Created by Callum Gates
A CLOSER LOOK: VIDEOGRAPHIC CRITICISM 2025 – Young video essayists comment on popular audio-visual culture. Produced as part of the BA (Hons) Film and Television degree at Southampton Solent University and brought to you by Making Waves Film Festival.
Marvel’s vast cinematic universe is known for its epic scope and iconic heroes, but what about the characters who rarely get the spotlight? This video essay takes a thoughtful look at how Marvel uses paratexts—short films, DVD extras, and other side media—to develop characters like Agent Phil Coulson in ways that the main films don’t always allow.
Through two of the Marvel One-Shots, The Consultant and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor’s Hammer, the essay explores how these shorts contribute to Coulson’s role in the broader universe. Drawing on theories of paratextuality and transmedia storytelling, it shows how minor characters can become more fully formed through small, focused stories that link different parts of a franchise together.
Rather than simply serving as marketing extras, these short films help ground the character in a more relatable, complex light. They also reveal how Marvel’s early experiments in transmedia storytelling used familiar figures to lead viewers into new corners of the MCU.
This essay is part of A Closer Look, a series of video essays created in collaboration with Southampton Solent University and hosted by Making Waves Film Festival. Each one offers a thoughtful perspective on a piece of moving image culture, seen through the lens of emerging critical voices.
