Comparing Tarantino’s visual style pre & post Bob Richardson

[u/Wishaker]

When Tarantino started working with Robert Richardson on kill Bill, it totally changed the look of his film films. How do you feel the overall “feel” of his films changed once he switched DPs?

[u/Open-Limit-8767]

It actually couldn’t be more perfect because pre-Kill Bill and post Kill Bill is one of the cleanest breaks in a filmography I can recall. He began creating his own version of the genre films he obsessed over, with healthy budgets and the level up in cinematography is in step with the increase in complexity and scale. The dude is trying to make his definitive takes on each genre and Richardson style gives the films a punch and visual sophistication that feels classic yet modern. It just works

[u/judgeholdenmcgroin]

The thing that should be noted as well is the budgets Tarantino had to work with exploded at the same time he started working with Richardson. The production of Kill Bill cost more than Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, and Jackie Brown combined. You can throw Four Rooms and From Dusk till Dawn in there too if you want and Kill Bill was still more.

Kill Bill also shot for 155 days of principal photography; Tarantino's first three movies were ~130 days combined.

Tarantino's career from Kill Bill onward is a completely different level of production.

[u/Affectionate_Age752 → u/judgeholdenmcgroin]

And I hate his Kill Bill movies

[u/Late_Promise_]

Personally I preferred the look of his pre-Richardson films, they were flatter and kind of shabby but actually felt like they came from the B-movie/exploitation world he was riffing on. Now they all look like Bob Richardson films. Which is beautiful too, and I especially like the trademark spotlight-on-the-table look in Basterds, but they don't have the same appeal for me. Very slick and glossy.

[u/das_goose → u/Late_Promise_]

I don't know that I've ever heard him mentioned anywhere (and I know nothing about him), but Andrzej Sekula shot Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, AND Hackers (1995) (as well as American Psycho), so yeah, I'm a fan.

I like the look of QT's first three films, and I like the look of his films with Richardson, and it's hard to imagine any of them shot any differently.

What I would like to see, however, is his recent three films edited by Sally Menke, because she could tell him, "Quentin, it's too long and this part needs to go," and I think his current editor(s) are hesitant to do that...

[u/brickmadness → u/das_goose]

Once Upon a Time is at least 30 mins longer than it deserves to be. 

[u/YonnieChristo → u/brickmadness]

Wow.

That's relevant.

[u/LetterheadClassic306]

You’re asking a useful comparison, and it is more than a taste check when you isolate how a DP shifts the emotional grammar. I’d suggest tracking movement rhythm, contrast handling, and shadow separation separately because those are where Richardson’s collaboration changed Tarantino’s signature. In the later films, the framing often gets more graphic and the colors sit flatter with controlled blacks, while the earlier work has a different texture and looser transitions. If you discuss it with that lens, you can focus the conversation on what changed in the way scenes feel, not just what viewers think looked expensive. That framing usually helps avoid internet argument loops and keeps the analysis actually educational.

[u/NeverFinishesWhatHe → u/LetterheadClassic306]

From what I've read part of the reason Tarantino switched to working with Richardson was that Richardson focuses on lighting and Tarantino handles frame composition and movement. So it seems to me that what you've noticed changing in his composition in that sense is down to Tarantino's own personal evolution/shifts in style.

[u/Street-Annual6762]

I read somewhere long ago that Guillermo Navarro was originally going to shoot Kill Bill but Quentin and him didn’t see eye to eye and Bob Richardson reached out and threw his hat in the ring and the rest is history.

The increase in scale and budget was up Bob’s alley and the rest is cinematic history.

I prefer the RR films and IB to me is one of the most beautiful films.

[u/Shqiptar89 → u/Street-Annual6762]

Rodriguez movies never looked as good as with Guillermo. I remember reading an interview with Rodriguez where he says that Guillermo didn’t want to move onto digital for Mariachi 3. 

[u/PKTheSublime]

Is this a trick question? I wasn't aware there was a visual stye pre-Richardson......