Creator’s Statement
Within my video essay I will be answering the question of: how the mise-en-scene in scenes depicting the multiverse help to enrich a film’s story? I plan to answer this question using three films to support my argument. Everything Everywhere All at Once (Kwan & Scheinert, 2022), Spider-Man: Across the Spider-verse (Dos Santos, Powers & Thompson, 2023) and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (Raimi, 2022) are the films I will be using to support my video essay as all three feature the multiverse in a significant way that impacts the narrative of their respective films. The Research question of my video essay interests me as I was fascinated by the rise in popularity of films that feature the multiverse. Upon further thought about why multiverse films have become so popular I realised that their rise in popularity has a lot to do with the rise in popularity of comic book adaptations. Comic books, more specifically science fiction / superhero comic books, often feature storylines concerned with the multiverse and so it is unsurprising that with the increasing output of movie studios like Marvel, there have been a greater amount of multiverse stories told. The multiverse, however, is not a concept limited to comic book adaptations, as a film like Everything Everywhere All at Once shows that interesting original stories can be told using it. As I was aware about why so many multiverse films were being produced, I began to become fascinated about how the concept could be featured in audio-visual storytelling. Several critiques about films that feature the multiverse tend to be reductive and make claims about the films being mainly spectacle and a monetary vehicle for cameos that aim to draw in crowds chasing nostalgia (Burt, 2022). And that’s why it felt important for me to discuss the different ways the multiverse can be used to enhance a film’s story.
In Cinema As a Worldbuilding Machine in the Digital Era : Essay on Multiverse Films and TV Series, Alain Boillat explored the idea that Hollywood, after 9/11, put a larger focus on world building that had to do with parallel worlds (Boillat, 2022, p. 26-29). Boillat mentioned that CGI in the early 2000s had become popular and also mentioned that many 2000s and 2010s Hollywood films could be looked at as a reflection of the shared trauma the US had experienced. Many films featured city settings that were thrown into chaos by freak events, and it could be possible that history repeated itself when it came to films produced after the Covid-19 Pandemic. Stephanie Burt asked the question in her article ‘Why do we live in a multiversal moment?’ and proceeded to answer herself by stating that ‘One theory holds that the ascent of the multiverse matches our need to keep up many identities. We may feel like different people as we slide from Instagram to Slack to the family group chat’ (Burt, 2022). In a post pandemic world where we use social media more than ever before, Burt’s theory about the multiversal moment we’re in may ring true (Dixon, 2023). Multiverse stories due to being fantastical could allow audiences to explore their traumas through an escapist lens. Themes of trauma relating to the Covid-19 pandemic may be worth paying attention to when it comes to multiverse films after Covid-19, as explorations surrounding topics like loss would be very relevant to general audiences.
When looking at how loss could be explored in a multiverse film, I focused on how the filmmakers of both Everything Everywhere All at Once and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness both employed genre in relation to alternate universes. The Daniels, the directors of Everything Everywhere All at Once, used the Hong Kong romance genre to explore the loss of the romance in Evelyn and Waymond’s marriage. They took inspiration from Wong Kar-Wai’s In the Mood For Love (Kar-Wai, 2000) and within my video essay I included clips from Kar-Wai’s film to support my point. Sam Raimi within his take of a Doctor Strange film, employed the horror genre to show how Wanda’s loss had driven her to commit immoral acts. Raimi referenced his own prior works when using horror techniques and I also included clips from The Evil Dead (Raimi, 1983) to help support this point as well. Son Lux, the band who are responsible for creating Everything Everywhere All at Once’s score and soundtrack, discussed their creative process with Rolling Stone in an interview (Rolling Stone, 2022). In that interview they mentioned how the film utilised established genre a lot and that required them to compose the score in different ways depending on the genre that was taking place on screen. In the parts of the film that delved into Romance, Son Lux often utilised the faint sounds of strings alongside the more prominent sound of a piano softly playing. The romantic scoring accompanied the Wong Kar-Wai inspired visuals and this successfully helped the film to emulate the romantic genre in an effective way.
Identity was a theme that explored in both Everything Everywhere All at Once and Spider-man Across the Spider-verse. Both films employ the multiverse to help explore this theme and the animated Spider-man film used different styles of animation in order to both communicate what universe we’re occupying and also express what characters are feeling and the ideas they are fighting against. In Everything Everywhere All at Once, identity is explored through the motif of the googly eye, which Evelyn places on her forehead at the climax of the film. An eye on the forehead is known as a third eye and is a symbol within Buddhism for enlightenment. The third eye’s connection to enlightenment is important to Evelyn’s journey of reshaping her identity to become a better version of herself. The placement of the third eye marks a change in her approach to life as she adopts more of her husband’s characteristics in order to save her daughter.
