Stories, Empathy and Emotional Investment in Things That Aren’t Real (except in our imagination)

Do you remember this one? It’s a classic, and a real example of how we invest in things that technically aren’t real, save in our own imaginations.

Personification, expections, subversions of expectations and a straight up kick in the nethers at the end. And look at the techniques he used in getting us to that point – how the lamp was shivering in the cold for long seconds after she dropped it off and walked away. How it was “stooped over” in the rain. All those little things anthropomorphized the lamp and left us suggestible to the sad music, and wide open to the kicker at the end…

(I have some experience anthropomorphizing bowling balls… it’s kinda fun)

With our screenplays, we may not have access to moody music, and we may not want to burden our scripts with overly explicit camera directions, but are there still things we can do to evoke, draw out emotions and then maybe completely subvert expectations and take everything you’re feeling and flip it on its head?

There’s an old story. Maybe it’s an urban legend or from a movie. I don’t know, but  I can’t find anything on it on Google (I’m not really trying that hard though… it’s just a handy example).

Anyways… it involves a big group of people sitting around a styrofoam cup. The leader of the seminar walks around the group, giving the cup human traits, encouraging the group to look at the cup and really empathize with it.

And just as the group is getting tuned in to the cup…

CRUSH!

And people get upset. Why? Because they are crazy. It is just a styrofoam cu-

Er, sorry. That’s Ikea talking. Why? Because we empathize. We project.

It’s why we were upset when this guy floated away –

Or this thing blew up –

Or why a piece of foam with a man’s hand up its posterior is still being quoted 35 years later –

Or indeed why we even care about a bunch of fictional characters running around in fake sets with non-existent sounds and visual effects being overlaid on top the footage –

Because we as a species have this wonderful ability to just absorb ourselves in just about anything.

It’s why we write… because we want to bring worlds to life for everyone else that we’re enjoying in our heads. It’s why we read. It’s why we go to the movies or watch TV.

So really, it’s not surprising that a filmmaker would take such a cynical approach to an Ikea ad. Because someone like Spike Jonze has made a career out of making people care for things and characters that only exist in the viewer’s imaginations.

Learn how to properly tap into that ability, and… and…

(I got this styrofoam cup and squashy hand image from the internet a couple years ago, but I don’t remember from where. If if’s yours, let me know and I’ll be happy to drop a link onto the page sending people to the source)