I'm Addicted to Quentin Tarantino Soundtracks

by Julia Smith

Not only do I love Quentin Tarantino's films. I love his soundtracks. I may even love his soundtracks more than his films.

"When I'm writing a script," says Tarantino, "one of the first things I do is find the music I'm going to play for the opening sequence. I can't go forward until I figure out how I'm going to start - what the opening mood music will be. As I'm writing, I go through all those songs, trying to find good songs for fights, or good pieces of music to layer into the film. Looking for that music is finding the rhythm that the movie has to play in. It's me finding the beat." - Michaela Latham, bbc.co.uk

As someone who loves listening to music while I write, I truly appreciate Tarantino's vinyl passion. I've been hooked by his use of music ever since Reservoir Dogs. He has a way of collecting disparate songs and instrumentals that all have a similar energy - his energy. R&B, country, rock, pop, soundtracks from other films - it all congeals into a masterful collection that drives his films just as surely as his trademark dialogue and non-linear storytelling.

I haven't seen Jackie Brown yet, but my husband owns a copy for my future viewing pleasure. And though I've seen Four Rooms, we haven't acquired that soundtrack. It's always good to have something to look forward to.

But I keep the five Tarantino soundtrack CDs we do own close by and play them over and over. What is it about his choice of music that works so well? I think it's his decision to go with B-sides, or with covers of songs we know but just not that version which is key. He creates both a sense of familiarity and a freshness that way. The Urge Overkill cover of Neil Diamond's Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon from Pulp Fiction is a perfect example.

His use of music from other films is inspired. Take Twisted Nerve by Bernard Herrmann from Kill Bill Vol. 1. Nothing could be creepier than Daryl Hannah walking down the hospital hallway with that eerie, dreamy whistling announcing her deadly intention.

Each film has its signature piece.

For Reservoir Dogs it's Little Green Bag by George Baker.



For Pulp Fiction it's Misirlou by Dick Dale and the Del Tones.



For Kill Bill Vol. 1 it's Battle Without Honor Or Humanity by Tomoyasu Hotei.



For Kill Bill Vol. 2 it's Malaguena Salerosa by Chingon

WARNING: Some violent images



For Death Proof from Grindhouse it's Chick Habit by April March.



I for one am glad that Tarantino has a record room to house his musical muse. His creative compilations never fail to spark my imagination

Bill C-10

by Julia Smith

Here's a taste of Conservative Party shenanigans, the sort of thing that Prime Minister Stephen Harper likes to call 'Canada's New Government':

"Bill C-10, currently seeking Senate approval, contains an amendment that would allow bureaucrats to withdraw tax credits for Canadian films and TV shows deemed in violation of the Criminal Code. Yet 'Canadian Heritage has not received an application for a production containing criminal content,' said Andrew House, a spokesperson for Heritage Minister Josée Verner." - Peter Howell, movie critic for the Toronto Star (Mar. 10, 08)


"The scandal has tapped the deep vein of suspicion that Prime Minister Stephen Harper harbours a secret evangelical agenda to impose strict moral values on Canada's artistic establishment, and to deprive them of the money to realize their more racy visions. Bill C-10 has received so much attention largely because Charles McVety, the head of Canada Christian College, a man who would take credit for sunshine if he had prayed for it, took credit for hyping the bill.

Photo: Heritage Minister Josée Verner

'We're thankful that someone's finally listening,' he said of his lobbying, suggesting that guidelines should ban tax credits for films that promote homosexuality, extreme violence or graphic sex." - Joseph Brean, National Post(March 08,08)

"The controversial provision to amend the Income Tax Act has passed in the House of Commons and is now before the Senate Standing Committee on Banking, Trade, and Commerce. It's said the provision was not caught earlier because it is buried in a large bill primarily intended to implement the taxation of non-resident trusts, foreign investment entities and implement amendments to the Income Tax Act.


Canadian Heritage officials recently met with film and television lobby groups to 'allay fears' surrounding the so-called 'censorship' provision in the Conservative government's bill. But the groups weren't so impressed with the meeting, says Maureen Parker, executive director of the Writers Guild of Canada, shown in photo at left.

'They were trying, I think, to calm us down and perhaps get us off the topic and out of the media, but of course we're not going to do that. This is very much a pressing concern. It is a censorship issue,' Ms. Parker said of the March 6 meeting, when she and representatives from ACTRA and the Directors Guild of Canada met senior Heritage officials. 'They weren't successful in what they were setting out to do because, as we all told them, ACTRA, DGC, and WGC, that they were missing the point. The point was that guidelines will not work,' she said.

