View Full Version : THEONION: An interview with Robert Rodriguez
RobertoOrtiz 08-31-2003, 07:46 PM Quotes:
"O: You also taught yourself CGI, is that correct?
"Creatively, you want to be free; you want to be as free as a child. I'm doing these movies because it really helps me go back to when I was a kid. "
RR: Yeah, that's what From Dusk Till Dawn and The Faculty were for. I was already writing Spy Kids, and I knew that would be my bigger movie, because it wasn't for the niche audience, it was for a broader audience, it had the potential to just be something more special. But I didn't know enough about the effects, and I didn't want to have to call in the technicians. So I did some practice movies to prepare myself to do Spy Kids the way I did Mariachi, where you're able to do everything yourself. Because that's just so important. Then, you're a painter. Then, you can just paint on the canvas; you don't have to have the paint mixer there, and the canvas stretcher there, and the paintbrush holder there. As soon as you put the obstacle course in front of you, where you barely get something on the canvas—that's why with so many movies, you say, "You mean they had that much money, and that much time, and that many people, and that many resources, and that's the result? That thing? That's it? That's all they got?" Because the process is so complicated, the end result ends up being very simple. Whereas if you reverse it, if you simplify the process, then what's going to end up on the canvas is something much more complicated. Many more layers, many more colors. Because you're free to just keep putting layers on."
": Do you buy any of the complaints against HD?
RR: It's all propaganda. Oh, yeah, absolutely, it's just no contest. It's just so funny to me, because I've seen it all before. Lucas is always way ahead of these people. He tried to show Hollywood electronic editing back in the '80s with Return of the Jedi, and [they said] "What the hell is that? No one's ever gonna cut on computers; they'll always cut on film." And 10 years later, I'm editing electronically, and no one in the business is editing electronically. All the editors are afraid of computers, they're afraid their jobs are going to be taken away. "
>>Link<< (http://www.theonionavclub.com/avclub3829/avfeature_3829.html)
-R
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richcz3
08-31-2003, 07:59 PM
I have nothing but admiration for Robert Rodriguez.
They guy bankrolled El Mariachi by selling himself to medical experimentation in Texas. He produced a solid story and movie using non-actors in Tijuana. He's an Amazing talent that doesn't believe in Hollywoods money burning set habits. With the things he had said and railed against in his first few years in the big time, I am amazed he didn't get black listed.
Funny thing about El Mariachi is that the original he made had a limited release in the states. Then a studio which hired him, just had to make a big budget production of it. They just don't get it and never will.
richcz3
Lunatique
09-01-2003, 06:39 AM
Nono, Rodriquez WANTED to remake El Mariachi. He didn't want the studio to release the original because he thought he could do much better with a decent budget.
I admire and respect Rodriquez for his set of brass balls and intense passion. Although I'm not the biggest fan of his writing, I think he's a great director/filmmaker.
Stahlberg
09-01-2003, 09:59 AM
Well strictly speaking Desperado isn't a remake of El Mariachi, it takes place some time later.. but spiritually I guess it's the movie he wanted to make. And it's a glorious movie, I just love it, and it was made on only 7 million, which is almost as amazing as his first one (7000 USD), if you compare the results.
I love everything about it, the casting, the story, the music, the gags, the editing/photography/framing etc etc... One of the greatest examples of film making ever.
Perhaps some of the things Rodriguez said or meant didn't come very well across in this interview, but is it only me that thinks that he is awfully dissmisive of all the people that worked for and with him when he was doing these movies?
Certainly he is a very Renaissance-like director, passing, shooting (sic) and scoring (double sic) at the same time, but surely even he must agree that film-making is a team effort nonetheless. So it sure would have been nicer to see more "we"s and less "I"s in those answers...
As for him in general, my humble oppinion is that while he made some good films ("El Mariachi", episodes in "Four Rooms"), he also made pretty bad films ("The Faculty"), one of the more important issues being that they do have unequal... production values (and I blame that on the one-man-show style). However he does have an infectious energy in his film-making, and perhaps that's why he has so many fans.
