Waking Life: Difference between revisions

Waking Life
File:Waking Life DVD Cover.jpg DVD Cover
Directed by	Richard Linklater
Written by	Richard Linklater
Produced by	Tommy Pallotta Jonah Smith Anne Walker-McBay Palmer West
Starring	Trevor Jack Brooks (voice) Lorelei Linklater (voice) Wiley Wiggins (voice) Timothy "Speed" Levitch (voice) Alex Jones (voice)
Cinematography	Richard Linklater Tommy Pallotta
Edited by	Sandra Adair
Music by	Glover Gill
Distributed by	Fox Searchlight Pictures
Release dates	January 23, 2001
Running time	99 min.
Language	English

Waking Life is a digitally rotoscoped and animated film, directed by Richard Linklater and made in 2001. The entire film was shot using digital video and then a team of artists using computers drew stylized lines and colors over each frame. This technique (called Rotoshop) is similar in some respects to the rotoscope style of 1970s filmmaker Ralph Bakshi, which was invented in the 1920s.

The title is a reference to George Santayana's maxim that "[s]anity is a madness put to good uses; waking life is a dream controlled."

Synopsis

Template:Spoiler In a broad scope, Waking Life is about a young man in a persistent dreamlike state. The film follows its protagonist as he initially observes and later participates in philosophical discussions that weave together issues like appearance and reality, free will, our relationships with others, and the meaning of life. Along the way the film touches on other topics including existentialism, posthumanism, and the film theory of André Bazin. The young man eventually comes to the realization that he is dreaming and that he is unable to wake up. By the end of the film, he fears that he might be dead. In this way, it may be seen as a modern adaptation of Ambrose Bierce's "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge".

Unsurprisingly, given the above themes and content, Waking Life is much more focused on dialogue (often even monologue) than on plot action. In this emphasis, it echoes the 1981 film My Dinner with Andre and the 1990 film Mindwalk. Long scenes in Waking Life consist of nothing but head shots of characters while they expound on some philosophical idea, sometimes illogically; the characters and their speech are very reminiscent of Linklater's earlier cult classic, Slacker. (Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy even appear as their characters from Linklater's Before Sunrise; kind of a prequel vision.) Template:Endspoiler

Technique

Adding to the dream-like effect, the film used an innovative animation technique. Animators overlaid live action footage (shot by Linklater) with animation that roughly approximates the images actually filmed. A variety of artists were employed, so the feel of the movie continually changes. The result is a surreal, shifting dreamscape.

The animators used inexpensive "off-the-shelf" Apple Macintosh computers (as opposed to the expensive supercomputers and computer clusters used by Pixar and DreamWorks). The film was mostly produced using Rotoshop, a custom-made rotoscoping program that creates blends between keyframe vector shapes, and created specifically for the production by Bob Sabiston (the name is a play on the popular bitmap graphics editing software called Photoshop, which makes use of virtual "layers" inspired in part by the work of Sabiston).

Awards

Nominated for numerous awards, mainly for its technical achievements, Waking Life won the National Society of Film Critics award for "Best Experimental Film," the New York Film Critics Circle award for "Best Animated Film," and the "CinemAvvenire" award at the Venice Film Festival for "Best Film." It was also nominated for the Golden Lion, the festival's main award.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack was performed and written by Glover Gill and the Tosca Tango Orchestra, except for one piece written by Frédéric Chopin, and was relatively successful. Featuring the nuevo tango style, it bills itself "the 21st Century Tango." Influence for the compositions stem from the Argentinian "father of new tango" Ástor Piazzolla. The actual tango scores are revised renditions of Ástor Piazzolla's works.

Trivia

• There is a Sealab 2021 episode titled "Waking Quinn," a reference to Waking Life.
• The Philip K. Dick essay being discussed is How to Build a Universe that Doesn't Fall Apart Two Days Later, the introduction to his short story collection I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon.
• The final song in the theatrical trailer is "The Passenger" performed by Iggy Pop.
• The entire film was shot with a MiniDV camera.
• The film's opening conversation is used in the song "Botanical Dimensions" by Shpongle.
• In the scene with the chimpanzee giving the lecture, scenes from The Last House on the Left and a live performance of Nirvana is playing on the projector.

See also

• Existentialism
• Dream art
• Lucid dreaming
• Wiley Wiggins
• Eamonn Healy
• David Sosa
• Richard Linklater
• Simulated reality

External links

• The Official Waking Life website
• Waking Life at IMDb
• Waking Life at Rotten Tomatoes
• Template:Anatomyofascene
• Waking Life Script - Transcript of the entire movie, based upon the first transcript by Tara Carreon, but with numerous revisions and corrections.
• Waking Up in Waking Life - Discussion of the philosophical and political ideas presented in the movie.
• Glovertango - The official website of film's composer Glover Gill.
• Radio Interview with Director Richard Linklater from FBi 94.5 Sydney Australia