A Scanner Darkly / Austin City Limits

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=45 BGCOLOR="#006699" TEXT="#080000" background="005085a3.jpg"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#FFFFFF" FACE="Arial" ><B>A Scanner Darkly</B></FONT><B>     |     </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="A Scanner Darkly"><B>home</B></A></div> <bR> <div> <B>Production Information</B></div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=210 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000" background="006d2e83.jpg"> <div> <B> <script type="text/javascript"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"> </script>  </B><A HREF="scanner_darkly_production.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="A Scanner Darkly / Production Informatio"><B>Production Information</B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="austin_city_limits.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="A Scanner Darkly / Austin City Limits"><B>Austin City Limits</B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="scanner_darkly_animation.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="A Scanner Darkly / The Animation Process"><B>The Animation Process</B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="scanner_darkly_cast.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="A Scanner Darkly / Cast Crew"><B>Cast & Crew</B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="scanner_darkly_end_credits.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="A Scanner Darkly / End Credits"><B>End Credits</B></A></div> </td> <td valign="top" height=435 width="100%" BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <I>A Scanner Darkly  / Austin City Limits</I></div> <bR> <div> <B>AUSTIN CITY LIMITS</B></div> <bR> <div> Linklater fine tuned the script during two weeks of rehearsals with the cast in Austin, Texas before principal photography began. “Richard really informed the final script with what we did during rehearsals,” says Reeves. “The characters were allowed to develop, and eventually became a fusion of the character in the novel, Richard’s adaptation, and what we as actors brought to it. It was great to work like that because you’re participating in it.”</div> <div> The Austin location—Linklater’s hometown—seemed to put everyone in a relaxed and creative mood. “It wasn’t like a normal set,” says Ryder. “Everyone was so mellow and yet they worked really hard. They have a different approach—more loose and free, with a real flow to the way everybody worked together.”</div> <div> <B> <script type="text/javascript"> </script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"> </script>  </B></div> <div> Production began on the warm, sunny morning of May 17, 2004. Temperatures would hover around 90 degrees for the majority of the day and the production. Each actor prepared—or didn’t prepare—for the unique project in his own special way. Says Cochrane: “I came up with my character, like, five minutes before I got on the elevator to go to work. I don't know how you prepare for something like this.”</div> <div> Downey Jr’s preparation was more intense. “The last three or four films I've done <I>combined </I>didn't have as much dialogue as I had in the first three days on this movie,” he reports. He devised a mindboggling memorization method that consisted of writing out his copious dialogue in run-on sentences, studying them, then converting the sentences into more easily retained acronyms to get through the dense material. “If I don't have a process, I have no way of knowing anything,” he says.</div> <div> Reeves relied heavily on the original Philip K. Dick book during preparation and filming. “I took the book along with me. I would mark down each scene to the corresponding page in the book, then I would write down certain comments that Philip K. Dick had written about the character or what the character was saying or how he felt. I would read it and feel it and try to match it until I felt like the character was in the right place. I really followed the book.”</div> <div> All of the actors were comfortable in the capable hands of their director. “Rick's a good guy. He lets you be creative and offer ideas,” says Cochrane. “He knows exactly what he wants, but he gets a bunch of good people around him, so it’s a collaboration.<B>” </B>“Richard wants you to figure it out for yourself,” echoes Ryder. “He lets you explore another direction instead of telling you what the interpretation of the scene is, and I appreciated that. You feel so much more a part of it when a person is making you participate in it and forcing you to search out what <I>you </I>feel is the truth.”</div> <div> “Richard is fearless,” Ryder continues. “And he’s one of the finest directors I’ve ever worked with.” The first location for the unit was Arctor’s house, which came in the form of a three-bedroom, twobath single family home on Eric Circle in southeast Austin. The tenants vacated a month before production began, leaving the house in a shambles. Production designer Bruce Curtis actually had to make improvements to get the home to look like Arctor’s shabby digs.