Life in a Day (2011)

Directors:

Kevin Macdonald
Hiroaki Aikawa (co-director)
(more)

Release Date:

2 June 2011 (Russia)

Genre:

Documentary | Drama

Tagline:

Filmed by You

Plot:

A documentary shot by filmmakers all over the world that serves as a time capsule to show future generations what it was like to be alive on the 24th of July, 2010.

Plot Keywords:

Year 2010 | Talking To The Camera | Earth | Prologue | Nonlinear Timeline

Awards:

2 nominations

Cast

Cindy Baer	...	Herself
Caryn Waechter	...	Herself
Kathleen Meyer	...	Herself
Hiroaki Aikawa	...	Himself
Moica	...	Actress (as Mojca Brecelj)
Lilit Movsisyan
Arsen Grigoryan
Ranja Kamal	...	Herself
Ayman El Gazwy	...	Himself
David Jacques	...	Himself
Ester Brym	...	Herself (as Ester Brym Ortiz Guillen)
Jennifer M. Howd	...	Herself
Drake Shannon	...	Himself
Ashley O'Dell	...	Herself (as Ashley Meeks)
Christopher Brian Heerdt	...	Himself
Jaap Dijkstra	...	Himself
Bob Liginski Jr.	...	Himself
Jane Haubrich	...	Herself
Boris Grishkevich	...	Himself
Fredeik Boje Mortensen	...	Himself
Ildikó Zöldi	...	Herself
Amelie Sara Kukucska	...	Herself
Shir Decker	...	Himself
Teagan Bentley	...	Hula Hoop Rubik's Cube Girl
Shahin Najafipour	...	Himself
Jack C. Marquez	...	Himself
Cec Marquez	...	Himself
Catherine Liginski	...	Herself
Brisendine Jesse	...	Himself
Ian Service	...	Himself
Jesse Brisendine	...	Himself
Cristina Bocchialini	...	Herself (uncredited)
Andrea Cunningham	...	Herself (uncredited)
Emmanuelle Pickett	...	Herself (uncredited)

Directed by
Kevin Macdonald
Hiroaki Aikawa		(co-director)
Natalia Andreadis		(collaborating director)
Jack Attridge		(co-director)
Cristina Bocchialini		(co-director)
Zillah Bowes		(co-director)
Andrea Dalla Costa		(co-director)
Lisa Cottrell-Bentley		(co-director)
Alejo Crisóstomo		(co-director)
Ayman El Gazwy		(co-director)
Jane Haubrich		(co-director)
Soma Helmi		(co-director)
Jennifer M. Howd		(co-director)
Aditya Kolli		(co-director)
Francesco La Regina		(co-director)
Frederic Lumiere		(co-director)
Cec Marquez		(co-director)
Linda Matarasso		(co-director)
Kevin McMahon		(co-director)
Joseph Michael		(co-director)
Joaquin Montalvan		(co-director)
Emmanuelle Pickett		(co-director)

Produced by
Jack Arbuthnott	....	co-producer
Caroline Gerard	....	assistant producer
Ann Lynch	....	line producer
Liza Marshall	....	producer
Tim Partridge	....	co-producer
Ridley Scott	....	executive producer
Tony Scott	....	executive producer

Original Music by
Harry Gregson-Williams
Matthew Herbert

Cinematography by
Cristina Bocchialini		(co-cinematographer)
Ayman El Gazwy		(co-cinematographer)
Soma Helmi		(co-cinematographer)

Film Editing by
Joe Walker

Sound Department
Hugo Adams	....	sound editor
Niv Adiri	....	sound effects editor
Ben Barker	....	sound effects editor
Andrew Caller	....	sound re-recording mixer
Danny Freemantle	....	sound editor
Glenn Freemantle	....	sound designer
Glenn Freemantle	....	supervising sound editor
Tom Sayers	....	sound designer
Ian Tapp	....	sound editor
Ian Tapp	....	sound re-recording mixer

Visual Effects by
Jonathan Alenskas	....	visual effects
Luke Butler	....	digital compositor
Tom Collier	....	digital compositor
Neil Culley	....	digital compositor
Stefan Drury	....	head of visual effects
Sean Farrow	....	visual effects supervisor
Matt Foster	....	compositor: LipSync Post
Leo Neelands	....	digital compositor
Asa Shoul	....	digital colourist
Daniel Spain	....	systems engineer
Angela Stanley	....	digital compositor (as Angela Rose)
Lucy Tanner	....	visual effects coordinator

Editorial Department
Russ Clapham	....	associate film editor
Patrick Dean	....	assistant editor
Kate Denning	....	assembly editor
Lisa Forrest	....	assembly editor
Joon Goh	....	assistant editor
Gwillym Hewetson	....	first assistant editor
Ramon Huggins	....	workflow and Avid support
Mark Keady	....	assistant editor
Jaime Leonard	....	on-line editor
Begoña Lopez	....	digital intermediate producer
Marc McDermott	....	assistant editor
Avdhesh Mohla	....	assistant editor

Music Department
Ryeland Allison	....	musician (drums)
John Boughtwood	....	music supervisor
Meri Gavin	....	music editor
Isobel Griffiths	....	orchestral contractor
Lewis Jones	....	pro tools recordist
Eugenia Melian	....	executive music producer
Sam Okell	....	score mix engineer
Paul Pritchard	....	assistant scoring engineer
Simon Rhodes	....	music scoring mixer
Martin Tillman	....	cello soloist
Benjamin Wallfisch	....	music arranged by

