Quentin Tarantino never went to film school, but that did not stop him from becoming one of the greatest Hollywood directors of all time. His passion for the art of cinema led him from being a school dropout to a revolutionary artist.
He spent most of his younger days in Video Archives, a video rental store where Tarantino and his friends used to work. His experience in the job and the knowledge he acquired became the instrument that honed his filmmaking skills.
Quentin Tarantino Refused To Go To Film School
In a 2004 French documentary by Didier Allouch via YouTube, Pulp Fiction director Quentin Tarantino recounts his days pre-Hollywood when he worked at Video Archives. He left school at age 15 and decided to take his own education the way he wanted. He said:
“I did not go to college. I didn’t go to high school. I quit school in junior. Most people go to college, the most knowledgeable thing you get is the college experience. Now, you can skip college, but you probably won’t skip the college experience. You’ll find it somewhere, and in that it became Video Archives. We all did these things together like we were in college, and it was a great time.”
Despite leaving school, Tarantino seemed to have found his own clique in the shop where he worked. He admitted he barely made money there, but being able to watch a lot of films for free was rewarding for him. Tarantino continued:
“As soon as we’d close, we lock the doors and have film festivals and watch movies and get drunk, get high. It was a lot of fun, and it would be the kind of thing where it’s like we were out partying, and we had to be at work at 9 a.m. I wouldn’t go home. I would go to Video Archives, drunk on my as*, and I’d just fall asleep in the p-rno section.”
Tarantino got his education from his own exploration of various movies, and whenever people ask him if he went to film school, his response would always be, “No, I went to films.”
Quentin Tarantino’s Advice For Aspiring Directors
Many young filmmakers and even film students look up to Quentin Tarantino and would even ask how he got to where he is now. The veteran director has one piece of advice for people aspiring to enter the field of cinema (via YouTube):
“You don’t have to know how to make a movie. If you truly love cinema with all your heart and with enough passion, you can’t help but make a good movie. You don’t have to go to school, you don’t have to know what lens, you know, a 40 or a 50, f—k all that s—t, crossing the line, none of that s—t’s important.”
Well, some directors say it is essential to learn the technical aspects, such as camera work and editing, but for Tarantino, passion is enough to bring a story to life.
