- Yeah, okay I'm a big
fish in a puddle, so what.
All right, they're not doing anything.
You make a god damned kick
ass movie and you take it
all over the the (bleep) planet Earth.
Now, true I'm I'm making specific films,
and if you make a specific film that's not
everything for everybody you're
going to turn some people off.
I grandiose my way out of fear.
How do you get that
vision that's in your head
how do you get it on the screen?
I worked for, God, three
years on a 16 millimeter
film that ended up becoming
nothing but guitar picks.
You also can't just, I mean
when the going gets tough
not give up on your vision.
Do a heist film, deliver
the goods as a heist film,
but it's a heist film where
you never see the heist.
Now that I've written the first pass on it
what do I think about it?
How can I make it better?
Is there another element
I can bring into it?
You can't make a 14 year old girl coming
of age movie in Australia without having
a car chase break out at some point.
- He's an American film maker and actor.
His film have garnered both
critical and commercial success.
He received a star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame
for his contributions
to the film industry.
He's Quentin Tarantino and here are his
top 10 rules for success.
(air rushes)
(thuds)
- I got a, I started
working at this video store,
it's pretty much what you're talking about
around that time.
And, it was great at
first because I'd always
hated day jobs and stuff.
And so, I got a day job and it ended up
being pretty good, but
admittedly I was there
for five years.
At a certain point it was a narcotic.
All right, I didn't have
to keep pursuing my dreams
because it's not what I
want to do, but it's sort
of kind of close.
And, if I didn't have an
artist's soul burning in me
I could have made myself happy with that.
If I didn't have an artist's soul burning
to get out I could have walked backwards
a couple steps and just done that.
And, it would have been a fulfilling,
well to anybody else it would
have been a fulfilling life.
It wouldn't have been for
me 'cause I wouldn't know
and I would have had something to say that
I didn't get a chance to say.
But, it did put me to sleep for a while.
And, I've always just
thought, I mean what really
got everything kind of truly going for me,
you can point at a lot
of different things.
But, the bottom line is
the fact that I realized
that even the group of
people I hung around with
they were all great, great,
great fellas and great gals.
But, it was easy for me
to think that I was doing
a lot because I was doing
more to try to move myself
forward than they were.
But, that's not, okay I'm
a big fish in a puddle,
so what, all right, they're
not doing anything, all right.
So yeah, I'm doing more
than them, but I realized
that actually I need to
get my ass out to Hollywood
and meet other people
who are in my category
or working a little higher.
And, I should be the
weakest link in my chain
that I have and that'll
make me be stronger
and make me run faster.
I mean, like an analogy
I've always used is
all right if you run the
100 yard dash with people
that can't run as fast
as you, yeah you'll win
hands down you know that.
But, if you run with
people much faster than you
all right, you might come
in last every single time
but you're time will be
better because they're
making you run all the faster.
They're making you dig
down just a little bit more
it doesn't matter that you
won your time is faster.
And, that's what I knew I had to do.
I had to get out of
loserville and throw myself
into a place where like
this is what the (bleep)
do for a living.
- Do you think it's
still possible for an up
and coming filmmaker to
go the route that you guys
went and still be successful?
- That's a good question.
What do you think?
- Make Reservoir Dogs.
(laughs)
- That's a tough, that's a tough--
- Actually, I'm not
even being a smart ass.
That was a (bleep) kick
ass movie all right.
You make a god damn kick
ass movie and you can take
it all over the (bleep)
planet Earth, not America,
not (bleep) Las Angeles, not New York,
the planet (bleep) Earth.
And, everyone will know it.
- There is a lot more
competition than there was
when I was like kicking
around with El Mariachi,
so you've got, there's just
a lot more to do these days.
You have a lot more
competition because everybody's
got a camera now and everybody can edit.
It's just it's tough, I
don't know but the state of
independent filmmaking changes
just like filmmaking changes.
- Yeah, but at the same
time yeah there's a lot more
competition but also those
crappy movies aren't competition
if the (bleep) thing is
like (bleep) dynamite.
- Yeah, yo true.
- All those shit is, yeah
there's a lot of people
out there doing stuff
but if it's like waves
on the (bleep) beach all right.