As for the HD arguments, he must be crazy. I have yet to "meet" anyone so convinced that HD is better than film (except Lucas, but that's another story). Surely you must be blind to think that, or you have never seen a well shot and well projected film... :surprised
Of course, no argument in the matters of HDCam&co making it slightly cheaper to shoot a motion picture, or in the various advantages of being able to see the actual picture or in the fact that in 1,2,5 years HD will surpass the quality of 35 mm film. But to be very honest, those things sound to me like Mr. Rodriguez being happy not having to learn another - difficult - side of DoP-ing to perfection.
Cheers,
Andrei
richcz3
09-01-2003, 07:22 PM
I stand corrected.
I saw an interview with him on Entertainment tonight so many many years ago when he was on a set and they talked about his approach to budgets and filming. His straight forward no nonsense aproach of descibing excess studio spending came up while talking about making Desperado.
I remember my eyes popped out of their sockets when he said they made him spend money on things he didn't need. :eek:
I thought, My god this guy isn't going to last long at all. On the the set he litteraly pointed out people whom he didn't know what they were doing.
So yes in a way he has brass balls, but I have to admire someone who is "hands on" and wears many hats. Knows how not to bite off too much and still produce movies that make more money than to took to produce.
Amyd
I think there is certain bite in his view towards production standards. Yes it can come off as dismissive if someone on the set is a specialist. It appears he is the kind of guy that preffers people with multiple talents instead of many people who are specialists.
I believe he's right in saying that the future of productions will be in the hands of people with multiple talents (wearing many hats). A very illuminating interview, I just wish it was longer.
richcz3
malducin
09-01-2003, 07:42 PM
Well it's more than just Luas. Jim Cameron seems he is convinced about HD. It also seems that Francis Ford Coppola thinks HD is good enough (note ot saying better). From another article I found seems Robert Altman, Wim Wenders, Bernardo Bertolucci and Dany DeVito will shoot in HD too.
Nice interview by the way.
rent the spy kids 2 dvd (or better yet, just buy it) and listen to the commentary track. its absolutely inspiring stuff for one and really details his approach to shooting, editing, set design, etc., and he's also VERY complimentary of his crew and the awesome job they did on the film. the difference may be that this is a film he had pretty much total control over as opposed to his first studio films. cool stuff, thanks for the link...
chris
Sorry, I really didn't like "Spy Kids" so I'll watch the second part only if the oportunity arises... however it is nice to hear that Rodriguez credits his team on that commentary track.
Malducin, I didn't say that only Lucas is shooting in HD, of course he isn't. I just said that he is the only major (in terms of popularity at least...) director that seems entirely convinced that HD is God's gift in terms of tehnical quality to the film making part of humanity. Of course there are other directors that see the advantages of shooting in HD so they make informed... compromises, because they think that the end-product will be - overall - better (like for instance allowing spectacular 3D shots underwater).
Richcz3, I am not that sure, to be very honest. The tools keep getting better and better, no doubt, and in some respects they also get easier to use, thereby allowing people to aquire more skills than would have been possible say 20 years ago.
But there is always a place for good specialists. And with that I do not mean people obsessed with/or incapable of understanding more than one aspect of film-making, but rather people that know their job as thoroughly as possible (and I hope we agree that it is much easier to do that when you chose to specialize), while having a larger cultural horizon.
For instance, most good picture editors I know are also pretty adept at music and sound design. That doesn't mean they do both editing and music/sound design at their workplace (not everybody is a Walther Murch, of course), but they know enough about it to both make cooperation between the departaments easier and to offer more meaningful input in their work with the director.
And to end, that's the other important aspect that Rodriguez seems to neglect, which is that for most films I have worked on, having a second pair of eyes and neurons (sic) next to you when you are editing is not necessarily a drag, but also an advantage...
