Waking Life

Waking Life

by: Jennifer Tubler

CONTENT

1. INTRODUCTION

2. APPLIED DEFINITION OF USED TERMS

a) mise-en-scene
b) angle of framing
c) medium close-up, close-up, extreme close-up, medium shot
d) long take
e) contrast
f) contrast, dissolve, tilt, pan
g) point-of-view-shot

3. ANALYSIS OF SELECTED SCENES

4. OVERALL INTERPRETATION

5. BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Introduction

The computer animated film Waking Life (October 19th - 2001, Richard Linklater) was originally shot on digital video with dozens of live actors as in any other movie, however it presents a revolutionary approach to animation by transforming the cast into exceptional characters, each interpreted and animated by a different artist. After the editing was complete, the animation process used software which allows artists to paint over the digital footage using a technique called “interpolated rotoscoping” (i.e. individual brushstrokes can be stretched smoothly across a range of frames, giving the animation a unique that goes beyond the typical cartoon character. The creator of this software, Bob Sabiston explains: "Traditional animation is locked into a particular ′character design′ forcing the artist to conform to a predetermined style. Waking Life is not animated in the truest sense of the word. It is a composite of wildly different, re-imagined video scenes drawn in cartoon style." Director Richard Linklater describes the experience as "an interesting marriage between cinemas and computers. I would have never attempted this as a traditional live-action movie." ¹

2. Applied definition of used terms ²

a) mise-en-scene

The mise-en-scene in Waking Life is the entity of all elements placed in front of the camera, including setting, props, lighting, costumes and figure behaviour. The setting in this film is the main character’s dream world, changing places and time of day with every new dream he encounters. Included in every scene are props like for e.g. imagined vehicles or a humanized monkey. The lighting adjusts in each new scene as the time of day differs or the place the characters act in changes from the outside to the inside.

b) angle of framing

The angle of framing is the position of the frame in relation to the subject it shows. In Waking Life the leading angle is the horizontal one, also called the straight-on-angle, which is on the same level as the speaker while they are either sitting, standing or walking. This is primarily used to identify the importance of each narrator with greater force and at the same time allows the viewer to focus without any obstruction on what is said rather than having to concentrate on the conversation as a dialogue between a person and Wiley, or him imagining an exchange among a group of people.

Another camera angle often utilized in the film is the high-angle position. Perfectly appropriate for the main character’s dream sequences the camera is placed above the individuals at times, slightly diagonal and facing down, as if floating in mid air or around the person in circles at a particular height while observing the scene. This gives the viewer the impression of a dream-like scope, strengthened by the fact that there are hardly any low-angle shots, unless someone is kneeling and looking up, as for e.g. Wiley does in one of the first scenes after getting out of the boat-car when he picks up a piece of paper and looks up at an oncoming vehicle about to hit him.

c) extreme close-up, medium close-up, close-up, medium shot

Waking Life is filled with various ranges of close-ups. A considerable quantity of shots show the characters relatively large from the neck up while they are conversing. Their head shots fill most of the screen which is known as a close-up. This is used to direct the viewer’s attention to the speaker quickly, as does the straight-on-angle shot. It intensifies the moment taken as it represents an apparently important scene of the film.

However, a greater quantity of shots in the movie is taken as a medium close-up, giving us an altered vision and showing the characters from the chest up. This gives us a familiar impression with a wider view. Details like a single shot of an eye or any part of the characters’ faces are in the minority. These extreme close-ups show a framing in which the scale of the object shown is very large, mainly to introduce a sequence of close-ups and medium close-ups, like for e.g. when a character is presented to the audience for the first time in the movie or the instances when Wiley is re-awakening in his bed.

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1 www.thousand-words.com/pro/waking.html

2 Ryall, Tom. „Genre and Hollywood.“ The Oxford Guide to Film Studies. Ed. John Hill. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998