Ikea Lamp Advertisement Cinematography Analysis

By: Eva Schiffer

Introduction

The main point of the cinematographic tricks in the Ikea lamp advertisement I will be analyzing is to convince the reader to feel sympathy for and connection with the red lamp. At the end of the add, this sympathy is used for an ironic twist to remind the viewer that they should feel free to buy new things whenever they like. It is a very clever turn around, since many people get very attached to their material things, even if they are old and in poor condition. In the rest of this analysis I will discuss the cinematographic tricks the director and cinematographer used manipulate how the viewer feels about the lamp in detail. 

There are only two scenes in this advertisement: an interior scene inside a house and an exterior scene out on the street in front of the house. The interior scene is made up of four shots and the exterior is made up of nine more (two of which are inside the house looking out at the street). I will discuss both scenes on a shot by shot basis.

The Interior Scene

Shot 1: Inside a living room the camera dollies in towards a red lamp on an end table. Out the window we can see that we are in the city. This shot establishes the basic setting and it begins to give the user a sense that the lamp should be their current focus. The lamp is almost centered on the screen. The dolly is going towards the lamp. The lamp is red, where the rest of the background is tans and browns. Also the lamp is a source of light, so it is brighter than anything else on the screen. All of these things are drawing the user's focus onto the lamp. Additionally, the shot is from "eye-level" height of the lamp (or bulb level if you like) so the user is encouraged to empathize with the lamp. 
A woman in an orange shirt moves into the scene leaning on the couch, she reaches back and unplugs the lamp and carries it out of the scene. Her orange shirt and the removal of the light of the lamp draw some focus to her, but the lamp's red color still stands out against the scene. Additionally we are still seeing from lamp eye-level and the woman's face is kept in shadow, so we are encouraged not to see her as the important player in this scene.

Shot 2: The woman is carrying the lamp over her shoulder and she is also carrying something else in her arms. This shot is handheld and moves slightly with the woman's steps. The shot has established what is immediatly happening to the lamp, but it leaves the viewer with the question of where the lamp is actually going and why the woman is taking it there. Also, since the viewer can not yet see what else the woman is holding, the composition, with the lamp in the center and the woman off to the side, looks a little like she is carrying a baby in her arms rather than a lamp. The red color of the lamp and its central position are still drawing the focus to the lamp and the viewer is still seeing from lamp eye-level, which encourages them to think as if they are seeing out of the lamp's "eyes" even though it does not have any.

Shot 3: The camera looks back at the end table the lamp came from and slowly moves away, rocking with the motion of footsteps. This handheld shot is again encouraging the viewer to put themselves in the place of the lamp.  The high angled shot is consistent with looking down from the woman's shoulder. This time the cinematographer has taken that idea one step further and put the camera in the place of the lamp's bulb, so the viewer is literally looking through the lamp's eyes. The couches and blinds in the shot both frame the end table because they are at approximately the one thirds and two thirds horizontal positions on the screen.

Shot 4: The woman, still carrying the lamp opens the outer door to the street and steps outside into a strong wind. She is wearing a coat now, so the viewer can infer that it is rather cold outside. The red lamp is still keeping the focus of the shot, but now the main lighting has shifted from from the tan of the woman's living room to a dim bluish light. The shift from a warm to cool color foreshadows the sadness of the lamp.

The Exterior Scene

Shot 5: The woman drops the lamp and a trash bag on the curb and heads back inside. Now the viewer has their answers about where the lamp is going and what the other thing the woman was carrying is. The trash can in the foreground and the light both fall on the one thirds lines of the composition, drawing the eye, but providing a slightly wider focus than in the previous shots where the lamp was centered. The trash bag ruffling in the wind and the blue light remind the viewer that it is cold and windy outside. The red lamp stands out here even more than it did inside, since all the scenery is shades of dim blue mixed with gray. The motivated blue light suggests the sadness and tragedy of the lamp. The viewer has been moved down to lamp eye level again, so they are also placed on the edge of the curb.

Shot 6: The viewer looks up past the lamp to the woman climbing the stairs back to her home. The bulk of the red lampshade is placed at the one third line on the right side of the screen and the woman is approximately at the other one third line on the left line of the screen as she climbs the stairs. Since the viewer is slightly below eye level for the lamp and far below eye level for the woman, they get a general feeling of powerlessness.  The blue light of the outside is contrasted with the warm brown light inside the windows, accentuating the fact that the "good, happy" place is inside and the lamp is not there. The lamp is buffeted by the wind, suggesting a more humanized shivering. The cinematographer is doing everything that he/she can to make the viewer feel as though they have been abandoned at the curb side with the lamp.

