Quentin Tarantino finally revels what was inside the briefcase in Pulp Fiction...

MySpace Exclusive: Artist on Artist interview between directing legends Quentin Tarantino & Robert Rodriguez. Quentin Tarantino finally revels what was inside the briefcase in Pulp Fiction...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixOKfWXO9OU

Quentin Tarantino's Favourite Movies from 1992 to 2009...

Quentin Tarantino gives his list of the top 20 films that have been released since he started directing in 1992.
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Um, what I thought I’d do as far as this introduction was concerned was to actually do what I had done recently and that is name my favorite 20 movies that have come out in the last 17 years. Basically from 1992 to the present and what’s special about that number is these are the films I admire the most that have come out since I have become a director myself. I’ll actually preface this by saying that the first movie on the list is actually my favorite movie that has come out in the last 17 years. All the other ones I can’t really rate them I can’t judge them as 2, 3, 4 so I’ve just put it all alphabetical. But the first movie is my favorite movie of the last 17 years. And that is the Japanese film Kinji Fukasaku’s Battle Royale. If there is any movie that has been made since I’ve been making movies that I wish I had made is that one. Now starting from number 2 and going on down to 20 in alphabetical order would be Woody Allen’s Anything Else. That’s the Jason…movie. Number 3 would be Takashi Miike’s Audition. True masterpiece. Number 4 would be Troy Harks’ martial arts extravaganza The Blade which is a remake of…The One Armed Swordsman. Number 5 would be Paul Thomas Anderson’s Boogie Nights. Number 6 would be Rick Linklater’s Dazed and Confused. I think it may be the greatest maybe along with Rio Bravo the greatest hang out movie ever made. One of the things about Dazed and Confused that is just so terrific that is you can…every time you watch it if you watch it every 3 years, every 4 years the characters are like your friends and it’s like you’re hanging out with them again, seeing them again. Number 7 would be Lars von Trier’s Dogville, which I think is maybe one of the greatest scripts maybe ever written for a film and I actually think if he had actually done it on a stage it would have been wonderful. Eight would be David Fincher’s Fight Club. Number nine would be the F. Gary Gray comedy, Friday staring Ice Cube and Chris Tucker. And number 10 would be the absolutely wonderful Korean monster movie The Host. Number 11 would be Michael Mann’s The Insider. Number 12 would be Chan-wook Park’s Joint Security Area, also known as JSA. 17 would be Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation. Number 14 would be The Matrix. Now there was a time actually that I would have actually considered Matrix actually the official number 2 after Battle Royale however I have to say that time was before Matrix 2 and 3 came out and actually ruined the mythology for me. And even though it did ruin the mythology for me and actually moved the original Matrix down on my list I just can’t think about it the same way as I did before. It didn’t obliterate it me entirely it still has to be in the top 20. Number 15 is one of the most interesting and complex films on this entire list is the Korean serial killer, police procedural memories of murder directed by the same director who did The Host. Number 16 would be the Jackie Chan film Police Story 3 also known as Super Cop directed by Stanley Tom. A movie that I think actually probably contains the greatest stunts and that’s also including Buster Keitien the greatest stunts ever filmed in any movie ever. And look no further than Michel Yo jumping a motorcycle onto a speeding train and actually not pulling it off. Number 17, my hands down favorite British movie that has come out since I’ve been making movies is Edgar Wright’s Shaun of the Dead. Number 18 would be Jan de Bont’s Speed and that’s even discounting the last 20 minutes of the movie which basically once the bus blows up it’s over. It might be easy to take Speed for granted now but if you actually remember when Speed came out what it was like to sit in the movie theater as that bus was going down the road there really has been few exhilaration movies quite like that. Number 19 would fall to Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s Team America. And the final film on my, alphabetically, on my top 20 list would be M. Night Shyamalamadingdong’s Unbreakable which I actually think 1 has not only Bruce Willis’ best performance on film that he has ever given. I think he’s absolutely magnificent on film. It also is a brilliant retelling of the superman mythology. In fact so much so to me the film was very obscure when it came out as far as what it was about. I actually think they did themselves a disservice because you can actually break down what the film is about by basically one sentence that I think would have proved far more intriguing than their ad campaign which is basically what if Superman was here on earth and didn’t know he was Superman which is what the film is about. Of course you don’t know that until you actually see the movie. Anyway, Unbreakable is I actually think one of the masterpieces of our time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zpbm2-qWrdg

The Robert Rodriguez 10 Minute Film School

Good Morning Class! Now a famous film-maker a while back said something about 'Everything you need to know about film you can learn in a week.' He was being generous. You can learn it in 10 minutes. Set your watches we will be out of here in ten kids. Okay, so you wanna be a film-maker?
(Class choruses 'YES')
Wrong! You ARE a film-maker. The moment you think about that you want to be a fillm-maker you're that. Make yourself a business card that says you're a film-maker, pass them out to your friends, soon as you get that over with and you've got it in your mind that you're one you'll be one, you'll start thinking like one. Don't dream about being a film-maker, you are a film-maker. Now let's get down to business.

Let's Play!! What you need to learn is that being creative is not enough in this business. You have to become techinical. Creative people are born creative - you're lucky. Technical people however can never be creative. Its something they'll never get. You can't buy it, find it, study it - you're born with it. Too many creative people don't want to learn how to be technical, so what happens? they become dependent on technical people. Become technical, you can learn that. If you're creative and technical, you're unstoppable.

