Sam Raimi comes from a low-budget horror movie background, a fact he wears with pride. During the filming of the first Evil Dead movie, Raimi had a meager $90,000 at his disposal and had to rely on clever but occasionally jury-rigged practical effects. So how did he adapt to the epic use of CGI standards required for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness ?
In a recent Q and A with Associated Press, Raimi addressed the different takes in regards to special effects:
“I love practical effects. That’s my favorite thing to do on set and it’s my favorite thing to watch in movies. But the nature of this movie was so big, to travel through the multiverse, the techniques were not really befitting of practical effects, the major techniques. There are moments for them in this movie but really it had to be computer generated because of the scope and the amount of journey our characters went on. It just would have been too expensive and impractical to do it practically. I love practical effects but they take time. With a giant production like this, it’s difficult to shoot take after take because the blood tube is showing in frame or the wire is floating.”
Indeed, it’s hard to imagine a Doctor Strange movie based on practical effects, much less that one that deals with an infinite number of potential Sorcerer Supremes. Raimi likens the difference between the two processes as the difference between being a single musician and conducting an orchestra. “Something like this, although there are restrictions and expectations,” Raimi told AP, “it’s like they’re giving you the finest symphony orchestra and saying, “You’re not going to play, yourself, because we’ve hired all the finest violinists, the best percussion, the best brass. But we will let you conduct them.”
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness opens in theaters this Friday.
