Pastiche

Quentin Tarantino, one of the most important writers and directors of this generation, didn’t learn how to make movies at school. He was never taught how to properly make a film. In fact, he was a video store clerk and taught himself by just watching a lot of films.

One technique that Tarantino is famous for is pastiche. Pastiche is when an artist imitates and celebrates another artist from a previous generation.

Except with Tarantino, he openly admits that he is stealing ideas or scenes from every film he has ever watched.

Tarantino understands an important lesson about creating. That is:

All great artists steal from other artists.

You will never come up with an original idea. Ever. At this point, it has all been done before. Anything you can think of has had a movie or a song or a blog written about it.

Instead, you can honor previous work by mixing and mashing ideas together while putting your own twist on how you see them.

That is what something original looks like now. You improve not create out of thin air.