Experience - Do you have experience in movies? You do, right - you WATCH movies. Now you need to have movie experience - you're not going to learn from just watching movies, you're learn some things, you'll learn more picking up a camera, making your own films, your own mistakes - mistakes don't have to be mistakes, everything is subjective - a mistake to one person is actually a piece of art to someone else. Hide behind that, tell everyone its art, you can get away a lot.

Start with a screenplay. Does anybody here know how to write? No - good. Everyone else writes the same way. Start writing your way. That makes you unique. You can take writing classes, that's good, but don't bother to go to film school or you'll be making films like everybody else. We want to see your film.

How do you write a script? Well, you obviously don't have a lot of money or you wouldn't be in my class. So you wanna make a movie but you don't want to spend a lot. You're gonna come up with problems everyday on your set. You can get rid of the problem one of two ways - you can do it creatively or you can wash it away with the money hose. You got no money, you got no hose. So let's make a screenplay for a movie you can actually make without having to make your parents poor. Let's make a cheap movie.

How do you make a cheap movie? - Look around you, what do you have around you? Take stock in what you have. Your father owns a liquor store - make a movie about a liquor store. Do you have a dog? Make a movie about your dog. Your mom works in a nursing home, make a movie about a nursing home. When I did El Mariachi I had a turtle, I had a guitar case, I had a small town and I said I'll make a movie around that.

How do you visualise a movie? With storyboards, you can do that. You can previsualise your movie and draw them out, but what you should really do is make a blank screen for yourself and watch your movie. Close your eyes and stare at this. Imagine a screen, imagine your movie. Shot for shot, cut for cut. Sit there, close your eyes and get rid of everybody, get rid of all your thoughts in your head except your movie and watch your movie. Is it too slow? Is it too fast? Is it funny? Does it make sense? Watch it and then write down what you see. Write down the shots that you see. And then just go get those shots.

Equipment. OK let's go over the equipment. The worse the better. You don't want anything too fancy, remember this is your first movie - you're not Spielberg yet. I used this one for El Mariachi, almost the same one, I used a 16M this is a 16S, this is exactly what I had. It helped me move fast because it was light, it was very noisy so I could do the sound in a wacky way, but this thing here would cost you about $2000. Don't spend that kind of money, find some monkey that own's one. I found somone who had one of these sitting around, he wasn't using it. I borrowed it from him, I shot my movie. (Points at what look's like a damn heavy tripod) Look at it, this is a nice stand, its a very solid stand, y'know what's gonna happen? The camera is gonna stay on the stand, you're just gonna keep it there, 'cos its so nice, meaning your movie's gonna look...stiff. Take it off of there, sit in a wheelchair, push yourself around, get some energy in your film. That's the great thing about first films is that they have so much life and so much energy. Big productions can't even duplicate that energy, because they've got too good a stand and too much crew and everything is really smooth and polished and its lifeless. Add life to your film by getting rid of the fancy stuff. (Points at the tripods) Too good, too heavy, too good - just use your hands. Here's a lightmeter, this isn't the write one, I broke my other one. This is a spotmeter, that's OK but it's too fancy. You just need one with a little white dome on it, point it to your subject, read the light, look at the number on your lightmeter - remember your lightmeter is your friend - feed that into lens and the iris, and then you're set. Start shooting. Don't overlight. On Mariachi I had two lights, regular lightbulbs, they were balanced for indoor film, so look fine. In fact everyone said the lighting looked moody because there was very little light . Your mistakes, your shortcomings suddenly becomes artistic expression.

Finally, postproduction. When you've finished shooting your movie what do you do? (Picks up video mixer) These are your friends my friends. Video editing systems, computer editing systems, anything like that, its immediate, its easy, its cheap. Do not cut on film. Film is your enemy. You may be shooting on film but don't cut on film. If any of you want to cut on film get out of my class right now. Go spend $20,000 on a real film school and do that. You'll never get a job though - believe me. Everything is on computers or video these days. Film is slow, film is expensive, film is not creative - film take's too long. Cut on tape that's what I do. I shot Mariachi for nothing. I edited on video. I had a three-quarter inch master that looked beautiful because the negative was transferred right to tape. There was no middleman so it looked like 35mm - clean, pristine. I made VHS copies of this, sent them out all over Hollywood. I never made a film print. (Picks up film strip) Waste of money. You have to string them up, they get worn out. They're expensive. They're copies of your negative. You don't want that, you don't want copies of your negative, you want your negative...on tape. Where people can duplicate it and watch it and get you work. OK so you've made your movie, you've cut it, you've got it out, people want you. What do you do? The first thing you want to do is get an agent - right away. Hollywood is full of sharks, you need a shark working for you. These guys go and get you the best deals, they get you the best prices, they get you the best movies. What you've learnt is what no one else has. How to make a movie dirt cheap. No one else in Hollywwod knows how to do that. You guys can make them cheap, you guys can make them better, don't get swallowed in the system, take advantage of your position. Now I make movies that are still low budget but they look like big budget movies because I learnt the techniques that I just showed you today.

All right I've got to go back and do my own films so I hope you guys learnt something today, I hope you grab some of these cameras and go shoot something of your own, I hope you write down the ideas that you have, the dreams that you have.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-YpfievjSk