Bob Sabiston Wiley Wiggins in Waking Life
By Katie Leff
Daily Bruin Contributor
Have you ever wondered if God just has a sick sense of humor? Or
is life actually as painfully surreal as those days we all have
when you can feel a pit in your stomach the size of a grapefruit,
telling you that it’s going to be a bad day and you should
have just stayed in bed?
“Waking Life,” starring Wiley Wiggins, is the
innovative new animated film from writer-director Richard
Linklater. Using new animation software developed by Bob Sabiston,
the film deals with the complex dynamic of reality versus
perception.
Linklater, the acclaimed director of films such as “Dazed
and Confused” and “Slacker,” joins forces with
art director Bob Sabiston to create the critically acclaimed
film.
“It is a meandering, episodic story in this case told with
digital rotoscopic images,” said UCLA Film and Television
Archive programmer Cheng-Sim Lim.
“Waking Life” is based on the principle, “your
life is yours to create,” put forth by one of the characters
Wiggins encounters during an episode of roaming through his
subconsciousness. This simple statement sets up the entire film, as
well as provides a concise synopsis of the paradox with which the
film attempts to engage the audience.
Jennifer Drummond Speed Levitch in Waking Life
The protagonist struggles with what reality is, but who is to say
that whatever you perceive to be reality is not just that, even if
it exists only in a dream.
Reality is whatever one perceives it to be, and it is this
concept that propels Wiggins’ character through a journey
within the catacombs of his own subconsciousness. Along the way he
encounters different figures that impart to him their own theories
on exactly what it is that composes the fragile parameters of what
we define as reality.
First used for an animation contest sponsored by MTV, Sabiston
developed a new animation that combines live action with digital
rotoscoping, a technique in which animators trace and cut out
images to superimpose on other frames. “Live footage is
painted” over, using Sabiston’s software, by a team of
artists.
“It is a strange fusion of painting and live action
footage,” Lim said.
Another level is added to the film by the animation in that each
of the 31 animators was assigned a character they would focus on
solely. The personal touch reflected in the individual styles of
animation was a result of the hiring process for animators.
Divya Srinivasan Tiana Hux in Waking Life.
Each artist picked what character they wanted to animate based
on their own interests, much like an actor picks a part to
play.
The characters that weave the story together are played by
actors that were cast by methods some might see as
unconventional.
“Many of the people in the movie are non-actors. I said I
want to meet smart, interesting people who have a lot on their
minds,” Linklater said.
To achieve this goal, potential cast members were asked a series
of questions, including what they are passionate about, what they
are reading and what they care or know about more than most
people.
As the story unfolds, the brilliantly written tales told to
Wiggins are woven together as he attempts to figure out what is
really a dream and what is reality.
Statements such as, “On really romantic nights of self I
go salsa dancing with my confusion,” are spouted off by the
characters in attempts to impart their personal versions of what
composes the collective consciousness.
The animation of such characters is rendered so that influences
of Dali’s surrealism and Picasso’s cubist period are
discernable, which begs the question: is this film art for
art’s sake, or is there a message behind the madness?
Linklater says his first challenge in beginning “Waking
Life” was figuring out how to make a film about something
that most likely happens entirely in the mind. The solution he came
up with was to turn the problem over to the audience.
The film is designed to make the audience think, to reflect on
the frighteningly provocative possibility that what we cling to as
our reality may only be the philosophical acrobatics of our
subconscious.
This film has grabbed hold of the attention of critics and film
aficionados everywhere, including UCLA.
“The film is very much Linklater, very much his individual
stamp “¦ it is one of those films that comes around in a long
time that is so unusual you can’t ignore it.”
And according to many, Linklater is one of the major independent
filmmakers in the business today.
“Richard Linklater is probably one of the most eccentric,
or maverick, indie filmmakers around,” Lim said.
FILM: Richard Linklater’s “Waking
Life” opened last Friday in Los Angeles. Linklater also
directed the films “Dazed and Confused” and
“Slacker.” For more information go to www.wakinglifemovie.com.