— Ch. 1 · Surreal Dream Architecture —
Waking Life.
~6 min read · Ch. 1 of 6
An unnamed young man lives an ethereal existence that lacks transitions between everyday events. He observes quietly but later participates actively in philosophical discussions involving other characters. These conversations range from quirky scholars and artists to everyday restaurant-goers and friends. They discuss metaphysics, free will, social philosophy, and the meaning of life. Other scenes do not include the protagonist but rather focus on an isolated person or a couple engaging in such topics from a disembodied perspective. The film touches upon existentialism, situationist politics, posthumanity, and the film theory of André Bazin. It references various intellectual and literary figures by name throughout its runtime. Gradually, the protagonist realizes that he is living out a perpetual dream. This realization breaks up only by occasional false awakenings. So far, he is mostly a passive onlooker though this changes during a chat with a passing woman who suddenly approaches him. After she greets him and shares her creative ideas with him, he reminds himself that she is a figment of his own dreaming imagination. He starts to converse more openly with other dream characters but begins to despair about being trapped in a dream.
Rotoscoping Visual Innovation
Director Richard Linklater utilized Mini DV footage rotoscoped by animators to create the film's distinctive fluid visual style. The live-action footage was shot over six weeks starting in August 1999 using real actors including Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy. To create that visual effect Linklater used an animation technique based on rotoscoping. Animators overlay the live-action footage with animation that roughly approximates the images actually filmed. Linklater employed a variety of artists so the movie's feel continually changes producing a surreal shifting dreamscape. The animators used standard Apple Macintosh computers for the production process. The film was mostly produced using Rotoshop a rotoscoping program that creates blends between key frame vector shapes. Bob Sabiston designed this software specifically for the production. It uses virtual layers to achieve its unique aesthetic. Linklater used this animation method again in his 2006 film A Scanner Darkly. The original scenes of the footage later featured as extra editions in DVD releases.