Dead Reckoning

A meditation on bad luck. Two animated manifestations of one character interact as he follows the maxim: "Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die." Represented in corporeal form by pixilated live action, our character journeys through a city. After falling on hard times, a drawn emanation of his mortality guides him to his final destination.

Dead Reckoning is a ride around Vienna´s Ringstrasse boulevard and from there to go into the city, to fall, to eat, and finally to end up on the toilet. Death is always there, always in front of us. The film follows the cycle of life, the rhythm of the city. The British-Austrian duo of Susan Young and Paul Wenninger works with animation and stop-motion technology. The filming locations show how Vienna has been influenced by cultures from around the world. An animated skeleton symbolizes the morbid humor of the Viennese and even appears as a grumpy waiter ... (production note)