</div> <div> “Finding Arctor’s house was the biggest challenge. We needed something that looked like Anaheim, but Richard wanted a space where the action could be filmed from one end of the house to the other,” says location manager Peter Atherton. “When we found this house, we knew it was perfect.”</div> <div> The filmmakers scouted Anaheim exteriors to get the architectural style down before searching nearly 60 Austin houses to find the perfect home for Arctor. Anaheim was created in postproduction: “We shot a lot of exteriors in Anaheim, and then composited them into the footage we shot in Austin,” says Linklater.</div> <div> Even though it’s technically a home of the future, the style of Arctor’s house is surprisingly retro. This is in keeping with Linklater’s philosophy about the production design, which would later be reflected in the animation—to avoid the kind of clichéd portrayal of the future that many sci-fi movies fall prey to. “While it may be considered science fiction, it didn’t feel that way to me,” says Linklater. “It felt very contemporary and real-world, and though in the future, the world has changed a little bit, you’re still going to live your life.</div> <div> “That always bugged me about movies set even a little into the future. They tend to change people’s behavior. Things get serious! You see these antiseptic worlds, where people are robotic or something. And I wonder, ‘When did people lose their sense of humor? The worse things get the more outrageous people become, but they still find humor and irony in life.’”</div> <div> Another major location was the Braker Center office park in northwest Austin, owned by General Electric. Braker stood in for several locations, including Freck’s apartment, the New Path reception area, hallway and cafeteria, and the phone scanning room. Other Austin locations included the Mi Tienda market, Arkie’s Grill, Culvers Grill, and a private apartment at 1st and Ephart. The cornfield scenes were shot on a farm in the town of Elgin, about 25 miles outside of Austin. The farm, which grows cotton and corn, belongs to fourth generation Texans who originally came from Sweden, were flooded out of Galveston, and finally moved to Elgin.</div> <div> Philip K. Dick’s daughters, Laura and Isa, visited the set during filming and had a chance to speak with the actors about some of the more personal aspects of the story. “Without exception, every person we spoke to—actors, producers, and crew—was entirely gracious and enthusiastic about the work of Philip K. Dick. They welcomed our input, and made us feel a part of this project,” says Hackett.</div> <div> Since the film would be animated on top of the live action, makeup and lighting were less of a concern, as were equipment like booms or mics sneaking into a scene. They could be “animated out” later. “Anything solid they can fix,” says director of photography Shane Kelly. “It was a new area for me to deal with. I learned what the animators can fix and what they can’t fix, what I can get away with and what I can’t.”</div> <div> Some of Kelly’s duties were unique to the animated project. “I tried to get a good image for the animators to work with. I worked off the monitor a lot, because something that stands out on an eight inch monitor to me will stand out down the line,” he explains. “I definitely shot and composed with the animators in mind. I also gave them a color palette to use, because they sample the colors from the live action.”</div> <div> The animators visited the set on occasion to see what they would be working with. “I talked to them several times, and once in a while the compositor showed up on set to say, ‘I really need this and I really need that,’” says Kelly.</div> <div> Though Kelly opted for a general lighting scheme to give Linklater and the actors the freedom to move around within the set and change blocking if needed, his composition and lighting became a little more graphic, “almost as though I was working in black and white,” he says.</div> <div> Did the actors make adjustments to their performances knowing the film would be animated? It depends on whom you ask. “I tried to do more weird facial gestures,” says Cochrane. “I took some liberties that I normally wouldn’t. I was a little more off the wall.”</div> <div> Harrelson agrees. “I probably went a little more over the top than I would normally because I knew it was going to be animated,” he says. “It just seemed to give me license to get a little more nutty, and I’m sure Robert felt likewise.”</div> <div> “I didn’t think of it as being animated,” says Ryder. “I thought that we were just filming a movie. I couldn’t think about that. I was just doing my same job.” Reeves was most aware of the production being animated while performing in the scramble suit. He says, “I didn’t have my face to convey information, so I might make a move a little bigger. I think some of the other actors would occasionally be more animated. But for me, I only did it mostly in the scramble suit.”</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> This website is created and designed by MovieGrande International, 2006</div> <div> This is an unofficial website with educational purpose. 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