Editing Pulp Fiction (section)

=== Writing ===
[[File:Tarantino,_Quentin_(Scream1)_cropped.jpg|thumb|right|Director and co-writer, [[Quentin Tarantino]]]]
<span data-darkreader-inline-color="" data-darkreader-inline-bgcolor="">The roots of </span>''Pulp Fiction'' <span data-darkreader-inline-color="" data-darkreader-inline-bgcolor="">can be traced back to the late 1980s, when Quentin Tarantino and </span>[[Roger Avary]] <span data-darkreader-inline-color="" data-darkreader-inline-bgcolor="">worked together at </span>[[Video Archives]]<span data-darkreader-inline-color="" data-darkreader-inline-bgcolor="">, a video store in Southern California. Avary recalls that their initial concept was to create three short films with three different filmmakers—himself, Tarantino, and a friend, Adam Rifkin.</span><ref name="Gilchrist-2024">{{Cite web |last=Gilchrist |first=Todd |date=2024-10-14 |title='Pulp Fiction' Turns 30: How Quentin Tarantino's Masterpiece Saved Careers, Conquered Film Festivals and Changed Cinema Forever |url=https://variety.com/2024/film/news/pulp-fiction-quentin-tarantino-30th-anniversary-retrospective-part-one-1236175164/ |access-date=2024-10-21 |website=Variety |language=en-US}}</ref> <span data-darkreader-inline-color="" data-darkreader-inline-bgcolor="">Avary wrote the first element of what would become the film's screenplay in the fall of 1990,{{sfn|Biskind|2004|p=129}} titled "Pandemonium Reigns," which eventually expanded into a feature-length screenplay. While Tarantino's short film similarly evolved into a full script, Rifkin never completed his contribution, leaving </span>''Pulp Fiction'' <span data-darkreader-inline-color="" data-darkreader-inline-bgcolor="">initially uncertain.</span><ref name="Gilchrist-2024" /> The initial inspiration was the three-part horror [[anthology film]] ''[[Black Sabbath (film)|Black Sabbath]]'' (1963), by Italian filmmaker [[Mario Bava]]. The Tarantino–Avary project was provisionally titled "[[Black Mask (magazine)|Black Mask]]", after the seminal [[hardboiled]] [[Black Mask (magazine)|crime fiction magazine]].<ref name="T14" /> Tarantino's script was produced as ''[[Reservoir Dogs]]'', his directorial debut; Avary created the basis for the "Gold Watch" storyline of ''Pulp Fiction''.{{sfn|Biskind|2004|p=167}}{{sfn|Dawson|1995a|pp=144–146}}<ref name="PR">{{cite news |last=MacInnis |first=Craig |date=October 8, 1994 |title=Heavyweight Tarantino Won't Be Taken Lightly |work=[[Toronto Star]]}}</ref><ref name="Creative">{{cite interview |last=Bauer |first=Erik |title=Method Writing: Interview with Quentin Tarantino - Originally published in January 1998 |url=https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/method-writing-interview-with-quentin-tarantino/ |access-date=March 19, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210909053014/https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/method-writing-interview-with-quentin-tarantino/ |archive-date=September 9, 2021 |url-status=live |work=Creative Screenwriting |date=August 10, 2013}}</ref>

With work on ''Reservoir Dogs'' completed, Tarantino returned to the notion of a trilogy film: "I got the idea of doing something that novelists get a chance to do but filmmakers don't: telling three separate stories, having characters float in and out with different weights depending on the story."<ref>{{cite news|last=Lowry |first=Beverly |title=Criminals Rendered in 3 Parts, Poetically |work=The New York Times |date=September 11, 1994 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/09/11/movies/the-new-season-film-criminals-rendered-in-3-parts-poetically.html |access-date=May 20, 2023}}</ref> Tarantino explains that the idea "was basically to take like the oldest chestnuts that you've ever seen when it comes to crime stories&nbsp;– the oldest stories in the book&nbsp;... You know, 'Vincent Vega and Marsellus Wallace's Wife'&nbsp;– the oldest story about&nbsp;... the guy's gotta go out with the big man's wife and don't touch her. You know, you've seen the story a zillion times."<ref name="PF93" /> "I'm using old forms of storytelling and then purposely having them run awry", he says. "Part of the trick is to take these movie characters, these genre characters and these genre situations and actually apply them to some of real life's rules and see how they unravel."<ref>"Pulp Fiction: The Facts" (1994 promotional interview), ''Pulp Fiction'' DVD (Buena Vista Home Entertainment).</ref> In at least one case, boxer Butch Coolidge, Tarantino had in mind a specific character from a classic Hollywood crime story: "I wanted him to be basically like [[Ralph Meeker]] as [[Mike Hammer (character)|Mike Hammer]] in [[Robert Aldrich|Aldrich]]'s ''[[Kiss Me Deadly]]'' [1955]. I wanted him to be a bully and a jerk".{{sfn|Dargis|1994a|p=10}}