Ms. Parker said she expects to appear before the Banking Committee with screenwriters. One of her central arguments will be that the guidelines will result in a kind of self-censorship for television and film writers who will write to ensure that they receive financing. Film and television productions have high costs, and no one will spend time developing a show or film that has the potential to come short on financing.

'I can tell you, my writers will write for guidelines. If you think you're not going to get a show financed, you'll completely change the type of program you deliver,' Ms. Parker said. The tax change, will also discourage banks from providing loans to risky productions because they may not be eligible for the tax credit. For instance, she said that a 13-part series would borrow about $1.7-million. 'If the bank thinks they may not get that money back after the fact because the tax credit is denied, after the production has been made, they're not going to invest. It's not like a $40,000 investment. It's $1.7-million,' Ms. Parker said." - Simon Doyle, The Hill Times (Mar. 31, 08)

This bill is a disturbing window into the psyche of a political party that Canadians have carefully contained as a minority government. Imagine the havoc they could create if unleashed as a majority.

My Relationship With Movies

by Julia Smith

For my first post at missmakeamovie, I thought I'd introduce myself through movies and how they've shaped who I am.

Writers often have intact infantile memories, and one of my earliest memories is crawling over my dad on the couch in the dark, the only light coming from the flickering black and white TV set. He would watch an old movie with his wakeful daughter, who grew up to be an unrepentant night owl.


After my sister was born, our family used to head out to the Royal Oak Drive-In, where the wait for sunset seemed unbearable, and the mini fair grounds below the screen helped us kids keep our sanity.

Photo by Keith Milford


Although I'm sure I saw quite a few movies before this one, Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is the first theatrical release I can remember as an audience member.

I was completely freaked out by the evil queen, even before she turned into a witch. I can still recall the utter dread in my gut as I kept my eyes glued to the enormous screen, watching fearfully for the queen's reappearance. I'm certain that experience hardwired me to crave being as close to the screen as possible, my field of vision taken up only by the world of the movie.

I come from a family of film lovers, so in May 1977 it was not unusual for my parents, my aunt & uncle, my two cousins, my sister and me to be in the line-up outside the theatre waiting to get into a new sci-fi film called Star Wars. I had no idea that I was crossing the threshold to discover my creative center.


When the film started, and the rebel ship crossed the screen seemingly from behind the audience's heads, I felt that same thrill Snow White's queen gave me when I was small. Only this time the dread was replaced by disbelief as the space leviathan of an Imperial Star Destroyer chased after the rebel ship, obliterating our view of the planet below, and then of the very stars themselves.


When most 13-year-old girls were reading Tiger Beat and 16 Magazine, I started buying American Cinematographer and Starlog to find out how Star Wars was possible.



After gathering theatre experience in high school, both acting and directing, I moved from Halifax, Nova Scotia to Toronto, Ontario. In the mid-80's Halifax had limited film screenings, with mainstream Hollywood fare and the very occasional foreign film available. Toronto was like water to my film-deprived desert. I worked at the Runnymede Theatre in Bloor Street West, for Famous Players, which gave us weekly passes for one employee and a guest. My friend and future husband, who worked at the theatre, too, saw two films a week as one another's guest. We saw foreign films, indie films, cult films - everything we could plunk down a pass for.


When I met my husband, he was graduating from the acting program at The New School of Drama in Toronto. He was instrumental in making sure I attended Ryerson's film program several years later. While I took my film degree, I worked evenings as an usher at the O'Keefe Centre, later the Hummingbird Centre. (And now the Sony Centre, I guess...) Though it was live theatre, everything I saw onstage reinforced or expounded on what I'd just been learning earlier that day. It was an intensely creative, exhausting and deeply fulfilling time. Really, it was the best time of my life.


In fourth year I drove back to Halifax with four cast members who doubled and tripled as my crew, and shot some of my final film there. Only a lunatic would do that. Or an obsessed filmmaker.

Since then I put filmmaking on hold for novel writing. I needed to keep working on my stories while concentrating personally on caregiving for my grandmother. Over the years I've worked on occasional projects, including last weekend when I played the role of 'God's Hands' for a short film. Nothing beats the feeling I get when a group of people are all working towards telling a story. It's really a form of bliss for me.