20 Screenwriting Tips from Quentin Tarantino

because to me the glory in what i do is the fact that it starts with a blank piece of paper you look at something like inglorious bastards and that did not if my mother never met my father that would not exist in any way shape or form quentin it's not your job to create your vision it's your job [Music] to have a vision a good majority of movies that come out all right you pretty much know everything you're going to see in the movie by the first 10 or 20 minutes now that's not a story

a story is something that constantly unfolds the only responsibility i have is to be true to my characters and the dialogue just comes out of the character i don't leave the characters i let the characters lead me why the need for so much gruesome graphic violence why not let us know because it's so much fun chan get it it's hard work to go to that blank piece of paper and start from square ones start from scratch every single solitary time i want to make movies that people will watch them and that will make them want

to make movies you should have this little voice inside of you saying tell the truth tell the truth tell the truth i actually really try to have morality not even be an issue at all all right when it comes to my character so i like the idea that you open up the briefcase in pulp fiction and i don't tell you what's in there but it's up to you to figure out what's in there and now that's your movie you make a goddamn kick-ass movie and you can take it all over in planet earth [Music] you

can see all kinds of movies but when a movie really really does it to me it's because it's um it's made me feel many different emotions during the course of it and especially if i can pull off contradictory emotions that can actually work out and i do believe that uh i'm the kind of director that i'm um i want to i want to play you as an audience i i want to be the conductor and you're my orchestra and the sounds that i make you to make and the feelings i get you to feel and

then i stop you from feeling those feelings and i give you something else to feel and then i stop you from feeling that and make you feel something else yet again but when i read hard times then i could see what a script could be it was exciting it was fun and it wasn't just the dialogue and you know the cheney and that movie doesn't say much all right um but but uh james coburn does a lot of talking all right but um but the point being though was it wasn't just description it was pros

now not pros like i'm used to in a novel but it was a prose that was appropriate for a screenplay he he wasn't just giving um a blueprint for how a bunch of technicians can make this movie later like a recipe for a cake that somebody else is going to bake he was the pros was written for me the reader i was supposed to get caught up into this i was supposed to to be excited about this story i was supposed to get caught up in the story and even more importantly i was supposed to

make the movie in my mind when the script was over and i put it down i saw it i saw the movie my movie there's like okay there's a real famous scene and if you've read any reviews on the movie you probably heard about it right the the this torture scene the scene is about a guy mr blonde he's a psychopath who tortures a hostage cop in a court in the course of the movie it's not like i was just sitting around one day thinking man i'm gonna come up with this really [ __ ]

and torches thing that everyone's gonna be freaking out about it's not about that the bottom line there is that is what mr blonde would do when left alone with that guy saying you don't like violence in movies is the same thing as saying you don't like slapstick comedy in movies or you don't like dance sequences and movies you may not like it and that's fine you don't have to like it all right but that doesn't mean you shouldn't make it the only responsibility i have is not what a couple of knuckleheads might do when they

see the movie which can be proven anyway all right the only responsibility i have is to be true to my characters and if violence or sex or whatever all right is part of your palette as an artist you got to be allowed to paint quentin it's not your job to create your vision it's your job to have a vision and then it's your job to hire talented individuals hire talented artists who understand your vision and you articulate it to them and then they take your vision and they create it why do you write it right

you know you should have this little voice inside of you saying tell the truth yeah tell the truth tell the truth all right reveal a few secrets the truth is your life experience exactly that's the truth is i know it to me all the movies are very personal all right when i look at them and i don't mean like i'm some crook all right but the thing about it though is like you know this group of friends will look at it and be like oh quinn i can't believe you talked about that yeah you know

you know this old girlfriend because they identify with their experience you know it's like it's you know it's it you should be semi embarrassed about certain people seeing your movie i think when you're finished if you're working on a personal level or else the work is not authentic well i mean i don't want to make that blanket a statement but but i guess for me i guess yeah yeah you don't have to know how to make a movie if you truly love cinema with all your heart and with enough passion you can't help but make

a good movie you don't have to go to school you don't have to know a lens you know a 40 and a 50 and a [ __ ] all that [ __ ] crossing the line none of that shit's important if you just truly love cinema with enough passion and you really love it then you can't help but make a good movie why the need for so much gruesome graphic violence why not let us know because it's so much fun jan get it oh really okay i'd like to see you walk down the street and

get attacked by some kids who's just seen but you saw me see jan you're all messed up because you're talking about real life if you want to talk about the movies we'll talk about the movies okay people talk about real life kids at 12 can tell the difference you tell their parents that quentin i was great i saw movies when i was a kid all right i saw the all the movies that i'm basing my movie how wonderful are these movies i thought i was kidding yes kids go to a movie theater they can tell

