The Social NetworkA Harvard film made almost everywhere but Harvard

15 of 15 places · 29 of 29 Moments

• The steps between the Wyman and Keyser quads

  Homewood campus, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore

  • Harvard University, Fall 2003

    An undergraduate with a mop of hair runs across a lamp-lit quad at nightfall under a subtitle that says Harvard University, Fall 2003. It is Johns Hopkins in fall 2009.

  • Two nights and a day

    The crew films at Homewood over two nights and one day in November 2009, mostly outdoors and at night.

  • Harvard says no

    Harvard does not allow commercial filming, so the location manager Bill Doyle calls for a stand-in. Jack Gerbes of the Maryland Film Office, who has worked with Hopkins before, answers.

  • The cheer at the breezeway

    At a sneak preview, Hopkins students cheer whenever their campus appears, loudest for the little breezeway between Mergenthaler and Remsen.

  • A Q&A in Hodson Hall

    Fincher, Cronenweth, Eisenberg and Garfield answer students’ questions at Hodson Hall; Hopkins theatre students work as extras.

  • Harvard fliers

    The crew brings real Harvard fliers to post around Homewood, mentioning buildings such as Emerson Hall.

  • Homewood plays again

    House of Cards later uses Homewood too: an altered MSE Library and Gilman Hall play Frank Underwood’s old military academy.

• Latrobe Hall, the screen Kirkland House

  Wyman Quad, Homewood campus, Baltimore

  • Kirkland House

    Latrobe Hall plays Kirkland House, the dorm Mark runs home to.

• Shaffer Hall, the disciplinary board

  Homewood campus, Baltimore

  • The disciplinary board

    Shaffer Hall plays the Harvard building where Mark is put on probation over Facemash; its directory is redressed for Harvard engineering.

• AMR I

  Alumni Memorial Residences, Homewood campus, Baltimore

  • Too cold to notice

    Mark and Eduardo talk outside AMR I’s service entrance, and Mark is comically oblivious to the cold.

  • The reversed shot

    Crossing Charles Street to the back of AMR I, the shot is reversed so Mark seems to run the right way.

• The walkway by University Baptist Church

  3501 North Charles Street, Baltimore

  • The run home

    The run starts on the walkway by University Baptist Church, crosses Charles Street, passes behind AMR I and climbs the steps between the quads.

• The Thirsty Scholar, now Tall Order

  70 Beacon Street, Somerville

  • Dumped in a bar

    The film begins with Mark’s girlfriend breaking up with him in a bar. The barroom was the Thirsty Scholar in Somerville.

  • More character than Los Angeles

    Scouts pick the pub from more than 30; the owners say the production found Los Angeles bars lacked character.

  • Tall Order

    The Thirsty Scholar closes in 2024 and reopens as the cocktail bar Tall Order in March 2025.

• Aquitaine, outside the Porcellian

  569 Tremont Street, South End, Boston

  • Outside the Porcellian

    Aquitaine’s window lettering is repainted for the street outside the Porcellian Club, where Mark meets the Winklevoss twins.

• Wheelock’s quad, now BU’s Fenway Campus

  200 The Riverway, Boston

  • Fake snow on the quad

    Wheelock’s quad is filled with fake snow to play Harvard.

• Phillips Academy: the lawn that played Harvard Yard

  Paresky Commons, Phillips Academy, Andover

  • The initiation

    Eduardo is initiated into the Phoenix on a snowy Harvard Yard that is really the lawn in front of Paresky Commons at Andover.

• Community Rowing boathouse

  20 Nonantum Road, Newton, on the Charles

  • Thirty rowers, twenty places

    Former Harvard and Northeastern rowers try out at Community Rowing; the twins’ crew is rowed by body doubles.

• Newell Boathouse, Harvard

  801 Soldiers Field Road, Boston

  • The tanks

    Harvard’s rowing tanks are rebuilt at Boston University’s tanks, from photographs of Newell.

  • Blue oars, painted red

    The rowing consultant spots blue oars on the set wall; blue is Yale’s colour, and they are painted red in minutes.

• Kirkland House, the real one

  Dunster Street, Cambridge

  • Mark’s dorm

    Mark lives in Kirkland House in the story. On screen it is Latrobe Hall in Baltimore.

  • A chess formula

    Facemash ranks pairs with the Elo rating system, a chess formula for head-to-head encounters. A Warwick mathematician notes the film writes it out wrongly.

• Harvard Yard

  Harvard Yard, Cambridge

  • It isn’t the Yard

    The opening run seems to cross Harvard Yard. Harvard does not allow commercial filming on campus.

  • Around Cambridge

    Refused the Harvard campus, the film shot most of its college scenes around Cambridge, Cronenweth says, with a muted palette and shallow focus.

• Henley Bridge and the regatta reach

  Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire

  • The Grand Challenge Cup

    The twins’ 2004 Henley final is recreated at the Regatta itself, with only three races to shoot.

  • Out of focus on purpose

    Fincher softens everything but the rowers, who move in and out of a thin plane of focus.

• Windsor Bridge, between Windsor and Eton

  Thames Street, Windsor, to Eton High Street

  • Four days at Eton

    Close shots of the boats are filmed over four days at Eton; Mark Romanek photographs Fincher on the river at Windsor.

  • The scouting list

    Before shooting, Fincher and Cronenweth visit Cambridge, California, Maryland, Dorney Lake, Windsor and Oxfordshire.