'Boyhood': A movie 12 years in the making

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- What were you doing 12 years ago?

The year was 2002. 'A Beautiful Mind' won Best Picture at the 74th Academy Awards. A reality singing competition called 'American Idol' altered television viewing habits. And the world was still one year away from knowing what MySpace was.

PHOTOS: 2002 in Pictures

Also in 2002, a movie called 'Boyhood' began filming.

That movie, about a boy, his family, and the tribulations of growing up, will be released in Philadelphia area theaters this Friday - July 25, 2014. It opened in select theaters around the country back on July 11th.

A coming-of-age tale certainly has been done before in Hollywood (see most John Hughes films). But for Richard Linklater's 'Boyhood,' the production is what makes it stand out.

"It's not a documentary. It's a story."

That's how Linklater, director and screenwriter, talks about his film.

Shot over 12 years, with the same actors, 'Boyhood' is being described by critics as groundbreaking, transporting, and perfect.

Linklater wanted to make the film to show the complexities and simplicities of childhood, but he couldn't decide on which moments in that part of one's life to choose.

So...

"Why not try to encompass all of it?" Linklater asked himself.

And so he did.

The movie began shooting in 2002 with a 6-year-old from Texas named Ellar Coltrane playing the boy of 'Boyhood,' Mason.

Over the course of the film, and over the course of time, viewers not only see Mason grow, as the story plays out, but they also witness Ellar himself grow up right before their eyes.

"Over time, my life and my character's life began to meet in places," Coltrane said.

Along with Coltrane, the other actors in the film - Ethan Hawke, Patricia Arquette, and Linklater's own daughter Lorelei - age with every scene change.

No special effects. No aging makeup. No lookalike casting. The same actors working the same role for a dozen years.

"When Rick called I was so excited just to be part of this. I remember he said, 'What are you doing for the next 12 years?' - which is really the best sort of come on," Arquette recalled.

The actors and their characters, however, are not the only things that transform throughout the film.

As a young boy, Mason can be seen playing on the portable video game console Gameboy SP and an hour or so later, a now teenage Mason maneuvers the Wii controllers with ease showing the advancement of technology.

The Mac computers also change appearance throughout the film, too. Remember the iMac G3?

Music, a nonparticipating character along for the ride, takes the journey from Coldplay's 'Yellow' to Arcade Fire's 'Deep Blue' with some Soulja Boy and High School Musical stops along the way.

"To make one movie over a 12-year period was the most incredibly unique idea," Hawke said.

Ethan Hawke appears to be speaking the truth.

No other film, according to many insiders and those affiliated with the movie, spent 12 years shooting a script that was intended to be shot over 12 years.

But that doesn't mean Hollywood hasn't seen its share of long-term productions.

According to Vanity Fair, Stanley Kubrick's final film 'Eyes Wide Shut' holds the Guinness Book of World Record for the longest continual film shoot.

"When [Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman] landed in London in the fall of 1996, the couple fully expected to return to Hollywood by spring. Instead, they stayed on through the summer, fall, and another Christmas," Vanity Fair states.

After a few more months of reshoots, the total shooting time totaled 15 months.

Hollywood.com has a list of the '10 movies that took forever to make,' with 'Boyhood' among the group.

But all for varying reasons.

Hollywood.com says the reason it took 8 years for Guillermo del Toro's 'Cronos' to be made was due to budget problems.

'The Simpsons Movie' took 9 years because the plot ideas kept being re-purposed for the TV show.

Production on 'Avatar' took 10 years because director James Cameron needed to wait for the technology he wanted to be created.

For 'Boyhood,' it took 12 years because 'Boyhood' is about 12 years.

So is there any film that even comes close to resembling the 'real-time' filmmaking of 'Boyhood?'

I asked Dr. Shekhar Deshpande, Professor and Chair of the Department of Media and Communications of Arcadia University in Glenside, Pennsylvania, and, coincidentally, my film professor 12 years ago, that very question.

Deshpande, whose own changes in the past 12 years included becoming a father for the third time, says, the film that comes closest to resembling 'Boyhood' is Michael Apted's documentary 'Seven Up.'

Linklater, as stated above, makes sure to note his film is not a documentary. However, the movie, Deshpande points out, does parallel with the concept of 'Seven Up.'

"It was a documentary produced in 1964," Deshpande said, "when [Apted] followed 14 British children when they were all seven years old. It was so successful in terms of the lives and cultures exposed that Apted moved to make it in to a series for Granada Television."

Apted now visits these children every seven years and turns each update into a new documentary. In fact, "56 Up" just premiered in the United States last year.

While Hawke says, "there's nothing documentary" about 'Boyhood,' he does understand the comparison.

"The film seduces you into believing these characters are real," Hawke observes. "That's why even the tiniest minutiae of their lives is so engaging."

PHOTOS: Images from 'Boyhood'

'Boyhood' depicts the real life challenges of growing up over 12 years. Not surprisingly, shooting a film over 12 years had its own challenges.

While describing 'Seven Up,' Deshpande refers to it as a "patient documentary." With 'Boyhood,' patience, it seems, is what the filmmaker, the crew, and the actors needed.

"Making this sort of film (Boyhood) requires patience and money. The combination of two suggests that there is a commitment to making something more valuable than temporary box office gains," Deshpande said.

The film technology itself was a challenge for Linklater as it has evolved over the past dozen years. Shooting on 35mm in 2002 was commonplace, but in 2014 proved a bit more difficult.

"Towards the end of production, it became harder and harder to shoot on 35mm," Linklater said.

But Linklater stuck with 35mm to create, what he called, a "seamless flow."

Dr. Deshpande is well aware of these changes in the film industry.

"Digital technology was getting better [12 years ago]. Now we have almost given up celluloid and most films are made with digital cameras," Deshpande said.

While many critics believed 'Avatar' changed the movie watching experience half a decade ago with brand new 3-D technology, the question remains, will the CGI-less 'Boyhood,' with its original storytelling device, create its own change on how movies are made?

"In terms of producing films that follow lives of individuals over a period of time, I don't think this is a game changer. But in terms of weaving the idea of time in making this film, in presenting some brilliant ideas of how we perceive time (which is what this film does), it will have a good effect on others," Deshpande said.

The film, essentially about the idea of time, has a running time close to three hours, something the director did not intend.

"It was longer than I had originally conceived; I had originally thought 10 minutes per year, adding up to 120 minutes. But I realized after the first year that wasn't exactly how it was going to work," Linklater said.

Linklater said he left the film be what it wanted to be.

So what is that exactly?

What will moviegoers take away from watching the not so unique coming-of-age story told in a unique way?

"It was so much a part of my life, but I think it will be really universal because it gets to something a lot of us are missing- that appreciation of moments for what they are," Coltrane said.

Though 'Boyhood' has no loud explosions, no intense car chases, or animated characters, it may become a summer blockbuster due to its original take on a familiar story, one that's 12 years in the making.

"Ultimately, it's both kind of an epic and yet, at the same time, very simple and intimate," Linklater said.

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Information and quotes from 'Boyhood' production notes were used in this article.