pieces that Sorkin had written
and found similar patterns across his writing.
So, what exactly are these rhythmic elements?
And why does Sorkin incorporate them in his writing?
Well, the first thing that stands out
when comparing this scene to others
is that Sorkin uses longer lines of dialogue.
In the opening scene for "The Social Network,"
Sorkin has nine lines of dialogue
that are over 45 syllables long,
more than twice as many as are in the opening
of "When Harry Met Sally,"
one of the film scenes most similar to "The Social Network."
The upside of sprinkling these mini-speeches
throughout this scene is that it creates
more variations in the rhythms of the dialogue.
By pairing these longer lines
with the quick and witty banter that Sorkin is known for...
Erica: I'm sorry you're not
sufficiently impressed with my education.
Mark: And I'm sorry I don't have a rowboat, so we're even.
Narrator: He prevents the exchanges
from getting too repetitive.
If every line in the scene was roughly the same length,
the exchanges would get dull.
You can also see just the sheer amount
of dialogue in this one scene.
Sorkin fits considerably more lines of dialogue
into this five-minute scene
than other writers' scenes of the same length.
While part of this is due to the fact
that Sorkin likes to write characters
who naturally speak fast, he tailors his scripts
to ensure faster dialogue in several ways.
First, he writes very few action lines
compared to other writers.
And Sorkin also controls the speed of the dialogue
by frequently having characters interrupt
and speak over each other.
Mark: I'm sorry, I mean it.
Erica: I appreciate that, but I have to go—
Mark: Come on. You don't have to study.
You don't have to study. Let's just talk.
Erica: I can't.
Narrator: So, why increase the speed of dialogue?
Obviously, it's entertaining to listen to,
but there's more to it than that.
Having faster dialogue allows for more variation
in the tempo of the scene.
For a good example, take a look at this clip:
Mark: You don't have to study.
Erica: Why do you keep saying I don't have to study?!
Mark: Because you go to BU!
Narrator: The blurring exchange of dialogue
between the characters
increases the impact of the subsequent pause,
making the moment much more jarring.
The syllable chart is great for looking
at the broad patterns of rhythm in Sorkin's writing,
but to understand how he composes his words
to give his dialogue a musical quality,
I took a closer look at his writing.
While it is natural for words
to repeat themselves in dialogue,
Sorkin has an extreme amount of
repetition in his scripts.
Take a look at the opening of "The Social Network."
Everything that's highlighted
is a word or phrase that's repeated.
In fact, out of the 141 sentences in the scene,
22 of them are repeated essentially verbatim.
That's 15% of the sentences in the scene.
When looking at the scenes from other films,
they have nowhere near as much repetition.
By listening to these lines of dialogue,
you can tell that Sorkin is intentionally repeating
these specific words and phrases
to create a rhythm that simply sounds good.
Erica: I think we should just be friends.
Mark: I don't want friends.
Erica: I was just being polite.
I have no intention of being friends with you.
Mark: I'm under some pressure...
Narrator: This repetition is fun to listen to,
regardless of if you pick up on it or not.
As Sorkin aptly puts it, "What the words sound like
is as important to me as what the words mean."
If you can believe it,
there's actually one more literary trick
that Sorkin embeds in his dialogue:
writing in meter.
Meter is a poetic structure that was famously used
by Shakespeare in many of his plays and sonnets.
There are several types of meter—
I won't get into the details here—
but one of the most famous versions is iambic meter,
which is the repetition of one unstressed
and one stressed syllable.
Romeo: But soft! What light through yonder window breaks?
Narrator: Because iambic meter naturally sounds
so appealing, some say it sounds like a heartbeat.
A number of famous lines
from film history are written in it.
Gertie: E.T. phone home.
Elliott: E.T. phone home.
Dorothy: You had me at hello.
Maverick: I feel the need...
Both: The need for speed.
Narrator: And some of Sorkin's own characters
in "The West Wing" discuss the merits of writing in meter.
Toby: He wrote a dissenting opinion
in what I'm almost certain is trochaic tetrameter.
Narrator: So it should come to no surprise
that Sorkin incorporates meter into his own writing,
especially for some of his most memorable lines,
to give his writing a little more rhythm
in important moments.
Sean: A million dollars isn't cool.
You know what's cool?
Narrator: Using meter is a small way to make a sentence
naturally sound more pleasing.
As Sorkin describes it:
And that's the whole point.
The key to why Sorkin's writing is so exciting to listen to
is that it literally sounds like music.
Almost any song will do, but one song that is
a particularly good comparison to Sorkin's writing
is "Anything You Can Do (I Can Do Better)"
from the musical "Annie Get Your Gun."
The parallels are pretty obvious.
No, you can't. Yes, I can.
Erica: There are really more people in China
with genius IQs than the entire population—
Mark: The Phoenix is the most diverse.
The Fly Club—
No, you can't. Yes, I can.
♪ No, you can't ♪
♪ Yes, I can ♪
♪ No, you can't ♪
Erica: I have to go study.
Mark: You don't have to study.
Erica: Why do you keep saying I don't have to study?!
Mark: Because you go to BU!
Anything you can do, I can do better
Sean: A million dollars isn't cool.
You know what's cool?
Eduardo: You?
Narrator: Sorkin's melodic dialogue
is just plain fun to listen to.
The rhythm and the pulse are engrossing.
At times I don't understand the technical jargon
that he uses in his scripts...
Mark: They have 10 minutes to get root access
to a Python web server, expose its SSL encryption,
and then intercept all traffic over its secure port.
Narrator: But it's still completely entrancing.
And this is what I think makes Sorkin's writing so special.
By putting in the extra effort to layer his dialogue
with rhythms and melodies, he ensures that his scenes
are incredibly entertaining to listen to.
And I would have to agree with Sorkin when he says:
"It's not just that dialogue sounds like music to me.
It actually is music."