The Future of Life:

Trekking Through a Virtual Geography With Godfrey Reggio's Naqoyqatsi

Words: Anthony Kaufman

Set up in a studio between Chinatown and Tribeca, roughly 22 technicians and artists constructed the film at 30 frames per second on an Avid Symphony, according to Beirne, then entirely reconstructed the project at 24 fps in all its component elements "shot by shot, effect by effect, layer by layer" through custom built software. The project also used Avid's Fluid Motion software to slow down shots as little as five percent of their original speed, Alias Maya for 3-D animation and AfterEffects for compositing and procedural 2-D animation. VFX plug-ins and Boris RED were also essential. Says Beirne, "Without these, the multi-layered look of the film would not be possible." At New York's Tape House Digital Film in May 2002, Naqoyqatsi arrived at its final step, from digital intermediate to Fuji High Contrast film stock using an ArriLaser film recorder.

The film may owe its very existence to today's technological marvels, but Reggio doesn't want us to forget the dangers of such digital magic. "Technology is remaking the world in which we live into its own image and likeness," he says. "It has literally reconfigured our own planet to the point that we're aliens on it. We live in a horizonless environment, of steel, asphalt, metals of every description, all of which seems like normal, everyday living to us. We have, in effect, the Los Angelesization of the planet, and that, for me, is war."