Tony Astorino

English 101

Mrs. Williams

Visual Literacy Narrative:

How Quentin Tarantino Taught me Literacy

For my visual literacy narrative I chose to show how, my favorite director, Quentin Tarantino,

made me the literate person I am today. In this project I chose to look at my literacy inside and outside

the classroom. How he has made me a better writer, as well as being a better member of society. I

specifically chose music and pictures that I felt best helped the illustrate my story.

For the images I chose to open by showing the movie posters of the movies he has written and

directed. Even though I focused mainly on Kill Bill, Pulp Fiction, and the one scene from, Reservoir Dogs,

I felt it was important to acknowledge the other movies because they were influential to me, but I chose

to focus on the three biggest that helped me illustrate my points. I could have used all the movies, but I

felt that might make the movie a little bit dry, and repetitive which is something that I didn’t want to do.

The Mexican standoff picture was included to quickly illustrate to a viewer what it is without using text,

and I felt that the picture was the best way of explaining a Mexican standoff. Another factor in the

images I chose, was how would clear the text would look when I wrote over the top of the picture. To do

this I tried to find images that had a good portion of either light or dark color bunched together so the

text would be easy to read. The most outrageous image I included was the one with the guy staring at

you with his mouth wide open. To me it looked like someone who had just figured something out for the

first time which is the angle I was trying to play. He’s also the main character of one of my favorite

television shows.
 I chose specific music to help make a point and make the project seem more powerful. I started

with “Misirlou” by Dick Dale, mainly because it is a really upbeat interesting song, and is also the song

Quentin Tarantino uses during the introduction of, Pulp Fiction, during the opening title and credits. The

second song I chose to use the song, “Battle Without Honor or Humanity” by Electric Samurai. This is a

very powerful, suspenseful, and dramatic song, and Tarantino used it leading up to the intense climax of,

Kill Bill vol. 1, as the Bride arrives at the House of Blue Leaves to fight Oren Ishi. I felt that this particular

song fit well where I used it in my project. It starts right after the Kill Bill clip and is the beginning of me

realizing what Quentin’s movies are actually about, and how his movies ultimately helped me achieve

grades that I wanted. Also this song worked well as a dramatic lead in to what I consider the most

memorable quote in any of Quentin Tarantino’s movies. After the clip with Michael Madsen, I chose to

use the song, “Stuck in the Middle with You” by Steelers Wheel. I chose this song because when I think

of Michael Madsen in, Reservoir Dogs, this is the song that comes to mind. And when I think of Michael

Madsen in, Reservoir Dogs, I think of this quote first. It provides a constant reminder to the audience of

the quote they just saw and leaves the image of Madsen saying this quote. I wanted to make it seem

almost like a theme song for the quote and that is why I continued to use the song up to the end of the

project up to the credits. Finally I chose to use the song, “You’re so Cool” by Hans Zimmer, for the

credits. The only reason I chose this song is because I like the sound of it and it is also the theme song for

True Romance.

I chose the three video clips for a very specific reason. I decided to open with the “Our Feature

Presentation clip, as kind of a homage to Quentin Tarantino and his movies, and that late 60’s and 70’s

style. He actually uses that particular clip in the beginning of Kill Bill Vol. 1 and Death Proof. I chose to

use that particular Kill Bill clip, because for most people that is all that the take away from the movie.

The crazy obscene, yet cool, over the top violence. Unfortunately that’s not what the movie is really

about and that’s what the rest of that portion of the project was about. The video clip that I chose is all I
really remember from watching Kill Bill the first time, and it’s what most people get out of his movies. As

I talked about later in the project though, the dialogue, and characters make the movie, and the

violence just adds to the story. The second video clip I used, is my favorite line from any Quentin

Tarantino movie I have ever seen, “Are you gonna bark all day little doggy, or are you gonna bite?”. Not

only is it my favorite line, it is a very powerful one that can be applied to real life. In the movie he was

just a person with mental issues trying to instigate a fight, but when I hear the line and the way it is

delivered it makes me think about how I apply that statement to my life, and the last few scenes show

what I mean.

Quentin Tarantino’s movies have made a big impact on me especially when it comes to literacy.

The way his characters interact with each other in the movie and the suspense he creates within the

characters interactions has really helped me develop my writing to where it is today, and the quote,

“Are you gonna bark all day little doggy, or are you gonna bite?” has made me a better contributor to

society. Without Quentin Tarantino’s movies I would not be the literate person I am today.

Citations:

Posters: http://www.allposters.com/-st/Quentin-Tarantino-Films-Posters_c1836_.htm

Mac (it’s always sunny): http://www.fxnetworks.com/shows/originals/sunny/

Signup: http://www.kerouac.com/images/bigblog/LH%207%20%20Signing%20up%20for%20our
%20email%20newsletter..JPG

MexicanStandoff- http://media.photobucket.com/image/mexican%20standoff%20reservoir
%20dogs/superman5388/reservoir_dogs_keitel_trio_apunta.jpg

MichaelMadesn:
http://www.thecinemasource.com/moviesdb/images/news/News%20-%20Michael_Madsen
%20Reservoir_Dogs.jpg

Quentin Tarantino

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_K1pE49ALOYI/TIA-
wrMRdJI/AAAAAAAAAJs/2HF9kVBtWLE/s1600/Tarantino.jpg