Waking Life
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Richard Linklater
Produced by	Tommy Pallotta Jonah Smith Anne Walker-McBay Palmer West
Written by	Richard Linklater
Starring	Trevor Jack Brooks (voice) Lorelei Linklater (voice) Wiley Wiggins (voice) Timothy "Speed" Levitch (voice) Alex Jones (voice)
Music by	Glover Gill
Cinematography	Richard Linklater Tommy Pallotta
Editing by	Sandra Adair
Distributed by	Fox Searchlight Pictures
Release date(s)	January 23, 2001
Running time	99 min. Richard Stuart Linklater (born July 30, 1960) is an Academy Award -nominated American Film director and Screenwriter Tommy Pallotta (born May 25, 1968, in Houston Texas) is an American Film director and producer. Jonah Smith (born in 1975 in Syracuse NY is an American musician Richard Stuart Linklater (born July 30, 1960) is an Academy Award -nominated American Film director and Screenwriter Wiley Ramsey Wiggins ( November 6, 1976) is an American Film actor and Blogger He is the nephew of Lanny Wiggins, who was a member Tim "Speed" Levitch (born 1970 is an American actor tour guide speaker author and Voice actor. Alexander Emerick Jones (born February 11 1974 is an American Paleoconservative radio host and documentary filmmaker Richard Stuart Linklater (born July 30, 1960) is an Academy Award -nominated American Film director and Screenwriter Tommy Pallotta (born May 25, 1968, in Houston Texas) is an American Film director and producer. Fox Searchlight Pictures is the specialty film division of 20th Century Fox, established in 1994 Events 393 - Roman Emperor Theodosius I proclaims his nine year old son Honorius co-emperor Year 2001 ( MMI) was a Common year starting on Monday according to the Gregorian calendar.
Language	English
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

Waking Life is a digitally enhanced live action rotoscoped film, directed by Richard Linklater and made in 2001. English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States Rotoscoping is an Animation technique in which Animators trace over live-action film movement frame by frame for use in Animated films Originally Richard Stuart Linklater (born July 30, 1960) is an Academy Award -nominated American Film director and Screenwriter The year 2001 in film involved some significant events (For more about non-English films check sources in those languages 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 is similar in some respects to the rotoscope style of 1970s filmmaker Ralph Bakshi, which was invented in the 1920s. Rotoscoping is an Animation technique in which Animators trace over live-action film movement frame by frame for use in Animated films Originally Ralph Bakshi (born October 29 1938 is an American director of animated and occasionally live-action films

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. George Santayana ( December 16, 1863, Madrid &ndash September 26, 1952, Rome) was a Philosopher, Essayist "^[1]

Plot

In a broad scope, Waking Life is about a young man in a persistent lucid dream-like 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. Philosophy is the study of general problems concerning matters such as existence knowledge truth beauty justice validity mind and language Reality, in everyday usage means "the state of things as they actually exist" The question of free will See also Western philosophy, Eastern religions, Eastern philosophy The Along the way the film touches on other topics including existentialism, situationist politics, posthumanity, and the film theory of André Bazin. Existentialism is a philosophical doctrine which posits that individuals create the meaning and essence of their lives and that this essence follows from their existence A posthuman or post-human is according to the Transhumanist intellectuals a hypothetical future being " whose basic capacities so radically André Bazin ( April 18, 1918 &ndash November 11, 1958) was a renowned and influential French film critic and film The young man eventually comes to realize the possibility that the reason he is unable to wake up is because he is dead. The film ends on an ambiguous note, and in the commentary track, director Richard Linklater states that he never intended for people to think the protagonist was dead.

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. Year 1981 ( MCMLXXXI) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link displays the 1981 My Dinner with Andre is a 1981 movie starring Andre Gregory and Wallace Shawn, written by Gregory and Shawn and directed by Year 1990 ( MCMXC) was a Common year starting on Monday (link displays the 1990 Gregorian calendar) Mindwalk is a 1990 Film directed by Bernt Amadeus Capra, based on his own short story based in-turn on the book ''The Turning Point'' by his Long scenes in Waking Life consist of nothing but head shots of characters expounding on philosophical questions. The characters and their speech are very reminiscent of Linklater's earlier cult classic, Slacker. Richard Stuart Linklater (born July 30, 1960) is an Academy Award -nominated American Film director and Screenwriter Slacker ( 1991) is an influential American Independent film written and directed by Richard Linklater, who also appears in the (Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy even appear as their characters from Linklater's Before Sunrise and Before Sunset)

Production

Adding to the dream-like effect, the film used an innovative animation technique based on rotoscoping. Ethan Green Hawke (born November 6 1970 is an American Actor, Writer and Film director. Julie Delpy (born December 21 1969 is a French and American actress, Academy Award -nominated Screenwriter, and occasional Before Sunrise is a 1995 Drama film directed by Richard Linklater and written by Linklater and Kim Krizan. Before Sunset ( 2004) is an American film the Sequel to the film Before Sunrise (1995 The bouncing ball animation (below consists of these 6 frames Rotoscoping is an Animation technique in which Animators trace over live-action film movement frame by frame for use in Animated films Originally 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. Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early-1920s and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members

