Quentin Tarantino and Spike Lee

Quentin Tarantino began his career in the film industry working as an independent film maker. His first independent films were an immense success with films as Reservoir Dogs, released in 1992 along with the famous film Pulp Fiction which was also released in the same decade, 1994, just two years after the release of his first successful film.  Both of these films were regarded as classics and were a cult hit at the time in Hollywood. Right after his first film was released (Reservoir Dogs), Tarantino immediately became a legend in the film industry due to how well the film had gathered critical acclaim and financially successful.

Tarantino’s films typically incorporate many characteristics in his work which are distinguishable from just watching the film without even knowing who directed it. This is Tarantino’s style, one can normally deduct who directed the film just from the characteristics alone. Tarantino’s films are characterized by satire, non-linear narrative structures, elements of neo-noir genres (Kill Bill 1 and 2) and a particular love for violence as to quote from the director himself “Violence is one of the most fun things to watch.”

However although Tarantino is a director, as stated some of his films he doesn’t direct but then the majority he is the director for and writes the films, while even fulfilling the role as an actor in a few films he’s worked on such as Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs and Kill Bill. 

Spike Lee

Spike Lee was born Shelton Jackson Lee on March 20, 1957, in Atlanta, Georgia. At a very young age, he moved from pre-civil rights Georgia, to Brooklyn, New York. Lee came from artistic, education-grounded background; his father was a jazz musician, and his mother, a schoolteacher. He attended school in Morehouse College in Atlanta and developed his film making skills at Clark Atlanta University. After graduating from Morehouse, Lee attended the Tisch School of Arts graduate film program. He made a controversial short, The Answer (1980)

Spike Lee's role as a documentarian has expanded over the years, highlighted by his part in Lumière and Company (1995), the Oscar-nominated 4 Little Girls (1997), to his Peabody Award-winning biographical adaptation of Black Panther leader in A Huey P. Newton Story (2001), through his 2005 Emmy Award-winning examination of post-Katrina New Orleans in When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts (2006) and its follow-up five years later in If God Is Willing and da Creek Don't Rise (2010).

Through his production company 40 Acres & A Mule Filmworks, Lee continues to create and direct both independent films and projects for major studios, as well as working on story development, creating an internship program for aspiring filmmakers, releasing music, and community outreach and support.