Chaos cinema has been recognized as a directing logic often used in action movies, which combines fast camera movements with rapid jump cuts, often leaving the viewer disoriented but always engaged. However, a very interesting field where chaos cinema can be used is in animation. What is even more interesting is that chaos cinema can reach its full potential in order to elevate a story in an animated movie or animated TV series. One of the examples of this is Arcane, a two-season series based on the characters and fantasy stories from the game League of Legends, which was created by the animation studio Fortiche under the supervision of Riot Games, and was distributed on Netflix.

Arcane follows two storylines. One storyline is about two sisters, Vi and Jinx, and their tragic relationship, which has been shaped by their traumatic past and the escalating conflict that surrounds them. The other storyline follows two friends, brilliant inventors, who fall into a moral dilemma about the revolutionary technology they are developing. Their stories are set in two cities, Piltover and its oppressed underground city named Zaun.

Although chaos cinema is usually associated with action movies, Arcane does have many action sequences, but what especially is interesting is how Arcane utilizes chaos cinema to convey and represent emotional states, inner struggles, and turmoil of main characters. We can see that especially with the depiction of Jinx, when her sanity starts deteriorating because of a trauma response and starts behaving frantically and having hallucinations. This is represented visually through rapid cuts, single-frame drawings, and discontinuity. By using these techniques, her inner state is perfectly visually described.

Arcane also uses post-continuity as a narrative tool in order to tell a character development story that happens over a long period of time, and compress it to an extremely short period. For Example, Vi’s transition in the second season is depicted this way. The extreme change of her character is depicted by a rapid succession of shots where we see her in different situations which have influenced the change of her character. The range of emotions Vi goes through is perfectly mirrored by the fast-paced editing, aggressive camera movements, and compressed form of storytelling.

The Arcane uses chaos cinema and post-continuity to convey a story, emphasize a certain emotion, and depict character development. That being said, animation might be the best visual medium to use the potential of chaos cinema to its positive advantage and full potential. Animation has the capacity to create a world from scratch and because of that it has full control over all visual elements needed for chaos cinema – camera movement, creative transitions, editing and overall cinematic experience.

References:

IMDb. (2021). Arcane. IMDB. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11126994/ .

Riot Games. (2021). Arcane. Neflix.

Shaviro, S. (2012). Post-continuity: An Introduction. In Post-cinema Theorizing 21^st century film. (Pp 51-64). Zero Books.

Stork, M. (Director). (2012). Chaos cinema Part II (Video Essay). Vimeo. https://vimeo.com/metafilm.

Author: Marina Zec, 33839036