You make a piece of nitro that you throw
in an audience's lap, people notice.
And, people ask me from time to time,
"Do you make a movie with
an audience in mind?"
And, my answer is yes I do, all right,
but the audience I have in
mind isn't some faceless
blobs that I'm trying to second guess.
It's me--
- Kind of like a focus group.
- Yeah, it's me, I'm the audience.
I'm the guy that goes out
and pays $7 or $8 in New York
to go and see a movie.
If I'm excited about
seeing a movie I see it
on opening day, all right?
I am the audience, all right?
And, I know what I want to see.
And, I was betting and
I was a little surprised
at how many there were,
I was betting that there
were other people like
me out there, all right?
Now true, I'm making specific films.
And, if you make a specific
film that's not everything
for everybody you're going to
turn some people off, all right?
But, you're going to
turn some people on, too.
- When you experience
moments of self doubt
how do you approach getting
out of that dark place?
- [Woman] Good question.
- I grandiose my way out of fear.
(laughs)
- [Man] If you can imagine that.
(laughs)
- [Woman] It's a good way, it's charming.
- It's like literally it's
like, okay I'm going to do
one of the greatest
car chases of all time.
And, if I don't I'm not as
talented as I thought I was.
And, I will realize that
there is a ceiling to
my talent, right now I
don't think there is,
but if I don't do,
(laughs)
but if it's not one of
the greatest car chases
of all time then I failed
and there is a ceiling
on my talent, I'm not as
good as I thought I was.
And, I said that to everybody.
And, was I scared?
(bleep) yeah, I had
trepidation going all the way,
'cause it's mine to fail.
And, it's failing in
front of the mirror, too,
'cause I'll know if I did it or not.
And, I'll be like, "Okay,
you are not as good
"as you thought you were."
And, that got me to Mount Everest.
- That's true, and at one point he goes,
"Robert, can you imagine
you and me doing this
"car chase together, how
great it's going to be?"
And I'm like, "Hey man,
you're on your own brother."
(laughs)
I ain't going out there man,
I've got five (bleep) kids.
I'm not going no hundred
mile an hour bull (bleep).
You want to live the Vanishing
Point dream, buddy, live it.
(laughs)
And, he did it all by
himself and I'm so (bleep)
proud of him.
- You see movies and they
can be full of vision
and you want your movies to be like that.
But, you see these other
movies that don't have
any vision but I'm sure
the director tried.
So, what's the difference
between this guy versus that guy?
How was this guy able to
get this on the screen
and how was this guy not able
to get this on the screen?
I'm sure if I talked to
that guy he'd tell all
these, I'm sure he wanted that, who knows.
And, I was afraid of being that guy.
I wanted to be that guy.
And, well Terry Gilliam
definitely has a vision,
no two, three, four ways about it.
So, we were at Sundance
and it was like a lunch
going on at the picnic
tables there else F.O.ed
and it was just me and him
talking, which was a thrill.
And, I go, "Look, you have
a very specific vision
"in your movies and it's
right there on the screen.
"How do you do that?
"How do you get that
vision that's in your head
"how do you get it on the screen?"
And he said, "Well Quentin,
you have to understand
"as a director you don't have to do that.
"Your job is to hire talented
people who can do that.
"You hire a cinematographer
who can get the kind
"of quality that you want.
"You don't have to be
able to know how to take
"the lights and move then
around to create an effect,
"you hire a talented costume
designer who can give
"the colors that you need
and the flamboyance or not
"that you want.
"You hire a production
designer who can do that.
"Your job is explaining your vision.
"Your job is articulating
to them what you want
"on the screen."
And then, all of a sudden the
whole mystical shamanistic
thing that I thought
directing was just went boop.
And, I realized I could do
that, that it wasn't this
Merlin like magic kit
that I needed to know
the right spell in order to conjure.
Oh, I can describe what I
want, I know what's in my head.
That's the easiest part,
I'm good at describing.
To get the passion, if you've
got the passion to do it
and you do it and it doesn't like work out
I worked for, God, three
years on 16 millimeter film
that ended up becoming
nothing but guitar picks.
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 it a lot cheaper
than I would have gotten
if I had gone to film school.
