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A Scanner Darkly - First 24 minutes

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I cannot stand the animation that they did for this film. It's the same crappy photoshop rendering animation that they used for those insurance commercials and I hate them. It looks cheep and it is annoying.
"I am altering the movies. Pray I don't alter them any further." -Darth Lucas
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It looks cheep and it is annoying.

The animation is as cheap as your spelling is accurate. and according to Luke, the Millenium Falcon looks like a piece of junk.

If you watch the trailer, or these first few minutes, you'll understand why this technic actually complements the storytelling. Although it's not perfect, the method in which is movie is shown really does help you understand portions of the lifestyle of the characters. One of my objections with the animation is the level of detail they went into with close ups. Medium and Far shots look fantastic, real yet twisted, the close ups do look like the commercials, and do leave some people 'annoyed', with additional detail maybe the two wouldn't be associated. But the story more then makes up for these incongruities, its got it where it counts. Don't like the look of the movie, i'll reiterate my appreciation for the book. It's a thought provoking story.
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I haven't read the book and might someday but I won't be seeing the film for the very reasons both of you mentioned. I personally don't think I could stand a full film worht of that animation. Cool effect but it wears heavily on my eyes even after a 30-second commercial. There's just something about the technique that bothers me and that's enough to keep me away from this film the same as it did 'The Waking Life' also by Linklater.
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Originally posted by: Invader Jenny
I cannot stand the animation that they did for this film. It's the same crappy photoshop rendering animation that they used for those insurance commercials and I hate them. It looks cheep and it is annoying.


THE ADVERTISING FIRM FOR THE INSURANCE COMPANY STARTED USING THIS TYPE OF ANIMATION WAY AFTER THE ORIGINAL TRAILER FOR THIS MOVIE CAME OUT. IT'S JUST LIKE WHAT HAPPENED WITH BULLET TIME.

"I'VE GROWN TIRED OF ASKING, SO THIS WILL BE THE LAST TIME..."
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Originally posted by: Invader Jenny
I cannot stand the animation that they did for this film. It's the same crappy photoshop rendering animation that they used for those insurance commercials and I hate them. It looks cheep and it is annoying.


That animation does look a bit cheap. Its a shame real animation is becoming a lost art now, quickly being replaced by digital programs that any common joe can operate.
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This animation style has been one of Richard Linklater's tools for several features. "Waking Life" (imdb) being the feature which brought this to the mainstream attention.

Any fx work costs $, so often the fx creation experience gets farmed out to do commercials which pay boat loads. So i'm guessing, but those commercials you've seen recently probably funded much of this movie. And since this is not a traditional movie which surprisingly follows the book fairly closely, so maybe final cut decisions we're kept by Linklater, instead of giving more control to the movie studio. It's an edgier film with more idiosyncracies, and less mainstream oriented. Either you get into the disorientation or find something else.

Robert Downey Jr./Dick's writing steals the movie.

As for the animation again, the movie is slightly different then the commercials. The commercials are all close facial shots. There are those in the movie but more attention to detail has gone into them. The real animation stand out is the rest of the images in the frame. The pulled back shots/establishment shots are fantastic, you get the complete sense of reality but twerk'd. Then as the camera movies, similar to anime videos, less important images use the same angle, so the room spins, but the angle of a chair in the room doesn't change at the same rate, thus everything gets this quirky feel, this in addition to the dialog of drug user/abuser/paranoids/tweekers transports you somewhere else. The movie is about questioning reality, the main character is two distinct individuals, created from drug use. The plot then twists and turns to show how reality viewed by the main character is being manipulated by opposing forces, ones commonly recognizable, and like other good sci-fi, easily comparable to the situations around you the reader/viewer.
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Originally posted by: none
It looks cheep and it is annoying.

The animation is as cheap as your spelling is accurate. and according to Luke, the Millenium Falcon looks like a piece of junk.

If you watch the trailer, or these first few minutes, you'll understand why this technic actually complements the storytelling. Although it's not perfect, the method in which is movie is shown really does help you understand portions of the lifestyle of the characters. One of my objections with the animation is the level of detail they went into with close ups. Medium and Far shots look fantastic, real yet twisted, the close ups do look like the commercials, and do leave some people 'annoyed', with additional detail maybe the two wouldn't be associated. But the story more then makes up for these incongruities, its got it where it counts. Don't like the look of the movie, i'll reiterate my appreciation for the book. It's a thought provoking story.
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And you're talking about other people's spelling?
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http://www.cinemastrikesback.com/news/daily/scanner1280-2.jpg
http://www.kinokadr.ru/photoes/2006/02/20/a_scanner_darkly/bigest/01.jpg

And you're talking about other people's spelling?

