To see a life lived, to actually watch the development of an individual as they grow is a part of the human experience that is often addressed in film. However, the reality is that, unless it's a series of films (a la Harry Potter), the ageing and development we see is artifice, achieved through the efforts of hair, make-up, wardrobe, even CG. We've never really had a film where someone has had the patience to make a coming-of-age story that centres on an individual literally growing before our eyes. Until now.
In May 2002, filmmaker Richard Linklater announced that he would begin shooting what became known as "the 12-year project", whereby he would assemble the cast and crew for a few weeks each year to shoot the film over a 12-year period, focusing on the relationship between a boy and his parents. Linklater hired the then 7-year-old Ellar Coltrane to play the boy as the centerpiece of the story and continued portraying the role over the course of more than a decade, a few weeks at a time.
As time went on, the project came closer to its predetermined finishing date, and Linklater began make people aware of his impending filmic experiment: Boyhood.
The film tells a story of boy raised as a child of a divorced couple (played by Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette) who try to raise him initially together and then apart, and how the boy's relationships with each of them develops over the years.
And now the first trailer for the film has landed. And it does look to be something special, at least from a production standpoint. Watching the actual development of the central actor is kind of amazing. To be honest, watching the trailer does rather take some of the air out of the film's tyres, since it gives away much of both the story and the visual punch of watching Ellar Coltrane grow up. However, unless they were going to create a dozen different trailers, this was inevitable. For what we have here though, it certainly looks to be a unique experience on offer.
Really looking forward to this one.
In May 2002, filmmaker Richard Linklater announced that he would begin shooting what became known as "the 12-year project", whereby he would assemble the cast and crew for a few weeks each year to shoot the film over a 12-year period, focusing on the relationship between a boy and his parents. Linklater hired the then 7-year-old Ellar Coltrane to play the boy as the centerpiece of the story and continued portraying the role over the course of more than a decade, a few weeks at a time.
As time went on, the project came closer to its predetermined finishing date, and Linklater began make people aware of his impending filmic experiment: Boyhood.
The film tells a story of boy raised as a child of a divorced couple (played by Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette) who try to raise him initially together and then apart, and how the boy's relationships with each of them develops over the years.
And now the first trailer for the film has landed. And it does look to be something special, at least from a production standpoint. Watching the actual development of the central actor is kind of amazing. To be honest, watching the trailer does rather take some of the air out of the film's tyres, since it gives away much of both the story and the visual punch of watching Ellar Coltrane grow up. However, unless they were going to create a dozen different trailers, this was inevitable. For what we have here though, it certainly looks to be a unique experience on offer.
Really looking forward to this one.
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