If you're really going to be
an artist with you own voice
and you want to do
different things and try
not the standard thing then
the biggest balancing act
you have to pull isn't
really even being a good
filmmaker, we'll just
say that you have that,
is that balancing act between
sticking to your visions,
sticking to your voice but
not being some asshole that
can only hear the sound of his own voice.
And that's, I mean, it's all right there.
That's it, you got to be
able to listen to people.
You got to be able to
hear what their saying,
but you also can't just,
I mean when the going
gets tough not give up on your vision.
There's a French director
named Jean-Pierre Melville
who came out in the 50s
and basically started doing
a whole series, he was like a
total entertainment director.
He did a whole series of
crime films always like
set in Paris or Marseilles or something.
They were basically the
Warner Brothers' Bogart Cagney
films all right, but
completely set to this like
French Parisian rhythm.
And, they started,
(speaking foreign language).
And they're great, and
they work very much in
the same way that like
Sergio Leone's films do
where they take a genre
that like we know left,
right, forwards, up, and down,
and backwards, all right,
but they do with a whole different style
and a whole different perspective.
And, here they've basically
reinvented the genre.
They've created something
new that didn't exist before.
Now, that's what I'm
always kind of trying to do
with my genre films.
I don't know if I'm succeeding or not,
but that's the attempt.
- To?
- To take something
you've seen before, I
love it, I respect it,
and I'm going to deliver the goods.
I'm not just some arty guy going off,
but I'm delivering the
goods but I'm also trying to
reinvent it in a way.
All right, do something, do
it in a much different way
you've ever seen before.
Like, in the case of Reservoir Dogs.
And again, it's not just
trying to just be a clever boy.
It's not just a clever idea
it's got to work dramatically.
All right, but like do a
heist film, deliver the goods
as a heist film but
it's a heist film where
you never see the heist.
That's just my goofy way of doing it.
I always say like if
I was going to do like
a hunchback movie the guy would
get like have an operation
at like the beginning of the film,
the guy that used to be the
Hunchback of Notre Dame.
I started writing like
say around 10 10:30 11,
something like that.
And then, I write till
about five, six, or seven
something like that.
But, around that time, around five or six
I'm going to stop for the day.
And, what I do is I stop
for the day and then
after a little bit of time of unwinding
I go into my pool and I keep it all
nice and warm there and everything,
And so, I just kind of
hang out in the pool
and if I'm not done with
something I think, okay,
what do I want to do?
How do I want to go further with this?
Now that I've written the first pass on it
what do I think about it?
How can I make it better?
Is there another element
I can bring into it?
Add too much, whatever, I'm just looking
at it critically.
And, maybe I come up with some neat ideas.
And then, I get out of
the pool and I make notes
on those neat ideas that I came up with,
by thinking and meditating about it.
It actually is meditating.
And then, that's my work
tomorrow when I get up.
Or, if I've finished a
scene, okay boom, man
that's done now that part
of the story is done.
Now, I go in the pool and I
go, "Okay, what happens next?
"what's the next thing?"
And then, I usually come
up with like a pretty good
idea and then I make my notes and then
that's the next day's work.
And, that was never
really the way I did it
and that has become
exclusively the way I did
Inglorious Bastards and Django and this
and it truly brings a
lot of joy to my life.
It's a really, really
lovely, lovely way to work.
It makes me feel really happy.
The American car chases
that we grew up loving
in the 70s like The Driver or
Bullet or French Connection
they were location based,
that was part of it
the fact that the chasing is happening in
downtown LA a night where it turns into
a ghost town in The Driver.
Or even like colors, the
fact that it's through Watts,
that's a deal that's a thing, all right?
But then, once the
Australians got involved in it
they revolutionized car chases.
And, I'm not just talking about Mad Max.
I mean you can't make a 14
year old girl coming of age
movie in Australian
without having a car chase
break out at some point.
(laughs)
But, the thing that they
did that was so great
was location oriented,
is the (bleep) Outback.
Everything looks like the
(bleep) same, all right.
So, all of a sudden they
didn't have drive by shots.
Everything you were in the chase.
You were with the cars
constantly every second.
It was like pussy to put
a car off the side of road
and have them (vocalizes).