Hate me because i mispell and grammer not well. The reply statement wasn't about her spelling, it used the mistake in her spelling to show the point that first impressions or judging a book by it's cover is not a way to gather an honest opinion plus the movie cost several million to make, that ain't chiyiyiyip. Thus the forum related quote from ANH/Luke about the MF. "She's got it where it counts" is what i was implying about the movie "A Scanner Darkly". Invader Jenny's opinion is completely valid and most likely 9 out of 10 people would agree that this animation style, if you guage it by the commercials (which are similar but not the same) is a.N.n.O.y.I.N.g::: Countering this opinion is what the rest of my posts have been about. The animation is different in this movie, although it used the same techique. And the technic is used to enhance/capture the overall atmosphere of the book, uneasyness, dislocated, yet based upon a reality we all share.
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And you're talking about other people's spelling?
Hate me because i mispell and grammer not well. The reply statement wasn't about her spelling, it used the mistake in her spelling to show the point that first impressions or judging a book by it's cover is not a way to gather an honest opinion. Thus the forum related quote from SW about the MF. "She's got it where it counts" is what i was implying about the movie "A Scanner Darkly". Invader Jenny's opinion is completely valid and most likely 9 out of 10 people would agree that this animation style, if you guage it by the commercials (which are similar but not the same) is a.N.n.O.y.I.N.g::: Countering this opinion is what the rest of my posts have been about. The animation is different in this movie, although it used the same techique. And the technic is used to enhance/capture the overall atmosphere of the book, uneasyness, dislocated, yet based upon a reality we all share.
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No, the truth is that you were dogging her because she mispelled one little word, only because she expressed distaste in this movie's animation technique, which you seem to have hardon for.
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I loved the book but the animation makes my eyes hurt, cool idea but this may not work for some viewers, so I'll need to add this book to my library queue!

“My skill are no longer as Mad as the once were” RiK

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"A Scanner Darkly" is one of Philip K Dick's best novels, and also probably had the best cinematic potential of all his previously unfilmed novels. All the more reason why this TV-movie version is very disappointing. It needed to be opened up in the way that Bladerunner was. Instead it was closed down to make a story that is much smaller than the novel. Most movies these days tend towards being overlong (Superman Returns, Pirates 2) - this was definitely too short. The animation was an interesting idea, mainly because it allowed the option of creating cityscapes and special effects that would have been expensive in photorealism. However, other than the scramble suit, this option was not exploited. It could have worked as an "Akira" style anime, but as it was the film would have been a lot more watchable in regular live action. Richard Linklater is great at some types of material: "Tape" is a good example, but not this. Ridley Scott, Alan Parker, Adrian Lyne, Steven Spielberg, Brian DePalma, Tarantino or David Lynch could have made something great from this novel. Philip K Dick, a notorious drug user, was able to write about a world fuelled by drugs from a position of personal insight, but his tremendous imagination made his writing transcend the milieu. Linklater's film comes across as a film made by and for stoners.
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When I first heard they were making a film version of A Scanner Darkly I wanted to see it, then I saw that it was animated the way it was and I changed my mind. After reading the first post I went to IGN and watched the first 24 minutes. Now I kind of want to see it, but can't. I just can't stand the cell shading. It really does bother my eyes. If they would have just made it live action it would have had such a bigger audiance, pulled in a lot more money, and possibly been a pretty good movie. If they would have made it a REAL animated movie, then it might have been enjoyable to watch, instead it is neither live action or animated, it is in some odd hard to reach place in between. I cannot relate to the world I see on screen, I can't even tell that a character looks like, I found myself squinting at the screen trying to tell exactly how a person should look. It feels like watching a movie through a foggy screen, you want to reach up and wipe the crap off your screen and see a real movie underneath.

"Every time Warb sighs, an angel falls into a vat of mapel syrup." - Gaffer Tape

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---Sploiler Warning---
I love this debate on the animation, it's very odd, since the way the movie is presented accentuates the ambiguity of the material, in a similar way that Substance D (and others) manipulate how perception is resolved. So maybe this does appeal more towards a stoner attitude as THX states, or this reinforces people's desire to not see experimental film. It's just funny that after watching 24 minutes of the movie (at a really phriggin small size) and C3PX says he wants to see the rest but won't because of a preconceived notion. This animation looks different on the big screen. The reason they did put out these 24 mintues is to alleviate some of the concern the animation might have on people. In it's existing presentation is might be a pretty good movie.

