In this brief yet intriguing video essay, creator Matt Novak discusses the narrative quality of Quentin Tarantino’s Close-ups; a method that he utilizes in all of his films. Novak begins the video essay by explaining some of the general characteristics of Tarantino’s film-making style that makes him so popular, from his ability to repeatedly cast the same actors for his films while not mistakenly overlapping their personas to his aggressive use of gore and violence to keep an audience locked in. As he proceeds to discuss these well-known qualities of Tarantino’s direction, he shows famous clips of the famous characters or famous fight scenes from a selection of Tarantino’s films. However, he quickly begins to focus in on a less known quality of Tarantino’s style, which is the use of the close-up to push the plot forward. In many ways Novak’s switch from generally well-known ideas to his own, more nuanced analysis matches up well with the establishing shots of characters on location and action scenes. The switch from this general information to examples of close-ups from films like Pulp Fiction emulates Tarantino’s method. The example of the close-up of Vincent Vega (John Travolta) preparing his heroine for consumption and the following shot of him driving to pick up Mia Wallace (Uma Thurman), which is dubbed over with both the music from the film as well as a voiceover explaining how these close-ups drive the plot forward is perfectly timed. The act of Vega driving the car while under the influence of the drugs that were just shown in the close-up shots literally and metaphorically applies to what Novak is saying. To go even further, if you’ve seen the film, heroine becomes a driver of the film’s plot soon after this scene, when Mia Wallace overdoses on the same heroine and almost dies.
https://www.fandor.com/posts/tarantino-s-close-ups?position=3§ion=trending+posts
“Tarantino’s Close-Ups” by Matt Novak
In this brief yet intriguing video essay, creator Matt Novak discusses the narrative quality of Quentin Tarantino’s Close-ups; a method that he utilizes in all of his films. Novak begins the video essay by explaining some of the general characteristics of Tarantino’s film-making style that makes him so popular, from his ability to repeatedly cast the same actors for his films while not mistakenly overlapping their personas to his aggressive use of gore and violence to keep an audience locked in. As he proceeds to discuss these well-known qualities of Tarantino’s direction, he shows famous clips of the famous characters or famous fight scenes from a selection of Tarantino’s films. However, he quickly begins to focus in on a less known quality of Tarantino’s style, which is the use of the close-up to push the plot forward. In many ways Novak’s switch from generally well-known ideas to his own, more nuanced analysis matches up well with the establishing shots of characters on location and action scenes. The switch from this general information to examples of close-ups from films like Pulp Fiction emulates Tarantino’s method. The example of the close-up of Vincent Vega (John Travolta) preparing his heroine for consumption and the following shot of him driving to pick up Mia Wallace (Uma Thurman), which is dubbed over with both the music from the film as well as a voiceover explaining how these close-ups drive the plot forward is perfectly timed. The act of Vega driving the car while under the influence of the drugs that were just shown in the close-up shots literally and metaphorically applies to what Novak is saying. To go even further, if you’ve seen the film, heroine becomes a driver of the film’s plot soon after this scene, when Mia Wallace overdoses on the same heroine and almost dies.
https://www.fandor.com/posts/tarantino-s-close-ups?position=3§ion=trending+posts
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