They were with them and so I
wanted to actually do that.
I wanted to do the Australian
style and bring in there,
but then there's even one more difference
and that is who's chasing who.
- Right.
- All right?
Most of the time it's the
protagonist is being chased
by a bunch of cops like in Blues Brothers
or something like that.
You're being chased by somebody.
But, the most exciting
chases, the ones that
you're on the edge of
your seat "Yeah, get em,
"get 'em, get 'em, get
'em," all right is when
the protagonist is chasing the person
and you want that person to get caught.
That's French Connection,
that's what makes
French Connection so cause
you want Popeye Doyle
to get that bastard.
- Exactly.
- All right, and those were
always more emotionally
connected when you were
following the hero.
Well, I have both in mine.
(laughs)
I have the girls being
chased, I have girls chasing.
So, I tried to hit all
those emotional bases.
- Thank you guys so much for watching.
I made this video because
The Morrow Brothers
asked me to.
So, if there's a famous entrepreneur that
you want me to profile next
leave it in the comments
below and I'll see what I can do.
I also love to know which
of Quentin Tarantino's
top 10 rules had the
biggest impact on you,
leave it in the comments and
I'll join the discussion.
And, one last thing my
person goal with this channel
is to get it to one million subscribers.
So anything you can think
of to help share it,
tweet it, comment, give
it to some friends,
add it to playlists.
I really, really, really appreciate it.
Thank you guys so much,
continue to believe
and I'll see you soon.
(air rushes)
(thuds)
- Well, I have to say
all that criticism that
came out it ended up
being kind of a good thing
because one of the things
I wanted to do is I wanted
to actually start a
conversation about slavery
about America's role in it.
And, to actually take
an audience member from
the 21st century and stick
them in the antebellum
south and have a sense of what America
was like back then.
And, so even the people that have been,
have criticized the movie
and so a lot of people
don't like, and I can understand that,
a lot of people do like it.
And, they've been kind
of going back and forth
and that back and forth
is really what I really
wanted for the end of
the day of this movie.
And, I hope that actually even continues
for the next few years.
It truly is a situation where we just--
- Like the 70s.
- Yeah, exactly.
We would truly, yeah,
because he was my audience
and I was his audience and everything.
And, he was like the
perfect sounding board.
So, we really would
like inspire each other
to go further to like,
"Oh, this oh Robert's
"going to love this."
All right, I'd read him
this and then he'd come up
with like, "Oh man, that's
going to be so cool.
"And the greatest fun fight never heard."
I remember that, the silencer gun fight
you had at one point.
(laughs)
And actually, it was the
Sony lot so like Versailles,
that Cuban place was
right across the street.
So, we'd like web spin all
day then go at Versailles
at night and eat and
just talk about how we
were going to take over Hollywood.
A reporter all of a sudden
will say, "We want to do
"a big in depth story on Quentin.
"We want to just spend some time with him
"and have him do what
he does during his day."
What I do during my day is I go out to
restaurants and I go to
movies, that's what I do.
And, I hang out with my friends and stuff.
I'm not into sports, I don't like sports.
Anything with a ball, no good, all right?
I'm not into sports, I'm not into cars
or anything like that.
I mean I'm into driving a car, but I'm not
into like, I don't collect
cars or make model cars
or anything like that.
I'm into movie stuff and horror stuff
and like I said just
hanging out with my friends
and watching TV and messing around.
And now, I'm into
travel, I like traveling.
I love traveling, I love being
here in London, that's great.
Yeah, I love going
different places and stuff.
But, that's it, that's
kind of what I like to do.
The best thing is now
that I'm making a living
in the industry I have
a little bit of money
is and you have to see
before when I didn't have
any money at all, all I spent my money on
was movie stuff anyway.
Buying videos, buying
records, buying movie posters,
I have a big movie poster
collection, buying all
that memorabilia, buying all that crap.
When I didn't have any money to spend
I spent my rent money on that stuff.
See now I got more money to spend on it
and it's tax deductible because it's all
in the industry so I get it all.
I have much more money to spend.
I can buy damn near
anything I want, all right,
and it's all written off
at the end of the year.
I mean, so it's like,
what a life this is great.
