WHAT DID JUSTICE LEAGUE TEACH ME ABOUT STORYTELLING?
Stick with me, I will tell you how to apply it to your craft, but first, what does storytelling really mean in practice? (not just theories).
If I got a dollar for every time I heard someone say how powerful storytelling is, "I for don buy Benz by now".
I was tired of hearing how important it was but I didn't fully comprehend what It truly meant and how to take advantage of it.
For me, storytelling didn't make that much sense, not until I was part of another man's story - Zack Snyder.
It all started when I heard rumors in 2020 that Warner Bros was finally considering giving the go-ahead to #ReleaseTheSnyderCut.
I did a little research on Wikipedia and YouTube to understand what the Snyder Cut was. During my findings, my eyes were immediately opened to why the 2017 Justice League movie didn't do well in the Box office despite the massive budget of $300m and hype surrounding its release.
You see, Zack Snyder, the original director of the 2017 Justice League had too many creative differences with the studio heads at WB. They wanted to change the vision of the movie to better compete with Marvel’s Avengers. They brought in the director of Avengers Joss Whedon to oversee and make changes to Zack’s work, but during filming, Zack and his wife Debby lost their daughter to suicide, this was very hard on him, he had to step down from the project and the new director reshot almost the entire movie, and fans didn’t like the outcome.
Fans who knew of the back story began an online and offline campaign to release the version Zack didn’t complete. The hashtag #ReleaseTheSnyderCut trended for years as fans crowdfunded to buy ads in Times square, Billboards, Stadiums, and also for suicide prevention.
As I read all this, the web designer in me could relate to having one's work underappreciated and being replaced by someone else. I could also relate to losing a loved one and going through mental health battles.
Now, because I could relate to his struggles this deeply, I empathized with him, I began to root for him. My anticipation for the movie went from 55% to 180% instantly. I became a Zack Snyder fan overnight. I kept posting about the movie months before its release. I didn't even mind that the movie was going to be 4hr long. I was pumped up.
I also observed how unenthusiastic others were about the movie, given that they had no idea of the back story of the movie, for them it was another opportunity for Marvel fans to gloat at DC's failure once again. I didn't care how the movie would turn out. I only cared that Snyder could finally finish HIS VISION.
One reason the 2017 JL didn't sell was that there wasn't enough backstory on the characters, the movie had great action but not enough STORY, it felt rushed, unlike the 2021 version that spent 4hrs telling us how they united as a team.
Backstories matter.
Now, to harness the power of storytelling, you need to understand the power of association in the brain.
When the human brain observes a thing or person, it immediately goes searching in its vast archive to find and make a correlation with any previous data it has.
When there is a back story or more information about a person/thing, you place higher importance on that character than a randomly new name you just heard. For example, if I tell you Dr. Leo, will release a new album soon, it wouldn't make any sense to you, but if I tell you Laycon is about to drop an album, your anticipation level rises because you know his backstory in relation to BB9ja.
This is why many people make a greater impact on their subsequent projects. The first one served to expose them, and by the time other projects were released, the person was no longer a stranger. Also, knowing about their RELATABLE struggles moves the empathy needle much farther. It worked for Laycon in BB9ja house, his story did the magic for him.
Think about it, Sowore was already popular on the streets before he ran for Presidency as opposed to the other contenders that were new on the political scene. Desmond Elliot was already known via movies before his foray into politics.
If you have read this far, you probably don't know me, but the image of the Justice League on this post piqued your interest. This is a practical example. Your brain knows something about the superheroes and their stories.
Then if I go-ahead to add that I was once depressed and now I am almost done writing my book on mental health, this will automatically add to the little you know about me, and the next time you see my picture or name, you will make the connection.
Additionally, hearing this story about the Zack Snyder Justice league might endear you to it than before.
What are you doing (often) to build your story into the hearts of your audience so that before the launch of your next big project, people already know your name and story?
Here are a few ideas
Get your smaller HELPFUL contents published on popular blogs, Instagram pages, newspapers, sponsored social media posts, radio, give out free ebooks with plenty of value and gather emails, host online webinars in association with popular people, etc
Do all this before your big launch, many people will already know who you are and will connect with your story as you share them through those avenues.
People will connect with you the same way I connected with Zack Snyder.