Do movies have to be enjoyable to watch? I would say no, especially when it's about content which affects people. Often in negative ways. Might as well challenge the audience. Now to what degree you go to do this is up to the director for most of you'se this one seems to have gone to far. Speak your mind with your dollar.

THX: Cinematically i'm not sure what issue you forcusing on which was lacking from this presentation. It's not a blade runner-esc future we're talking about. These are basic schlubs on the burbs doing they're thing.

As for the story, it's more of less dead on. 7/8th of the book is about watching these guys stoner around as Bob slowly realizes his split-ness. Then the last 1/8th is about the expanded Rehibilitation issue and exploitation in one of these facilities. Now i agree with you that the rehibilitation aspect was simplified to just New Path, and how one company seems to be the cause and solution. The book was more vague on this. Another criticism i had of the movies is that the splitness of Bob/Fred just didn't have moments where things progressed from one to the other. Maybe some scene where Bob walks down the street and as he moves from his house to the vide/watch house, you get a sense of him becoming Fred. The Donna/other lady sexscene is that scene i guess, just didn't work for me, even though that's how it is in the book.

---Spoiler Warning Reminder---
I haven't read Blade Runner's precursor, but wasn't that a short story? So it needed filling out if it was to become a feature film. This was a novel which had he material in it. If anything much of what was cut was stoner stuff. One of the major ones being the Celphoscope (sp?), which would have added some irony to his future video watching. If you've got any ideas on how the movie could have expanded i'm interested in that debate. One way to take it would have been to expand the after effects of Bob/Fred/Bruce's flower. Was B/F/B really a husk of a human or someone up against incalculable odds, who eventually overcomes. That's a hollywood ending if there ever was one. and i would stay away from something like that.

Of the decisions, the one tv movie decision i could point out would be the Donna becomes Hank moment. I didn't like that one, it's like the smallness of the SW universe after ESB, everyone's related... Personally i'm fascinated by the passages in the book which are the Barris's implications of Bob/Donna's other activities. Are they real, what we're they attempting to accomplish. But that's EU territory, i haven't figured out a way to incorporate that material into something larger without changing the focus of the story.

Anyway this movie is a good examination of the implications of drug culture. If you don't want to see, i recommend reading it. And that's one of the primary issues involved in using this animation, the subject matter is drugs, you can't have any serious discussion on drugs in a movie, you're stuck with that R rating, plus throw in some sex and you've solidified teh R. So in many ways your audience is slashed so why not challenge the audience in visuals as well as topic, adult audiences tend to be more open minded. Where's Barris to watch me get a hand cramp and be quiet...
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I'm with greencapt. Its interesting effect, but even a 30-second commercial is too much of it to watch at a time. I think the effect would be good if used for emphasis in the scenes of a movie, but not for the entire thing.

Part of why I don't like it that much is not the fluidity (even if something is at rest, you see motion). Its the fact that it looks like an image that has been taken from 24-bit to 8-bit or 4-bit using a 'nearest color' method rather than 'dither' method.
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Originally posted by: Invader Jenny
I cannot stand the animation that they did for this film. It's the same crappy photoshop rendering animation that they used for those insurance commercials and I hate them. It looks cheep and it is annoying.


It's called "rotoscoping" and has been used for decades. the old Max Fleisher Superman cartoons used rotoscoping to get realistic movements.

However, I agree that it can look cheap. it may still cost millions, but it looks like they shot a movie and then traced it frame by frame to make it animated. Sometimes like in the 70's Lord of the Rings, I wonder why they did that.
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Do movies have to be enjoyable to watch? I would say no...


Um...then what exactly is the point of film, if you don't want to watch it?

I saw "Scanner Darkly" and I thought it was interesting at first, but it just didn't seem like anything was happening. Just a bnucha guys either getting stoned, standing around with their thumbs up their asses, or both. I almost fell asleep, and I never do that in movies. Ever.

http://i.imgur.com/7N84TM8.jpg

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Originally posted by: none
I haven't read Blade Runner's precursor, but wasn't that a short story? So it needed filling out if it was to become a feature film.

Blade Runner's precursor was "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" [DADOES], which was a full novel. There were many elements cut from DADOES to make it into Blade Runner, including the titular electric sheep. Prestige in the future society of DADOES is measured by the pets you own, and people have become so jaded and chemically infected that they need "empathy boxes" and mood machines in order to feel anything. None of this material made its way into Scott's film. I would love to see what Paul Verhoeven, David Fincher or Darren Aronofsky would do with a remake, because they have all made films that touch on issues explored in DADOES. Does this mean I hate Blade Runner? No, but I do wish that some of the material, which goes a long way to explaining what Deckard is (and no, he's not a replicant) would have made its way into the film.

