Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/600849
61 FALL 2015 / CINEMONTAGE FR: This movie is definitely a different animal than Django Unchained, as the piece is inherently more theatrical. Because of the nature of the shoot, the cast had to be off-book from day one. There were certain sequences that needed to be shot while it was snowing, so every shoot day had an exterior scene to be shot if it snowed, and an interior scene to be shot if it didn't, and the weather [on location in Telluride, Colorado] was not exactly predictable. With every cast member having committed the screenplay to memory, it allowed Quentin to shoot 11-minute-long takes if he wanted to [since Panavision and Kodak teamed up to build customized, 2,000-foot film magazines so Tarantino could use longer film rolls than normal during production]. More often than not, the question wasn't "When do we cut to another angle?" It was "Do we even want to cut to another angle?" To complicate matters, Quentin and Bob came up with beautiful camera moves as our characters are making their way through Minnie's Haberdashery. Deciding which of those moves was best for each moment was frequently challenging. While the piece may appear to be inherently theatrical, the camera placement and shot design are entirely cinematic. The movie is also a little different than Quentin's previous films in that the characters are rarely being entirely honest, and some of them are being entirely dishonest. So, while Quentin would normally hold on whoever is speaking, in this movie we are using a lot of reaction shots to highlight who believes what is being said — and who doesn't. Quentin likes to say he's used more reaction shots in this movie than in all his previous films combined. CM: Structure-wise, this is also one of Tarantino's more complicated screenplays. And then, in the 70mm version, there is a break in the middle for an intermission. Can you talk about some of the more unusual aspects of that structure? FR: The movie is broken down into six chapters, and Chapter Five opens before Chapter One has begun, providing key backstory information for four of the titular characters, so that you go into the last chapter knowing where everyone's loyalties lie…or nearly everyone's anyway. There are also both flashbacks and voiceovers. As the second act begins, there is a short narrated sequence recapping what took place before intermission, with Quentin himself delivering the voiceover. An interesting note is that, in April 2014, the piece was staged in front of an audience as a benefit for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art film program, with Quentin reading the stage directions. Hearing him read his writing aloud, occasionally interjecting his own commentary, was one of the more fun aspects of the live read, and his narration in the film echoes this, allowing him to inject his personality into the viewing experience. That section leads into a flashback, in which we see the scene that ended the first act from a different perspective. And the new information we are given sets up the remainder of the movie. The flashbacks that are incorporated into the sequence that ends the first act were a lot of fun to put together. That is when Major Warren [Samuel L. Jackson] tells General Smithers [Bruce Dern] how his son died. Quentin shot camera moves that started in present-day material and finished in the flashbacks, and also had pieces of dialogue that would cross over. Warren starts telling Smithers what his son said, and then we cut to a flashback Fred Raskin with the Prevost.