Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

Rotoshop, a proprietary digital incarnation of rotoscoping, has been discussed as a visually innovative process, but its capacity to tread new ground aurally has been overlooked. However, the recurrent appearance of the ‘talking head’ in the Rotoshop animations to date invites critical reflection on the soundtrack of the films, as well as their images. This article follows Michel Chion in arguing that novel ways of altering bodies on-screen can involve a reimagining of the relationship between those bodies and their accompanying voices. Analyses of the experimental Rotoshop short Figures of Speech and the feature-length Indiewood productions, Waking Life and A Scanner Darkly, are used to demonstrate different possibilities in the coordination between voice and body. These range from an adherence to accepted conventions of lip-synchronization, which cast the voice as the guarantor of the body’s ‘authenticity’, to a much more free-floating assembly, in which words and bodily movements break down into independent elements of ‘pure form’.

Keywords

animation Richard Linklater lip synchronization Rotoshop Bob Sabiston sound voice

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Altman

(1980) Moving lips: cinema as ventriloquism. Yale French Studies 60: 67–79.

Bradshaw

(2006) Lost in the loop: Richard Linklater’s A Scanner Darkly replicates Philip K. Dick’s druggy dystopia. Sight and Sound 16(8): 40–43.

Chion

(1999) The Voice in Cinema. New York: Columbia University Press.

Connor

(2000) Dumbstruck: A Cultural History of Ventriloquism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Deutsch

(2008) Aspects of synchrony in animation. The Soundtrack 1(2): 95–105.

Doane

(1980) The voice in cinema: the articulation of body and space. Yale French Studies 60: 33–50.

Eisenstein

Pudovkin

Alexandrov

(1992[1928]) A statement ‘on sound’. In: Mast

. (eds) Film Theory and Criticism: Introductory Readings. New York: Oxford University Press, 317–319.

Kundert-Gibbs

(2009) Action! Acting Lessons for CG Animators. Indianapolis: Wiley.

La Franco

(2006) Trouble in Toontown. Wired 14(3). Available at: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.03/scanner.html) (accessed 10 May 2011).

10.

Laderman

(2008) (S)lip-sync: punk rock narrative film and postmodern musical performance. In: Beck

Grajeda

(eds) Lowering the Boom: Critical Studies in Film Sound. Chicago: University of Illinois Press: 269–288.

11.

Ruddell

(2012, this issue) ‘Don’t box me in’: blurred lines in Waking Life and A Scanner Darkly. animation: an interdisciplinary journal 7(1): 7–23.

12.

Walden

(2008) Double take: rotoscoping and the processing of performance. Refractory: A Journal of Entertainment Media 14. Available at:: http://blogs.arts.unimelb.edu.au/refractory/2008/12/24/double-take-rotoscoping-and-the-processing-of-performance-%e2%80%93-kim-louise-walden (accessed 10 May 2011).

13.

Ward

(2005) ‘I was dreaming I was awake and then I woke up and found myself asleep’: dreaming, spectacle and reality in Waking Life. In: King

(ed.) The Spectacle of the Real: From Hollywood to Reality TV and Beyond. Bristol: Intellect Books, pp. 161–172.

14.

Ward

(2012) ‘Independent animation, Rotoshop and communities of practice – as seen through A Scanner Darkly’ animation: an interdisciplinary journal 7(1): 59–72.

15.

Project Incognito (1997, dir. Bob Sabiston)

16.

Roadhead (1998, dir. Bob Sabiston). Available at: http://www.flatblackfilms.com/Flat_Black_Films/Films/Pages/Roadhead.html (accessed 10 May 2011).

17.

Figures of Speech (1999, dir. Bob Sabiston) ‘Katie Roth’. Available at: http://www.flatblackfilms.com/Flat_Black_Films/Films/Pages/Figures_of_Speech.html (accessed 10 May 2011). Also available on the ITVS website, along with three other films from the series (‘Mike and Rush’, ‘Natalie and Jessica’, ‘Bob Blasi’): http://archive.itvs.org/figuresofspeech/ (accessed 10 May 2011).

18.

Snack and Drink (1999, dir. Bob Sabiston). Available at: http://www.flatblackfilms.com/Flat_Black_Films/Films/Pages/Snack_and_Drink.html (accessed 10 May 2011); also available as a free download from iTunes.

19.

Waking Life (2001, dir. Richard Linklater)

20.

‘Topic Pot Pie’ (2002, dir. Bob Sabiston) [various short segments made as part of Life 360 (2002, dir. Lorene Machado and Eric Siegel, 2002)]. Two examples of the ‘Topic Pot Pie’ series are available at: http://www.flatblackfilms.com/Flat_Black_Films/Films/Pages/Topic_Pot_Pie.html (accessed 10 May 2011).

21.

Grasshopper (2003, dir. Bob Sabiston): an excerpt of the film is available at: http://www.flatblackfilms.com/Flat_Black_Films/Films/Pages/Grasshopper.html (accessed 10 May 2011); the whole film is also available as a free download from iTunes.

22.

The Even More Fun Trip (2007, dir. Bob Sabiston): an excerpt of the film is available at: http://www.flatblackfilms.com/Flat_Black_Films/Films/Pages/The_Even_More_Fun_Trip.html (accessed 10 May 2011).

23.

Charles Schwab ‘Talk to Chuck’ adverts (2005–2008).

24.

A Scanner Darkly (2006, dir. Richard Linklater).

25.

‘Get Your War On’ series (2008): links to the relevant URLS of The Huffington Post website are available at: http://www.flatblackfilms.com/Flat_Black_Films/Films/Pages/Get_Your_War_On.html (accessed 10 May 2011).