Screenwriting 101: Quentin Tarantino

“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 … It wasn’t just description. It was prose. Not prose like I’m used to in a novel, but it was prose that appropriate for a screenplay. He wasn’t just giving 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. The prose 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.”

Here is are some script excerpts from the Hard Times script to give you a sense of what Tarantino is talking about.

A lean writing style, but visual and evocative.

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