UCLA - B.A. in Film
Prompt: Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.
Emotions Are Social
When I walked on stage, the light was so bright that I couldn’t see anyone in the audience, which was fantastic. My friend had just passed me leaving the stage as if the roar of the crowd propelled him after performing an original song on guitar. The hollow stage bellowed into the silent room with every step.
“Hello!—” feedback pierced the air. Regaining my composure, “To perform my magic trick, I will need a volunteer.” As I couldn’t see any hands raise, I crept down the steps of the stage where the audience began revealing itself to me. I gulped seeing the sea of blank faces and menacing judges in the back. I took the person right next to me and headed back to my blinding sanctuary.
I guided my volunteer on stage and told her that she would pick a card. My sweaty hands struggled, but I retrieved my deck and she picked a card. As I turned away while she showed the audience the card, I slipped on my false thumb studded with a microscopic piece of lead.
Turning back around, I fetched pencil and paper and prompted her and the audience to imagine her chosen card floating in the air. I imitated scribbling the name of a card on my piece of paper and then flung the pencil. I told my volunteer to declare her card. As she uttered “5 of diamonds,” I guided my thumb over the paper to write it down while drawing attention to my face: “Are you ready to see what I wrote down?!” Revealing the paper, the sound that all performers crave flooded my ears.
That moment gifted me with the greatest epiphany. Getting a reaction out of someone or being the one reacting is what being a human is all about. I’m making a magic trick in order to get lost in it. The audience members who come to see the magic trick are there to get lost in it as well. The audience members walk home talking about the magic trick they saw and I reminisce about the reaction I witnessed.
This effect of magic mirrors what I love about film. The kid who leaves the theater after watching Spiderman leaves jumping around thinking he’s Spiderman; I’m sure the person who wrote Spiderman was thinking what he would do as Spiderman as he wrote the script.
I love this hidden connection between people that occurs surrounding performances. When the author writes, they draw from life experiences and put themselves in the main character’s shoes; I do the same when watching their movie. Without even sensing it, the audience relates to emotions and life experiences of the filmmakers directly through the creation. Emotions are social: They’re built on experiences to which others can relate. When I remind my friend how we used to eat Hot Cheetos after school and hear that one bus with the smudges on it roar by, the whole memory builds in his mind, evoking the bond and stillness that we both felt. A person overhearing us could visualize an entirely different scenario in which they ate Hot Cheetos, yet summon the same emotions. We think film moves us because we watch someone else’s story, but film moves us because we watch our own. Through lived experience and story, emotions socially connect. Nothing amplifies our feeling like building off of the feelings that others experience.
This principle convinces me movies are important— they create a place for people to access cultural feelings. The Indian author Aarohi Mekvan said, “Art binds the eternity into one soul.” Art makes people feel loved, understood, and accepted. Through love and acceptance, social film drama unites people in a common sense of humanity and shared responsibility, which gives film the power to make positive change.