Other crew
Raquel Alvarez	....	production coordinator
Thom Berryman	....	media transfer engineer
Brandon Blake	....	legal services: Blake & Wang P.A.
Ed Coltman	....	researcher
Matt Curtis	....	title design and graphics
Twan Da Silva	....	researcher
Billy Dosanjh	....	researcher
Michelle Franklin	....	translator
Fiona Harper	....	runner
Samantha Brockhausen Herrmann	....	researcher
Romain Kedochim	....	asset manager
Romain Kedochim	....	researcher
Rowan Laidlaw	....	assistant to producer
Mercy Liao	....	researcher
Alicia MacDonald	....	assistant to director
Joseph Matthews	....	researcher
Torrey Meeks	....	footage contributor
Natalie Moore	....	first assistant accountant
Tom Moran	....	executive assistant: Tony Scott
Elly Nakajima	....	researcher
Sarah Parfitt	....	delivery paperwork coordinator
Martin Phillip	....	archive producer
Bradley Porter	....	post production runner
Steven Robbins	....	assistant: Tony Scott
Nancy Ryan	....	assistant: Ridley Scott
Johannes Schaff	....	researcher
Rob Sorrenti	....	behind-the-scenes
Ian Thomson	....	publicist
Fabien Westerhoff	....	world sales: HanWay Films

Thanks
Maggi Townley	....	special thanks

Production Companies

• LG
• Scott Free Productions
• YouTube

Distributors

• Virgil Films & Entertainment (2011) (USA) (all media)
• HanWay Films (2011) (UK) (theatrical)
• Magic Hour (2011) (Japan) (theatrical)
• National Geographic Entertainment (2011) (USA) (theatrical)
• Rapid Eye Movies (2011) (Germany) (theatrical)
• British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) (2011) (UK) (TV) (BBC2)
• EDKO Film (2012) (Hong Kong) (DVD)
• Front Row Filmed Entertainment (2011) (United Arab Emirates) (all media) (Middle East)
• Homescreen (2011) (Netherlands) (DVD)
• Vrijzinnig Protestantse Radio Omroep (VPRO) (2012) (Netherlands) (TV)

Special Effects

• Lipsync Post (visual effects)

Other Companies

• Fugitive Studios  visual effects
• McAinsh Consulting  publicity
• Sapex Scripts  post-production script services
• Sixteen19  avid support
• Technicolor  post-production

Also Known As:

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for disturbing violent images, language and a sexual reference

Runtime:

95 min

Country:

USA | UK

Language:

English | Italian | Japanese | German | Spanish | Indonesian | Balinese | Portuguese | Ukrainian | Vietnamese | Creole | Catalan | Dutch | Bengali | Masai | Hindi | Arabic | Quechua | Russian

Color:

Color | Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

USA:PG-13 (#46604) | Canada:14A (Alberta) | Canada:G (Quebec) | Canada:PG (British Columbia/Manitoba/Ontario) | Japan:G | South Korea:12 | UK:12A | Netherlands:12 | Singapore:NC-16

Company:

LG

Quotes:

Man:I actually love my refrigerator. It's such a cool thing. It remains at one corner. It keeps its mouth shut. I love my refrigerator. Nothing else but my refrigerator!

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Breakfast: Episode dated 14 June 2011" (2011)

It engages the audience more than any documentary I've ever seen and leaves us with that profound and beautiful sensation that only the movies can give us.

A father and son document their lives caring for someone they love, who is stricken with cancer. A man steals from a grocery store. An elderly couple, their hair pristine white, finally tie the knot. A young man tells his grandmother via a phone call that he is gay and that he hopes she can come to love his significant other as much as him. A group of women sing as they perform their daily duties. A photographer describes his way of life. People walk, go to work, talk to each other, talk to the camera, as they do in life. Because this is life. Life is extraordinary and life is mundane. And life, no matter from what perspective we examine it, is mesmerizing. And Kevin Macdonald's film "Life in a Day" is all of that and more.

This is one of the most enthralling, captivating, and magnificent works of art ever produced by human hands. And that is the honest truth, since it was, in deed, created by hundreds of people. Some of them filmmakers, most of them just ordinary Janes and Joes like you and me. Detailing what happened in their lives on July 24, 2010 and submitting their footage to Mr. Macdonald and producer Ridley Scott, they provided the materials for a genuine masterpiece. "Life in a Day" is a masterpiece not because it is artistic or cared for with creative tenderness (even though it is). It's a masterpiece because it is unabashedly honest and personable. I watched the movie on its live Youtube debut while it was simultaneously screened at the Sundance film festival. And for an hour and thirty-four minutes, I sat there captivated. Nothing could have torn me from my seat. Even though most of what I saw was fairly ordinary, things I could see walking down any street in any town. Paradoxical as it sounds, the mundane is mesmerizing.

In his movie, Mr. Macdonald and his hundreds of co-directors examines human life as fact and with honesty. He reveals the frailties, tenderness, brutality, horrors, and beauty of life in our world all within that short window of an hour and a half. It's so captivating because it's all real and these are stories that many of us can identify with, and others we hope never to. That's when the movie really becomes a tear-jerker. Sometimes there are long stretches of time on particular subjects, other times it's a montage accompanied by truly wonderful, ear-worm music. There is so much that I want to say about "Life in a Day" but I must restrict myself. Because the movie really has to be seen to be believed. I cannot possibly do this film's emotional and psychological justice simply by writing about it. All I should (and will) do is tell you my reaction, as I just have. This is one of my most personal reviews and it's fair because it's a personal film. It engages the audience more than any documentary could ever do (though I haven't seen "Shoah" yet) and it leaves us with that utterly profound and beautiful sensation that only a great picture can do. Even though it is very, very simple in a lot of ways. After all, Steven Spielberg once said "Oftentimes the simplest ideas are the best ones." He was right. Boy, was he right.

"Life in a Day" is a masterpiece.