Robert Rodriguez: Interviews

Robert Rodriguez’s New Toy

102 Robert Rodriguez’s New Toy Mel Rodriguez/2003 From MovieMaker, Summer 2003, 46–48. Reprinted courtesy MovieMaker Magazine, www.moviemaker.com. “They” is a four-letter word for Robert Rodriguez, writer-director of the groundbreaking indie film El Mariachi. The reason? Most times he utters the word, he’s referring to a place he’s shown no small degree of disdain for: Hollywood. Ironically, the story of his success in Hollywood has reached legendary status for aspiring moviemakers. He chronicled his early rise and bootstrap moviemaking methodology in his 1995 book, Rebel without a Crew. Now he’s adding a new chapter to his career, and the title is made up of only two letters: HD. Having a conversation with Rodriguez is not unlike having a conversation with a precocious child. But having a conversation with him about Hi Definition video is like having a conversation with a precocious child who just got his hands on a new toy. Like that youngster, Rodriguez expresses an infectious enthusiasm, and will rattle off interesting little tidbits about the history of his toy—what super powers it has and why it’s better than all his other friends’ toys. All an adult can do is sit back, smile, and listen in awe. Mel Rodriguez (MM): You work, quite literally, out of your home in Austin. Post-production, sound mix, score composing—everything? Robert Rodriguez (RR): I do it all from home except, of course, the on-location shooting. MM: You still do that even with these big projects, like the Spy Kids films and Once Upon a Time in Mexico? mel rodriguez / 2003 103 RR: These projects especially. As things get bigger, the more personal you have to make them. That’s why I have twelve credits on Spy Kids 2—I’m doing everything. MM: What about the unions? RR: I’ve got all the union cards! [laughs] Production design, cinematography . . . . Some are the same, like editing, sound mixing. . . . But I left the Writer’s Guild. MM: You left? RR: They were trying to tell me what to do with my credits. I said “I don’t need you guys. All you do is tell me what to do and take my money.” As soon as you find out you don’t need these guys, it’s all over for them. MM: So what happens when you write a script outside the Guild, but then try to make it with people who are in the other unions? RR: I get it made. You don’t need them to get it made; they don’t get your work. They just take your money, all those clubs. I was never into clubs and people that were really elitist—“You’re either with us or against us.” George Lucas isn’t in any of those things and it doesn’t seem to hurt him. I work with Miramax and they’re very independent over there. Since I’ll be the only writer on my stuff, there’s no need to employ a union writer, so I don’t need that union. MM: And so you just leave? RR: Oh, yeah. They freak out because they tell all the young filmmakers to join and then they’re shocked when you leave because they believe their own bullshit that we “need them.” I’m all about freedom in art. Those guys want to control it. I’m from Texas, so when someone tells you which way to ride your horse, you think, “I’ll just go to a different ranch. You guys are riding it backwards anyway.” MM: Did using Hi Definition video change your shooting style? RR: Yes. That’s another thing. See, once you give up on all those kinds of ideas about shooting style, you start rethinking everything. Film is horrible, so most definitely HD changes shooting style because it’s not horrible. Then you stop shooting film and you go “Well, why aren’t they doing things this way?” You can get a much better perspective of the 104 rober t rodriguez: inter views business by being outside of it. George Lucas told me the same thing. He said “Just because you live outside of Hollywood, you’re going to come up with ideas and techniques they’ll never think of in Hollywood.” You know when you go off and you make your mark in the world then you come...