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Throughout Boyhood, Linklater incorporated EllarвЂ™s various interests as they shifted between making arrow rock heads to graffiti to photography. I had to keep thinking, вЂhow is this going to look and feel 10 or 12 or 18 years from now?вЂ™ And regardless, if this thing is still around, then this is the first year they had it.вЂќ And games are such a big part of a young boyвЂ™s life. But you canвЂ™t go wrong using technology as a marker. I didnвЂ™t want to rub that stuff in too much. But those things arenвЂ™t so reliable anymore. It used to be that cars and fashion and music would tell you when you were. вЂњWe were making a period film in the present tense. Although music from Coldplay, Arcade Fire and Lady Gaga plays and thereвЂ™s a midnight Harry Potter queue at the book store, the technological cues вЂ“ Wii eclipses Xbox eclipses Nintendo DS вЂ“ are somehow the most loaded.

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вЂњNot this boring kid like I was.вЂќДЇor anyone born during the 1990s вЂ“ or for anyone who knows anyone born in the 1990s вЂ“ Boyhood provides a series of poignant temporal markers in the form of successive gaming systems. HeвЂ™s the part IвЂ™d rather make a film about.вЂќ But I think Ellar was almost like the more interesting part of myself. I was the kid who played sports and did all that. They might have been the class president or the really popular guy at school. Other kids were more quote-unquote вЂstraightвЂ™. вЂњHe was the interesting, arty, mysterious kid, you know? Kind of poetic in his own way. вЂњLooking back, meeting him was the moment that made the film,вЂќ says the Oscar- nominated writer-director. The Slacker-Philosopher But what was about Ellar that sealed the deal? How did he know that the six-year-old he cast in 2002 would grow up to be, well, a typical slacker-philosopher Linklater character? Because I know where youвЂ™re going to be every year.вЂќ She just told me: вЂOh well, IвЂ™m playing that role.вЂ™ And I thought: вЂWell good. вЂњOnce it was clear that the older sister was within her age range, there was no way she was going to allow me to cast anyone else,вЂќ laughs the film-maker. As with Ellar, Lorelei was seven at the start of production and is 19 by the time the credits roll. That sense of family was compounded by the presence of Lorelei Linklater, RichardвЂ™s daughter, who plays MasonвЂ™s older sister. By the end, Ellar felt like my nephew or something. I couldnвЂ™t just call them up come see them and talk about whatвЂ™s going on. They worked hard and came in and did everything possible. вЂњI always thought that one time I would call Ellar and heвЂ™d say: вЂYou know, I donвЂ™t really want to do this anymoreвЂ™. Despite his youth and inexperience at the start of the project вЂ“ Ellar had only appeared in a few commercials before Linklater cast him in BoyhoodвЂ™s central role вЂ“ the director describes the star as вЂњthe rockвЂќ of the hugely ambitious project.

Throughout, Mason is played by Ellar Coltrane, a local Austin actor. Boyhood comprises a series of episodes in the life of Mason, starting when he is six and continuing until he enters college at 18. ItвЂ™s a multi-faceted narrative masked by a singular trajectory. So we were all feeling it from all these different directions.вЂќ And I think Ethan and Patricia see the same things. ItвЂ™s a portrait of trying to figure that out. To me, it was always a film about bumbling through parenthood. вЂњUltimately, itвЂ™s a pretty big collaboration with everyoneвЂ™s sense of reality,вЂќ says the 53-year-old Linklater. This is as close to the human experience as film-making can get. The results make BBCвЂ™s ground-breaking Up series вЂ“ which has periodically dropped in on 14 different Britons since 1963 вЂ“ seem rather half-hearted. Every year since 2002, the Austin-based auteur has gathered together the same cast вЂ“ including Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette вЂ“ to shoot scenes for the film. Shot over 12 years, Richard LinklaterвЂ™s time-lapse epic Boyhood is all that its title suggests. Get ready for the most amazing experience youвЂ™ll ever have in a cinema.

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