The animators used inexpensive "off-the-shelf" Apple Macintosh computers (as opposed to the expensive supercomputers and computer clusters used by Pixar and DreamWorks). Macintosh, commonly nicknamed Mac is a Brand name which covers several lines of Personal computers designed developed and marketed by Apple Inc A supercomputer is a Computer that is at the frontline of processing capacity particularly speed of calculation (at the time of its introduction Pixar Animation Studios is a CGI animation production company based in Emeryville California. DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc ( is an independent American Animation studio which primarily produce a series of critically and commercially successful 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 also makes use of virtual "layers"). Rotoshop is a proprietary Graphics Editing program created by Bob Sabiston. Rotoscoping is an Animation technique in which Animators trace over live-action film movement frame by frame for use in Animated films Originally Bob Sabiston (born 1967 is an American film Art director, computer programmer, and creator of the Rotoshop software program for Computer animation

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. New York Film Critics Circle Awards are given annually to honor excellence in cinema worldwide by an organization of film reviewers from New York City -based publications The Venice Film Festival is the oldest Film festival in the world " It was also nominated for the Golden Lion, the festival's main award.

Soundtrack

Soundtrack cover

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. The Tosca Tango Orchestra is a joined effort between various Austin Texas based Musicians Founded by Glover Gill in collaboration with The Tosca String Quartet Featuring the nuevo tango style, it bills itself "the 21st Century Tango. Astor Piazzolla 1975png|thumb|left|the musical father of "nuevo tango" Bandoneón virtuoso Ástor Piazzolla. " Influence for the compositions stem from the Argentinian "father of new tango" Ástor Piazzolla. Ástor Pantaleón Piazzolla ( March 11, 1921 &ndash July 4, 1992) was an Argentine tango Composer and The actual tango scores are revised renditions of Ástor Piazzolla's works.

DVD

DVD cover

The film was released on DVD in North America on May 7, 2002. Special features included several commentaries, documentaries, interviews and deleted scenes, as well as the short film Snack and Drink. A bare-bones DVD with no special features was released on Region 2 on February 24, 2003.

Details

• The Philip K. Dick essay being discussed is How to Build a Universe that Doesn't Fall Apart Two Days Later,[1] the introduction to his short story collection I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon. Philip Kindred Dick (December 16 – March 2) was an American Science fiction Novelist and Short story Writer. I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon is also the title of a Short story by Philip K
• The final song in the theatrical trailer is "The Passenger" performed by Iggy Pop. " The Passenger " is a song by the artist Iggy Pop. This song was first released on the Lust for Life album in 1977 it was also released as the James Newell Osterberg Jr (born April 21, 1947) better known by his Stage name Iggy Pop, is an American rock singer Songwriter
• The entire film was shot with a MiniDV camera. Digital Video (DV is a Digital video format created by Sony JVC Panasonic and other video camera procuers and launched in 1995 and in its smaller tape Form factor
• In the scene with the chimpanzee giving the lecture, scenes from The Last House on the Left, Akira Kurosawa's Dreams and live performances of Nirvana and Dead Kennedys are playing on the projector. The Last House on the Left is a 1972 Horror film written and directed by Wes Craven and produced by Sean S is a 1990 Portmanteau and Magical realism film based on actual Dreams of the film's director Akira Kurosawa at different stages of his life Nirvana was an American rock band that was formed by singer/guitarist Kurt Cobain and bassist Krist Novoselic in Aberdeen Washington. Dead Kennedys was an American Hardcore punk band from San Francisco, California.
• The scene with the man in prison ranting about torture is taken almost directly from Hubert Selby Jr's 1971 novel The Room. Hubert Selby Jr ( July 23, 1928 – April 26, 2004) was a 20th century American writer
• The 1970s Bally pinball machine "Fireball" appears in the film. Fireball is a historically notable Pinball machine model released by Bally in 1972.
• Since none of the characters are mentioned in the film by name, the closing credits show a clip from the film with the character's face on screen, with the actor's name beside it.
• The man simultaneously driving and shouting into the megaphone is Alex Jones, known for expressing even more controversial and conspiratorial viewpoints on his syndicated radio show. Alexander Emerick Jones (born February 11 1974 is an American Paleoconservative radio host and documentary filmmaker

See also

• David Sosa
• Dream argument
• Dream art
• Eamonn Healy
• Existentialism
• Lucid dreaming
• Oneironaut
• Richard Linklater
• Louis Mackey
• Simulated reality
• Robert Solomon
• Wiley Wiggins
• Speed Levitch

References

External links

• Waking Life at the Internet Movie Database
• Waking Life at Rotten Tomatoes
• Anatomy of a Scene:  Waking Life, from the Sundance Channel website
• Waking Life Script — Transcript of the entire movie, based upon the first transcript by Tara Carreon, but with numerous revisions and corrections. Rotten Tomatoes is a Website devoted to reviews information and news of Movies. Anatomy of a Scene is a Television series produced by and aired regularly on Sundance Channel since 2001. Sundance Channel is a Cable television network devoted to airing independent feature films, World cinema, documentaries, Short
• Waking Up in Waking Life — Discussion of the philosophical and political ideas presented in the movie.
• Buddhist interpretation of Waking Life
• Glovertango — The official website of film's composer Glover Gill.
• Radio Interview with Director Richard Linklater from FBi 94.5 Sydney Australia
• Telescopic Evolution — Waking Life excerpt.