January 4, 2002 -- "Waking Life" is a groundbreaking experimental film in terms of technical developments, and it is a rare example of a film that successfully deals with philosophy.

The film was shot with video cameras, rather than film, something still unusual for a feature release. It started out as a live action feature with live actors, but was converted to an animated feature using new software. Robert Sabiston's "interpolated rotoscoping" software, informally dubbed "Rotoshop" by its users, is a QuickTime-based program that allows animators to draw an image on one frame, skip forward a few frames, draw another image, and then the software is able to fill in the lines in the intervening frames, approximating motion and speeding up the animation process. A total of 31 animators worked on the project.

The video was converted into 72,000 TIFF files, each file a frame of the video. The frames were converted again to HD 24P, a new high-definition video format which makes it easy to convert the images to film, NTSC or PAL high-definition formats from a single master. 24P enables image conversions without the false images or other artifacts associated with some other kinds of image conversions from other types of masters. The 24P format produces 1,840 progressive lines of resolution at 24 frames per second. Eventually, many theaters may have the equipment to project images directly from the 24P format.

Writer-director Richard Linklater used a number of actors in the film who had appeared in some of his earlier films, including, Wiley Wiggins, Adam Goldberg, Mona Lee and Nicky Katt from "Dazed and Confused," Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy from "Before Sunrise," Charles Gunning (the guy who vows vengeance against everyone) and Louis Mackey from "Slacker." In fact, many actors play the same characters they played in the earlier films. Mackey's dialogue in "Waking Life" is a continuation of a discourse he started in "Slacker." It was, in fact, dialogue that was edited out of the final "Slacker" cut. Linklater himself, and director Steven Soderbergh also appear in the film.

Philosophers quoted in Waking Life include, Jean Paul Sartre, Aristotle, St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, Alexander the Great, Stephen La Berge, Robert Solomon, Plato, Nietzsche, Benedict Anderson, Albert Schweitzer, Andre Bazin, Francois Truffaut, Guy Debord, Robert Louis Stevenson, D.H. Lawrence, Thomas Mann, Dostoevsky, Kierkegaard, Philip K. Dick, W.B. Yeats and Garcia Lorca.

The film follows the main character (Wiley Wiggins) on an existential journey of discovery which questions the very nature of his reality. Is it real, a dream, or death, and is there any difference? Those of you who have seen "Mulholland Drive" will recognize this particular conundrum. The animation occasionally is used to illustrate a point, but more often than not it is not used to add anything to the ideas being spouted by the various characters. In some cases, it seemed I was setting in a classroom listening to a series of short philosophy lectures. Philosophy was my favorite subject in college, so I enjoyed the talks, but I thought they would have been even more interesting if the speeches had been accompanied by more interesting visual illustrative elements.

The animation technique causes some oscillation motion artificats. If you are prone to sea-sickness you might want to avert your eyes from the big screen every now and then. Remember the people who got sick watching the violent camera motions in "Blair Witch Project?" In total, this is a good film which raises a number of interesting ideas. It isn't a great film, but it is important in a historical sense. The way it was made on a fairly limited budget, using software like the Final Cut Pro editing program, and the Mac-based animation software, should open the doors for more filmmakers to make more effective low-cost films. This film rates a B.

Click here for links to places to buy this movie in video and/or DVD format, the soundtrack, books, even used videos, games and lots of other stuff. I suggest you shop at least two of these places before buying anything. Prices seem to vary continuously. For more information on this film, click on this link to The Internet Movie Database. Type in the name of the movie in the search box and press enter. You will be able to find background information on the film, the actors, and links to much more information.