Animated Analysis: A Scanner Darkly (2006)

Animated Analysis: A Scanner Darkly (2006)

 

Figure 1: A Scanner Darkly: https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/842965777/a-scanner-darkly-original-rolled-27-x-40

A Scanner Darkly (2006) is an adaptation of the Philip K. Dick novel set in a dystopian future where the majority of the population are addicted to a drug known as Substance D.  In response to this, the local government has inforced authoritarian methods of tracking resident's behaviour, including installing cameras to closely monitor their wherabouts.  One undercover cop, Bob Archer, is monitoring his drug addict housemates and trying to track down the source of a dealer, whilst he himself has become perpetually addicted to Substance D and is losing his grip on his identity.  The book on which the film is based is semi-autobiographical as the story and characters are based on the author's experiences of drug culture in the 1970s, how he shared a house with several drug users and how the drug use impacted his life during this period.

The film stars Keanu Reeves, Robert Downey Jr, Woody Harrelson and Winona Ryder.  The film is produced through a combination of two techniques, shooting the actors on location with live action footage, and then feeding that footage into software to rotoscope each frame and turn the footage into animation.  This technique had previously been utilized to create life-like special effects and visual enhancements, but director Richard Linklater made the unique decision to create the entire film using rotoscoped animation, a process that resulted in delays to the film's release in order to accommodate the 18-month post-production period.

Rotoscoping allowed Richard Linklater greater control over the details presented, such as skin tones, facial expressions and backgrounds.  If a certain expression was not fully realised in live action, it could be exaggerated as necessary in animation.  The technique can be used to seamlessly blend fantasy and realism.

Because of the film's setting and themes (a dystopian, alternate universe with widespread drug addiction and complete, unrestrained supervision), the choice to create the film in this way is notable because it allows the filmmaker to necessarily distance the film from reality.  The animation style, which looks very life-like at certain points but constantly reinforces that it is not reality, is also important to contribute to the perennial theme of drug-addiction.  The film's mise-en-scen is very much reminiscent of a drug-induced hallucination and is often nightmarish, particularly in the film's opening scene where we see the character Charles Freck battling a swarm of insects that are covering his body which is later revealed to be the result of drug-induced hallucinations.   In terms of perspective, the animation style is essential to convey to the viewer that the bleakness of the subject matter is never lost.  Had the film gone for a brighter, more vivid animation style, it would have lost the notion of the effects that the drugs and authority have had on the characters and the world around them.

One of the most haunting visuals in the film is the scenes where characters are wearing the camouflaging suits known as scramblers.  The undercover cops are required to keep their identities confidential so they wear these suits that display two halves of a person to protect the wearer and the images displayed never stop changing.  This notion of distorted identity is reinforced by the fact that the main character played by Keanu Reeves has several identities utilised throughout the narrative, and the film intercuts the footage of him in the suit observing proceedings and the footage of him in the scrambler.  This fits in with the intercut theme of his home life living with his drug-induced friends and his job as an undercover cop, which he cannot disclose, as well as the effects that Substance D does to the brain, making the two halves of it disconnect from one another and not function as one.

 

Figure 2: Animation breakdown: https://screenshadowsgroup.wordpress.com/tag/a-scanner-darkly/

Animation Style

The software used in the production of the film is Rotoshop, which made the rotoscoping process for the film easier, instead of software such as Shake 4.1, Fusion and After Effects.  Rotoshop works by applying a painter-like interface which allows for the animator to create keyframes in the rotoscoping that then have computer-generated frames inserted between them, rather than having to do all the frames by hand and piece them together.

"Rotoshop allows for the same mathematical precision as the other software programs, but it's the only one that makes an entire feature-length film in rotoscope feasible," - Aaron Muszalski 

Rotoshop was designed by MIT graduate Bob Sabiston, who originally wanted to trace over every frame in the film, but created time-saving tools for the software to speed up the process.  Traditionally, rotoscoping can take hours as the animator has to draw over every frame and then colour it in. Rotoshop is only available for use to employees of Flat Black Films, the production company that owns the exclusive rights to the software.

The look of the film, whilst imperfect, is more refined and closer to reality than "Waking Life", Richard Linklater's previous film that utilized Rotoshop.  In that film, the animation has more of a mixture of aesthetics with some images looking like reality and some others resembling heavy paintings.  

Four months into post-production, the original team of animators on the film were replaced due to missed deadlines and a dissatisfaction from Richard Linklater.  

   

Rotoscoping

The use of rotoscoping in A Scanner Darkly is used as an interpretation of movement and likeness, and is used to reinforce science-fiction elements.  The film uses both semantic and the syntatic elements through how it uses rotoscoping.  The semantic elements include future technologies, the use of special effects and the portrayal of a dystopian future.  The future technologies present in the source material are brought to life visually and thematically through the use of rotoscoping.  The images used are meant to closely resemble the actors whilst simultaneously obscuring their image, thus the rotoscope serves as a scramble suit for the film itself.  The effect of Substance D is that causes hallucinations that manifest for the protagonist as characters he interacts with changes in appearance, and by the end of the film, the main character has no personality or defined identity.

The live action element of the film serves as a basis that is only realised when the animation is added on top of it.  The rotoscoping is meant to preserve the likeness of the actors.

Rotoscoping represents the surveillance themes of the film physically and conceptually.  The process is like the surveillance in that scanners and animators sit in front of screens where they watch the actions of people who they haven't interacted with personally, and they also produce an interpreted version of what they see.

The rotoscoping produces visual effects for the film, particularly with the hallucinations, as rotoscoping represents hallucinations very effectively.  You recognise that the images displayed are not real, but they do fit within your psychological environment and become plausible.  Because the animation is so lifelike, the hallucination sequences force us to fully determine whether or not they are real, and fits well with the theme of the world.

The only real way to interact with the artiface of the world is through the animation, as the technology present in the film has entirely changed the culture as have the drugs that society has overdosed on.  We can only see the world of the film through the use of technology.  The reality is still present, but it has become severely distorted.  You can take a familiar shot of people in a car, and turn it into an unfamiliar image that disrupts the preconceived notions of how this should look.

"Animation is not the art of drawings that move, but of movements that are drawn." Norman McLaren, animator

A Scanner Darkly. 2006. [DVD] Directed by R. Linklater. Texas: Warner Bros. Home Video.

Girard, N., 2006. Blurring the lines in 'A Scanner Darkly'. [online] CNET. Available at: <https://www.cnet.com/culture/blurring-the-lines-in-a-scanner-darkly/> [Accessed 4 October 2022].

Cavanagh, S., 2016. Form and Function: The Use of Rotoscoping in A Scanner Darkly. [video] Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38FbE_njus4> [Accessed 4 October 2022].

Brennan, D., 2011. a scanner darkly – Screen Shadows Group. [online] Screen Shadows Group. Available at: <https://screenshadowsgroup.wordpress.com/tag/a-scanner-darkly/> [Accessed 4 October 2022].