Linklater had toyed with the idea for Waking Life since high school, battling against the knowledge that its intricate and abstract nature wouldn’t work in a live action format. One day, exposed to his friend’s newly developed animation process of interpolated rotoscoping, it all suddenly clicked, and he thought, “That thing in my head will work if it looks like that.” And so it seems we can have profound ideas before their destined medium even exists.