Director Study

Hi!

As the genre of our opening film credits is action, it made sense for the director that we analyse be one who directs many films that are of the action genre. Therefore I decided to use an established and famous action director in Quentin Tarantino. He is known for his critically acclaimed films such as 'Pulp Fiction', 'Reservoir Dogs' and 'Django Unchained'.

Tarantino is an American director, screenwriter, producer and actor. He was born March 27 1963. He grew up as an avid film fan and spent a period of time working at Video Archives, a video rental store. He trained as an actor at the same time he was working at the video rental shop. Tarantino kicked off his film career by writing and directing the film “My best friend’s birthday”. In the early 1990’s he started making independent films, the first film he created was “Reservoir Dogs” which has since been voted the greatest independent film of all time. His second film was arguably more successful than his first. Pulp Fiction, released in 1994, has been critically acclaimed and was also judged to be the best film of the past 25 years (1983-2008). Tarantino subsequently went on to direct films such as 'Kill Bill' and 'Inglorious Basterds' both were received well by film watchers and critics alike. In 2012 he directed 'Django Unchained' which became the highest grossing film he’d ever been involved in when it made over $425 million at the box office. He has received several awards for the excellence of his critically acclaimed films these awards include; two Oscars, two golden globes and two BAFTAS. In 2005 Time magazine voted him placed him within the top 100 most influential people in the world. He has often been called the most influential director of his generation.

There are several camera angles, shots and effects that Quentin Tarantino can be judged to regularly include in his films. He uses these features in order to display his thrilling stories to the public visually: 

Long takes and tracking shots:  These kinds of shots let us follow the characters and spend time with them without cuts/edits. There is a real beauty and daring to these kinds of cinematic sequences.

In Pulp Fiction: Long take: We stay with Vincent and Jules several minutes before they go to meet Brett. There are no cuts here. Tracking shot: Butch gets out of his car and walks through an alleyway to get to his apartment to retrieve his father's gold watch:

In Kill Bill: Tracking shot: The Bride walks into the HOBL bathroom----->Charlie Brown & the HOBL owner walk up to O-Ren's private room then we join ----->Sofie Fatale who walks from the private room to the bathroom where we rejoin The Bride.

Quentin Tarantino has trademarked the trunk shot camera angle and he's used it in every movie he has directed. He also uses reverse trunk shots with characters being watched from outside the trunk, as in from the point of view of the person inside the trunk.

The Trunk and POV (Point of View) shot:  

In Reservoir Dogs: Mr Brown, Mr Pink and Mr White looking at Marvin Nash:

In Pulp Fiction: Vincent Vega and Jules Winnfield:

As Quentin Tarantino noted, his use of this shot was inspired by Director Brian DePalma who often used the 360 tracking shot to emphasize the feeling of love or togetherness. It can also be used to emphasize confusion as in DePalma's Blow Out (the scene when Jack's tapes are erased) and in QT's Jackie Brown where the camera spins around Jackie. This is actually a trick on the viewer because as we find out, Jackie plans out the entire caper and is merely acting confused:

In Reservoir Dogs: Opening dinner scene:

In Jackie Brown: Sequence at the mall:

See you soon!