Shot 7: Shot 6 fades into a shot of the lamp sitting on the curbside at night in the pouring rain. Because it is much darker, the fade cut suggests to the user that a lot of time has passed since the lamp was first placed outside. The main light source in the scene is a motivated backlight formed by a street lamp behind and to the stage right of the lamp. The trash can, lamp, and trash bag are all backlit and the lamp is surrounded by the blue reflection of the street lamp on the street covered in rainwater. The lamp is no longer colorful in the dark. The camera dollies towards the lamp and a second light, behind the camera, turns on and illuminates the red of the lampshade. It also produces a spot of brightness where it reflects off of the inside of the lampshade. The viewer is left with the question, where did this new light come from? Additionally, the shine in the lampshade makes the lamp look more alive, almost as if it had an eye to shine in the light. The viewer is still at lamp eye level.

Shot 8: A low angle shot of the woman's living room window from the street. The camera slowly zooms in on the window so the viewer can see that the woman has just turned on a new lamp in the same corner that the red lamp once stood. Now the light that the viewer saw in shot 7 is motivated and their question is answered. The woman's window is much brighter than the rest of this shot, and perspective transforms the angles of the window edge into a suggestion of the diagonal shape of a dutch angle shot. This is suggesting the wrongness or evilness of this new set up where another lamp has usurped the red lamp's place (and apparently the woman's affection). Since perspective suggests we are still looking up from the curb, the cinematographer is once again putting us in the lamp's "shoes".

Shot 9: A high angle shot looking out of the window of the woman's apartment, the red lamp is framed by the window sill. The camera slowly zooms in on the lamp. The lamp is almost centered and it is flanked by the trash can and trash bag at the two horizontal one thirds lines. As the camera zooms in, the light that was highlighting the red lamp from behind the camera shuts off. The red lamp loses its brightness, though the backlight keeps a slight shine of the red of the lampshade visible. The user is left with the question of where the light went. Also, since the viewer is now far above the lamp, they have more of a feeling of power. The lamp seems to be small and alone, but the viewer could go out and get the lamp now, since they have the power.

Shot 10: A low angle shot, similar to shot 8 of the woman's window, the main difference is that the camera only zooms very slightly and the viewer can see that the new lamp has now been turned off, explaining the loss of the light in shot 9. The view through the window been very softly backlit with the motivated light from the other living room window so the new lamp and the couch are clearly outlined. The woman gets up to leave and she gestures to touch the new lamp as she steps away. It is a strangely affectionate gesture, and since the viewer is still seeing it from the point of view of the red lamp, it seems as if the woman's affection has been transfered away to the new lamp. The inside of the window is once again a slight warm brown color and the outside is still cool and blue, emphasizing the cold and the sadness of the red lamp. 

Shot 11: The camera, on the curb at lamp eye level again, dollies away from the lamp, roughly along the curb, keeping the lamp near the one third line of the screen. The street is dark, it is still raining, and the lighting is all blue highlights. The lamp has been moved, so that the bulb is pointing down, and this change invites the viewer to see the red lamp as abandoned and dejected. As the camera moves away, a man in dark slacks steps into the frame. Since passers by in dark clothes have been walking past on the sidewalk the view may initially ignore the man, but then the camera pans up into a high angle shot of the man's face and he begins speaking to us. The rooftops above and behind the man have been carefully backlit to help frame his position in the shot. The man then delivers the twist punch line of the advertisement and reminds the viewer that the red lamp is just a lamp after all.

The Music

The music used in this advertisement is very melancholy and sad. It also encourages the viewer to feel the red lamp's sadness. The music also begins off in an uncertain style, underlining the question of where the lamp is going, which is posed when the woman carries the lamp out of the room.

Conclusion

The main techniques used to make the viewer empathize with and feel sympathy for the lamp were matching the vertical angle of the shot to the point of view of the lamp, using lighting to highlight the "social" position of the lamp, and the color of lighting to highlight the emotions the viewer should be feeling for the lamp. The general context of the story of the lamp also helps to place each shot into the right perspective and get the viewer to focus on the red lamp's plight.
 
Overall this is a very carefully worked and very effective advertisement. Since most viewers have the natural inclination to get attached to material possessions it reminds them that they should feel free to see possessions as just objects and buy new things without guilt. The punch-line of the story is also amusing because the cinematographer has been leading the viewer astray by directing how they feel about the red lamp.