Pulp Ghibli
For our project, Jaiye and I decided to recreate a scene from Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction, in a Studio Ghibli art style. Some other examples of Quentin Tarantino films include Kill Bill, Django Unchained, The Hateful Eight and Inglorious Basterds. Tarantino is famous for having similar tropes in all of his films. One trope that Tarantino uses is called “Bad ass in a nice suit” which is basically having a hitman wearing identical black suits and skinny ties. These black suits would later appear in films such as Kill Bill and Reservoir Dogs. Another trope that Tarantino is famous for is called “Speech-Centric Work.” “Speech-Centric Work” is basically large examples of dialogue that occur right before an action scene. This can be found in the scene of Pulp Fiction where Jules and Vincent interrogate the three young men in their apartment. Some examples of Studio Ghibli films include Howl’s Moving Castle, Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke. One common trope that Studio Ghibli films incorporate is called “Grey and Gray Morality”. Basically “Grey and Gray Morality” is when the director of the film either sets up characters or the story in a way, that makes the viewer sympathetic to both the protagonist and the antagonist. This trope is shared with Tarantino films like Pulp Fiction in the sense that Jules and Vincent are hitmen, which are morally ambiguous, and are portrayed as the protagonists. Another trope that Studio Ghibli is famous for is called “Green Aesop”. “Green Aesop” has appeared in many films because it incorporates scenery. They use the world around them to shape the setting and environment of their films. Studio Ghibli animators have been known to go out on trips months before drawing, to find inspiration. However, Hayao Miyazaki claims to never acknowledge environmentalism.For our storyboard, we took an early scene from Pulp Fiction and incorporated Studio Ghibli’s tropes into it. We drew the characters to resemble anime-esque characters because that is what Studio Ghibli is known for. We also used many different colors to capture the scene in respect to both genres. We portrayed Jules and Vincent in a way that made them appear to be morally ambiguous since that’s how they are in the movie. We didn’t want to make them too menacing because no main character in a Studio Ghibli film looks overly menacing. We also didn’t want to make them appear to be too friendly because they strike a sense of fear into every other character in the room, especially Jules. This project has allowed us to learn more about the films we love watching. We used the lessons taught to us in the Auteur unit and applied it to create the storyboard. These techniques will have an everlasting effect on us and future movies that we watch.