the difference maybe you couldn't when you were a kid but i could you get great performances from these actors yeah why is that you think uh well because it really stands out in a lot of your movies obviously well you know it kind of i think it's a it's a three prong thing you know um i write good characters all right interesting characters uh i then i cast them well i cast them well and uh but part of casting well is usually unless i'm writing it for somebody in particular sometimes that works out and sometimes

that doesn't um uh it's about the character first it's not the actor first i my i don't have an obligation to give a groovy actor a role i have an obligation to find the best person to play my character they're my characters they came from deep in my dna and i want them to have the perfect person to play them i'm not writing theater where you know everybody for the next 20 years gets a crack at it this is it we not only see she is a bride but she's eight months pregnant interior wedding chapel

day overhead shot we hear step step step to a man we haven't seen yet enters the shot right next to the fallen bride he lowers down next to her on his haunches holding a white handkerchief with the name bill stone in the corner and begins tenderly wiping away the blood from the young bride's face while still in her close-up the bride speaks for the first time in the picture she looks up at the man standing over her and says bill it's your baby a beat after she says the word baby we hear a bang and

the bride receives a bullet on the side of her head cut to black screen the fourth film by quentin taranti just when it comes to uh the actual writing of the piece where it really really becomes what it is going to become is it's about character and the dialogue just comes out of the character and i don't leave the characters i let the characters lead me both as far as who they are and the conversations and even the scenario itself i mean like for instance if i've got a character here with this glass and i

have every intention of getting them to where that glass is yeah well that's a good idea my part i think but once i get them going there they might not they might reject the glass right and they go somewhere else and they are the ones that know best that used to be the thing about america was the fact that hollywood forget america hollywood hollywood used to that's what we did better than anybody else in the world we told a really good story you know europe was where you had character-based films or mood-based films but america

we told the story we're the worst at it now as far as i'm concerned telling a story i'm telling a story we don't tell a story we tell a situation most of the movies that you see nowadays and i'm not a hollywood basher because enough good movies come out of the hollywood system every year to justify its existence you know but they without any apologies however a good majority of movies that come out all right you pretty much know everything you're going to see in the movie by the first 10 or 20 minutes now that's

not a story a story is something that constantly unfolds i'm not talking about like this quick left turn or a quick right turn or a big surprise i'm talking about it unfolds i remember after i came out with pulp fiction so i had two movies by that time uh some critic said something to the effect of tarantino will never be a master of suspense because he's too far in love with minutia and i actually thought that was a fair enough criticism back then so in now i want to actually do a movie where i actually

indulge in suspense and i go for it and my method of it and use that scene in the opening scene of the movie as an example it's like um it's like there's there's the scene above ground and the scene below ground and the scene above ground is what's going on and the dialogue and them sitting around this table and talking underneath it it's like the suspense is a rubber band and i'm just stretching it and stretching it and stretching and see how far it can stretch now normally in a situation when you do a movie

you try to make your scenes as compact as possible so there's not air and you don't wear out you're welcome with the audience but under this method as long as that rubber band can stretch the longer the scene can hold the more suspenseful it is that scene is more suspenseful at 22 minutes and would be at 8. so you want to just stretch it until the rubber band breaks it's not the whole movie isn't about redemption but redemption does keep working itself in to the movie and most of the characters in the movie are given

choices to make and they make the choices that they make and they pay and they pay the price or the consequences or they live to tell the tale uh because of those choices and we actually see it happen all three different times in the movie and uh but actually but it's it's funny though if you if you just take that for what it is if you just look at the case of john travolta and sam jackson it would suggest well okay sam jackson made the good choice made the right choice unless he prospers and john

travolta pays no attention to it and thus we know he dies but you have to but you have to think about bruce willis choice that happens in this movie because he actually makes two choices one he makes a choice to do a very unhonorable thing you know he actually makes the deal with marcellus wallace to throw the fight he doesn't have to marcellus doesn't say throw the fighter you're dead he makes it for money and he takes the money and he screws marcellus with it um but he actually ends up living to tell the tale

because he actually does make a moral choice later when he goes back to save marcellus uh running glorious bastards i started uh writing during the daytime where i get up and you know it's like you know so around 10 30 or 11 o'clock or 11 30 i would sit down and write and uh like a normal work day and i would sit down and i would uh write until 4 5 six or seven somewhere around there i would stop and then i have a pool and i keep it heated so it's nice and i'd go

into my so if i finished okay so either i'm not finished with the sequence or i've just finished the sequence and i've got to figure out what to do next so if i haven't finished the sequence then i'd hop in my pool and just kind of float around in the warm water and think about everything i've just written and and you know how i can make it better or what else can happen as far as before the scene's over and then a lot of [ __ ] would come to me literally a lot of a

lot of things would come to me and then i'd get out and i would make little notes on that but not do it and that would be my work for tomorrow or if i just finish the scene all right i would think okay i'd go back over it in my head in the pool and think about it now okay now uh now what's the next scene and now what's next and then i figure out a few things and make notes and that's my work for the next day and that's ended up becoming this really you

