In 1999 we got a contract from ITVS to make a series of animated short documentaries in the vein of Snack and Drink.  The twelve segments of Figures of Speech feature subjects interviewed in Austin and on the road between there and San Francisco.

Many of the Waking Life animators (Katy O’Connor, Randy Cole, Mary Varn, Nathan Jensen, Pat Falconer) were originally hired to work on this project.  The animation in these things is the wildest and weirdest we’ve ever done -- the animators were pretty much given free reign with the software and were able to interpret these interview subjects however they wished.

By the time the project was finished, Waking Life had been shot and was in the video editing phase.