That being said, I think Linklater is trying to distill the main concepts out of A Scanner Darkly, and I'm looking forward to seeing the end result.

Princess Leia: I happen to like nice men.
Han Solo: I'm a nice man.

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Originally posted by: Nanner Split
Do movies have to be enjoyable to watch? I would say no...


Um...then what exactly is the point of film, if you don't want to watch it?

I saw "Scanner Darkly" and I thought it was interesting at first, but it just didn't seem like anything was happening. Just a bnucha guys either getting stoned, standing around with their thumbs up their asses, or both. I almost fell asleep, and I never do that in movies. Ever.


I watched the first 24 minutes from the link that nothing posted, and it looked more like a sequel to Half-Baked than a sci-fi movie. As for the animation, Philip K. Dick really does deserve better than this. Its a shame when the makers rely on cheap half-assed rotoscoping. In many scenes the actors faces dont even match their toon bodies for pete's sake.
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It's just funny that after watching 24 minutes of the movie (at a really phriggin small size) and C3PX says he wants to see the rest but won't because of a preconceived notion. This animation looks different on the big screen.


It has nothing to do with the "phriggin" small size or any preconceived notion. The animation really bugs me. And if it really does require a cinema sized screen for this movie to be enjoyable, then it will be a useless film once it hits DVD and is played on a "phriggin" small sized TV. And on a side note I think a movie should be enjoyable if you want people to watch it, unless you are some sort of masochist who defines entertainment by watching painful to watch crap (such as the Holiday Special or just about any film with Jim Carry in it).

It seems a lot of people agree with me that this style of animation is unpleasant to watch. I think I, and many others might just enjoy it and even find it to be an enjoyable retelling of a great Phillip K. Dick novel, if it would have been live action. I am very fond of Phillip K. Dick, and I think his works deserve much more attention and care than this. The guy writes a book about the futility of drugs, and they make a movie based off his book that you have to be high to enjoy. You have to admit, the film, as is, doesn't have that wide of an appeal. If it would have been live action it would have a much larger audiance. It is not any preconceived notion the keeps me from seeing this film, if I am ever in want of being annoyed for 60+ minutes, I will most certianly consider watching it.

"Every time Warb sighs, an angel falls into a vat of mapel syrup." - Gaffer Tape

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via: http://barnt.org:81/~jared/scanner/scanner.html
(visit link for final video product)

HOWTO: Make a Movie Like The Scanner Darkly
1. Get a camera that takes QuickTime movies.
2. Take a movie of something. In the example, I video taped my dog.
3. Copy the movie to your computer.
4. Open it in QuickTime Pro.
5. Go to File > Export... and select the Export: as Movie to Image Sequence. Click Save.
6. Go to File > Export... and select the Export: as Sound to Wave. Click Save
7. Open the first frame in Photoshop.
8. Use the following effects, curtesy of egeniuses:
Artistic>Poster Edges Filter (10,1,6) but adjust accordingly
Noise>Dust and Scratches (1,1)
Stylize>Diffuse (anisotropic)
Artistic>Film Grain (2,16,10) adjust accordingly
9. Save the file and repeat with the rest of the frames.
10. When you are done converting the frames, go back to QuickTime.
11. Go to File > Open Image Sequence. Click on one of the image files you edited.
12. Go to File > Export. For Export, put Movie to AVI. Click Save.



As for the comments about the first 24 minutes being Half Baked, that's actually the first hour plus. This story is similar to an episode of the Twilight Zone. The first 7/8ths of the film are set up for a pay off, there are hints of something else going on, but they don't beat you on the head. Then you reach that moment where something simple, changes everything and the last 10-20 minutes of the film, investigate those changes.
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Originally posted by: none
THX: Cinematically i'm not sure what issue you forcusing on which was lacking from this presentation. It's not a blade runner-esc future we're talking about. These are basic schlubs on the burbs doing they're thing.
If you read "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep," I think you'll see what I mean. That's not a Bladerunneresque future either, but the film brought out Dick's ideas better than a faithful adaptation would have. Dick's novels usually have many levels, he starts with a small story and then just when you're getting comfortable with it, he steps out into a bigger one. This movie just got stuck at the first level.
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This movie just got stuck at the first level.

Play Director/Writer where would you have taken this film?
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Thanks for posting the link.

I have enjoyed the book for many years and have been looking forward to the film's release for some time.

JD

Creator of Star Wars Begins, Building Empire and Returning to Jedi
Follow me on twitter @jamieSWB. Please support me at - http://www.patreon.com/jamiebenning/