know really enjoyable really kind of lovely way to write and i just want the actors to know now the audience doesn't need to know like for instance uh brad pitt's character aldo lorraine has a rope burn exactly around his neck but i never want to explain what i desperately wanted to know well i want you to just figure it out all right i mean that's up to you to to supply where that rope burn came from i mean i would love to have had a little bit of a conversation that he would have referred to

that yes i i i wanted you to know i would have told you i like the idea but your idea of cinema then is it keep a lot of stuff in you want mystery in the film itself you know it's like you want us not to know everything well i like the idea i like the idea that if okay if you contemplate why there is a rope burn there and somebody else contemplates why there's a roper and there and somebody else contemplates it and three different people come up with three different uh reasons why he

got a roper and those are three different movies you all saw and i like that idea i like the idea that you open up the briefcase in pulp fiction and i don't tell you what's in there but it's up to you to figure out what's in there and now that's your movie and you'll make that decision somewhere down the line now if i tell you at this table what it is then you'll throw that away and i don't want you to throw away that's your movie when i'm writing the script even though i'm thinking about

cinematic things and this and that and the other when i'm putting pen to paper it's f the movie it is about the page it is really seriously about the page i'm writing literature at this point my stuff gets published and it is about it working on the page i put scenes in the script that i kind of know i'll never film but because i don't think the script will i don't think the movie will need it but the written script needs it it clarifies it for the reading it makes it better for the reading yeah

and part of my job is to kind of realize what i don't need as i'm making the movie now once i'm making the movie then i'm not only thinking about the script that much and now i'm making the movie but when it comes time to the writing of it it really is about the pen and the paper and nothing else and not only that not only i add one other thing to that yeah is uh and i feel i need to feel this way this way i know that i've done a good job is if

i've done the script and i do what i want to do then i have to question the idea of you know what if i don't make this movie if i just publish this i'm done i'm done and i've got it i've won all right it's mine to f up right if i go on but right now i've d i'm done now i don't do that i go and make the movie but i always consider it and if i don't feel that way about the script and i know i haven't done that good of a job

yeah if you if you get the passion if you get the passion to do it and you do it and it doesn't like work out i i worked for got three years on a 16 millimeter film that ended up becoming nothing but guitar picks and uh and i was very disappointed when i realized it wasn't any good but it was my film school all right and i actually got away really cheap when it was all over i knew how to make a movie i didn't want to show anybody that but i had the experience i

had a lot cheaper than i would have gone if i'd gone to film school this was my film school all right and this was the best film school a person could possibly have i mean i actually instead of like going to school and paying a ton of money to be allowed to use some of their crappy equipment all right i actually went out and actually tried to make make a feature film i actually really try to um have morality not even be an issue at all all right when it comes to my character it's so

interesting i mean you know i don't want that to have any play whatsoever i that would be me commenting on them right that is me sticking my big nose into their lives and then their philosophies i let them be who they are and you know my biggest feeling is you know i i just i just want the same rights that a novelist has i mean like we lived through the 80s we're like [ __ ] every hollywood movie everyone had to be likable and everybody had to be understandable and uh and the test scores were

like oh well we didn't like him so we got to change every goddamn thing you know and uh i didn't make movies at that time but i was watching them and i said i'm not going to make that crap and um and i just want the same freedom that a novelist has i mean you can make a novel you can write a novel about a bastard but it can be totally interesting i think it's still possible for a upcoming filmmaker to go the route you guys went and still be successful make reservoir dogs that's a

tough thing no i'm not even being as i'm not even being a smart ass that was a [ __ ] kick-ass movie all right you make a goddamn kick-ass movie and you can take it all over and planet earth not america nothing los angeles not new york the planet earth and everyone will know it but there is a lot more competition than there was when i was you know like kicking around with el mariachi so you got you know there's just a lot more to do but at the same time though yeah there's a lot

more to competition but also those crappy movies aren't competition if [ __ ] thing is like a dynamite yeah all that [ __ ] is you know yeah there's a lot of a lot of people out there doing stuff but if you know it's like waves on the beach all right you make some you make a piece of nitro that you throw in an audience's lap though people notice when you think that you have this one more film to make is there more weight on that or you just do your [ __ ] thing the

weight was really on once upon a time in hollywood really that's kind of like my big epic that's like my big wrap up wrap up the career kind of epic and i think i did it so i don't know what the next story is going to be uh i'm imagining it'll be more epilogy like this is the big one and then whatever i end up doing for that last one like i said a bit more of an epilogue just as you're wrapping up the career but you don't have a specificity i have no idea i

have no idea well the only thing i can no no i want to i i i i hope to do two more books and well let me one more book and then do a play and then we'll see where we are let's see if the another story has come i mean the only one i can imagine where i would where it would be another epic where i need to outdo everything as if i did a kill bill 3. have you thought of that i thought of it yeah you