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Few filmmakers working today are as skilled at creating their own cinematic world as Quentin Tarantino.
Even the most auteur-y of auteurs doesnt work alone.
(In this case, the script didnt includethe films ending, which wasnt revealed until weeks later.)
He knows how he wants to see something, says Ling.
Together they were able to create a mental topography of a vanished Los Angeles, ready to be resurrected.
Fortunately, some local landmarks from the era were still standing.
Hollywood Boulevard is 24 hours of tourism, every day of the week.
We did it all practically, which is not done much anymore.
Thats why it stands out, because its not footage, and its not CGI.
The level of detail extended to the vehicles on the road, as well.
We really captured the feeling of driving on freeways in California in 1969.
The DP would be responsible for emulating both aesthetics.
He wanted it to feel old-school, Richardson says.
(Besides their aesthetic similarities, bothOnce Upon a TimeandRolling Thunderalso share a predilection forcrotch-based violence.)
That throwback aesthetic was aided by Tarantinos particular process.
For Quentin, film is the lifeblood, Richardson says.
He shoots on film.
He screens all his dailies on film.
They built on that scheme for the new movies rich skin tones and deep blues.
That sequence is brilliantly choreographed, but also brilliantly edited, says Richardson.
It doesnt cut to anybody.
It continues to flow until hes totally upset, and then it repeats the same camera movements.
The shift in dynamic would have failed.
It just wouldnt have worked.
As Richardson put it at the very end of our conversation: I think its his greatest performance.
Maybe eventhe best acting hed ever seen in his whole life.