Tarantino went to work on the script for ''Pulp Fiction'' in Amsterdam in March 1992,{{sfn|Dawson|1995a|p=139}} possibly at the Winston Hotel in the [[De Wallen|Red Light District]].<ref>{{Cite book|title = Rick Steves Amsterdam & the Netherlands|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=DBOCBgAAQBAJ&q=pulp%2520fiction%2520%2522the%2520winston%2522%2520tarantino%2520amsterdam&pg=PT168|publisher = Avalon Travel|date = 2015-04-14|isbn = 978-1-63121-067-9|first = Rick|last = Steves|access-date = October 18, 2020|archive-date = November 13, 2020|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20201113181753/https://books.google.com/books?id=DBOCBgAAQBAJ&q=pulp%2520fiction%2520%2522the%2520winston%2522%2520tarantino%2520amsterdam&pg=PT168|url-status = live}}</ref> He was joined there by Avary, who contributed "Pandemonium Reigns" to the project and participated in its rewriting as well as the development of the new storylines that would link up with it.{{sfn|Biskind|2004|p=167}}{{sfn|Dawson|1995a|pp=144–146}}<ref name="PR" /> Two scenes originally written by Avary for the ''[[True Romance]]'' screenplay, exclusively credited to Tarantino, were incorporated into the opening of "The Bonnie Situation": the "miraculous" missed shots by the hidden gunman and the rear seat automobile killing.{{sfn|Mottram|2006|p=71}} The notion of the crimeworld "cleaner" that became the heart of the episode was inspired by a short, ''Curdled'', that Tarantino saw at a film festival. He cast the lead actress, [[Angela Jones]], in ''Pulp Fiction'' and later backed the filmmakers' production of a feature-length version of the short, likewise titled ''[[Curdled (film)|Curdled]]''.<ref>Enhanced Trivia Track, ch. 13, ''Pulp Fiction'' DVD (Buena Vista Home Entertainment).</ref> The script included a couple of made-up commercial brands that often featured in later Tarantino films: [[Big Kahuna Burger|Big Kahuna burgers]] (a Big Kahuna soda cup appears in ''Reservoir Dogs'') and Red Apple cigarettes.<ref>{{cite web|last=Wells|first=Jeffrey|title=Searching for a Big Kahuna Burger|url=http://archive.southcoasttoday.com/daily/07-96/07-12-96/c04ae104.htm|work=SouthCoast Today|date=1996-07-12|access-date=2007-09-19|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091008125832/http://archive.southcoasttoday.com/daily/07-96/07-12-96/c04ae104.htm|archive-date=October 8, 2009|url-status=dead}}</ref> As he worked on the script, Tarantino also accompanied ''Reservoir Dogs'' around the European film festivals. Released in the United States in October 1992, the picture was a critical and commercial success. In January 1993, the ''Pulp Fiction'' script was complete.{{sfn|Charyn |2006|p=65}}{{sfn|Dawson|1995a|loc=p. 147: The published version of the screenplay identifies its basis as "May 1993/last draft," incorporating brief revisions made in August, September, and October (Tarantino [1994], n.p.)}}

The [[adrenaline]] scene was inspired by the Martin Scorsese documentary ''[[American Boy: A Profile of Steven Prince]]'' about ''[[Taxi Driver]]'' actor Steven Prince, who played arms dealer Easy Andy in the film. Prince recalls injecting adrenaline into the heart of a woman who overdosed, with the help of a medical dictionary and a [[Magic Marker]].<ref name=YW>{{cite web|website=[[IndieWire]]|title=How the ‘Pulp Fiction’ Adrenaline Shot Scene Was Inspired by Scorsese’s ‘Lost Film’ — Watch|author=Dry, Jude|date=January 26, 2017|url=https://www.indiewire.com/features/general/pulp-fiction-overdose-scene-scorsese-tarantino-watch-1201773966/}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Ultimate Guide To Martin Scorsese And His Directing Techniques|date=January 6, 2023|publisher=Indie Film Hustle|url=https://indiefilmhustle.com/ultimate-guide-to-martin-scorsese-and-his-directing-techniques/|author=Beyl, Cameron}}</ref>