Cheers,
Andrei
Lunatique
09-02-2003, 05:50 AM
Amyd-- I think it's a difference in value. It would seem Rodriquez prefers "personal vision/creativity" over "collaborative." He LIKES doing everything himself--I suppose to him, that's the whole reason why he became a filmmaker--to MAKE films as opposed to just write/direct them? He did say that his films might be better if he had more specialists on them, but then it's no longer "his" film in terms of his definition. Hell, he even admitted to being not so good a writer and that a specialist could do better.
Bottomline, he likes to do it all because it's his baby.
Yeah, I gathered as much. But what I fail to understand is why Rodriguez is so bent on criticizing the current model, when what he is doing is just different and - obviously, by looking at his films - not necessarily "better".
On the other hand, there were and still are a lot of examples of incredible directors that worked with conventional "Hollywood" teams in "collaborative" efforts and still retained a profoundly personal style and vision. Best example coming to mind at the moment: Stanley Kubrick.
And on the third hand, I think that when a film indeed stops being "his" baby is not when he works with other people on it during the making-of part, but rather when the production company starts mingling in. Fortunately for Rodriguez, till now he managed to negociate good solid contracts regarding that.
Cheers,
Andrei
Lunatique
09-02-2003, 11:23 AM
Hmm.. I always thought Kubrick worked outside of the Studio system his entire career? As far as I know, he does a lot of stuff--even doing DP and camera work--all the way to editing the final cut. Or, maybe this is only for certain shots and only a few films?
He didn't work "outside the Studio System" as far as the production company (MGM/Warner Bros.) is involved. However, he always had very good control even over the marketing and indeed the final cut of his movies, thanks to the way he negociated his deals with the studio (meaning he was also producing the films). Much in the same way as Rodriguez, but at a different scale (because he did get bigger budgets). Also, his prestige definately alowed him in the latter years of his career to do some extravagant stuff in terms of actual film production (for instance the shooting of "Eyes Wide Shut"). But he also had to suffer the problems of the studio style financing, with movies almost cancelled ("Barry Lindon") and some actually stopped before beginning (the Napoleon project).
He was also very hands on, undoubtedly, sometimes deciding lens and camera positions without consulting the Director of Photography and at other times deciding entire looks and the means of how to get them (like in "Barry Lindon" and the low-light cinematography by using special fast lenses). However, he worked with cinematographers (and the credit is theirs on the movie), with editors (and the credit is theirs on the movie) and with sound people (and the credit is theirs on the movie).
He also didn't forget the value of the input of what we call here "specialists". In "2001: A Space Odyssey", Douglas Trumbull's designs were approved by him instantly when he saw the value they had for that sequence. And there are many other examples.
In many ways, imho Kubrick can be considered a "better" director than Rodriguez in terms of getting good and still profoundly personal films. He knew what he wanted, definately, he also knew quite a lot about the various trades and crafts of the people who he worked with, but nonetheless he let them do their jobs and valued their input, in the end taking the decisions himself, just like any other director would.
Cheers,
Andrei
one point he makes that i think is being missed is the timing and budget issues that come with a large studio production. spy kids 2 came out a year after the first and was made for the same budget ($36 mil, rather cheap) with double the effects shots. that isn't going to happen in a traditional studio set-up :)
chris
richcz3
09-02-2003, 05:03 PM
The current convention of studio production exceeds the the fiscal responsibility and realities of the market. Sure, those conventions will be around for decades longer, but it will limit or remove the opportunities for many great films to be made. The result being less compelling movie making for the sake of limiting risk at the box office.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/hollywood/
Many people owe it to themselves to read this article on Hollywood mindset for film makeing. It really shows how things can get out of conrtrol from every concievable angle.
richcz3
RobertoOrtiz
09-02-2003, 08:33 PM
richcz3 thanks for an AWESOME link.
You should post this as a separate news item.
-R
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