Additionally, the importance of family, community and loving oneself are explored within The Daniels film as well as Raimi’s. Embracing your loved ones and yourself is the key to solving the central problems within Everything Everywhere All at Once and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. And the depictions of the multiverse within both of these films helped to drive home this message as montage and having Elizabeth Olsen act against herself, allowed for the story of both of these films to be told in an interesting and unique way. A films’ score as well as visual techniques’ such as slow motion can help to punctuate important moments where the themes of family, community and self-acceptance are explored. And I believe The Daniels and Raimi’s films employ these elements of mise-en-scene quite well.
My video essay whilst briefly discussing the critiques of the multiverse film does not go into much depth on the weaknesses of that kind of film. This is in large part due to the nature of my research question which is more focused on how the multiverse film can aid a films story. All the multiverse films I’ll be discussing in my video essay are not perfect as both marvel films that I’m using to support my points do use unnecessary cameos as a way to draw in audiences and Everything Everywhere All at Once due to its chaotic and absurdist nature could be seen as being forced to sacrifice its potential for more intriguing cinematography so it does not overwhelm its audience. In spite of the weaknesses the multiverse film can have, I do believe the merits of the films I’m discussing within my video essay do show that the multiverse film can be used in a successful way to explore grounded themes. Science fiction films that do choose to use the concept should not be reduced to being seen as pure spectacle but should instead be given the opportunity to show that they have the capacity to tell as interesting of a story as a traditional drama. Within my filmography and bibliography, I will be including all the resources that have been referenced within this Creator’s statement as well as my video essay.
The video essay may also be seen on Vimeo here:
Filmography
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022) Directed by Sam Raimi, USA, Marvel Studios
In the Mood for Love (2000) Directed by Wong Kar-Wai, Hong Kong, Jet Tone Production, Block 2 Pictures & Paradis Films
Spiderman: Across the Spider-Verse (2023) Directed by Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers & Justin K. Thompson, USA, Columbia Pictures
Spiderman: into the Spider-Verse (2018) Directed by Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey & Rodney Rothman, Canada, Columbia Pictures
The Evil Dead (1983) Directed by Sam Raimi, USA, Renaissance Pictures
Bibliography
Boillat, A. (2022) Cinema As a Worldbuilding Machine in the Digital Era : Essay on Multiverse Films and TV Series, Indiana University Press: Indiana. p. 26-29
Burt, S. (2022) ‘Is the Multiverse Where Originality Goes to Die?’, The New Yorker, 31 October. Available at: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/11/07/is-the-multiverse-where-originality-goes-to-die (Accessed 2 January 2025).
Cavendish, R. & Burland C. (1995) Man, Myth and Magic: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Mythology, Religion, and the Unknown . Vol. 19. New York: Marshall Cavendish Corporation p. 2606
Coe, J. (2023) Everything Everywhere All at Once and the Intimate Public of Asian American Cinema. Film Quarterly, 76(4), p. 35
Desta, Y. (2022) ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once: All the Wild Movie References, Explained (as Best as We Can)’ Vanity Fair. 8 April. Available at: https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2022/04/everything-everywhere-all-at-once-explained-as-best-we-can?srsltid=AfmBOooeQHL3nrXJF798TRQ6UR35L2bzdb52cZYd-jM4p7qcOgexW_-l (Accessed: 11 December 2024)
Dixon S. (2023). Social media use during COVID-19 worldwide – statistics & facts. Statistita. Available at: https://www.statista.com/topics/7863/social-media-use-during-coronavirus-covid-19-worldwide/#topicHeader__wrapper (Accessed 10 January 2025).
Drake, N. (2023) ‘What is the multiverse—and is there any evidence it really exists?’, History, 13 March. Available at: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/what-is-the-multiverse (Accessed: 27 October 2024)
Latour, J. (w) & Rodriguez, R. (a) (2015). Most Wanted?. Spider-Gwen. Vol. 0, 17 November. USA: Marvel – US.
Mead, S. (no date), Futuristic city, Auto Design Magazine, Sandow Meida: USA, Available at: https://autodesignmagazine.com/en/2019/12/syd-mead-has-passed-away/. (Accessed: 11 January 2025)
Mead, S. (no date), Zhora dancing in Taffey’s Snake Pit bar, The Movie Art of Syd Mead: Visual Futurist, Titan Books: UK, Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-50955699. (Accessed: 11 January 2025)
Morrison, H. (2000) Detail showing head of Buddha statue with third eye in Da cheng ge at Da Fo si. Available at: https://hpcbristol.net/visual/Hv03-034 (Accessed: 10 January 2025)
Rolling Stone. (2022) How Son Lux Crafted a Maximalist Soundtrack for ‘Everything Everywhere All At Once’. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r64JPGRT_OQ (Accessed: 10 January 2025).
Travis, B. (2022). ‘Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse Will Have Six Dominant Art Styles: ‘The Ambition Is To Wow You’ – Exclusive Image’, Empire, 22 November. Available At: https://www.empireonline.com/movies/news/spider-man-across-the-spider-verse-six-art-styles-exclusive/ (Accessed: 9 January 2025).