10-Minute Film School with El Mariachi Director Robert Rodriguez

Director Robert Rodriquez shows how he put several sequences together for his low-budget first feature, El Mariachi. His solutions for working with a single camera and extremely limited resources are ingenious. His consistent recommendation to young low-budget filmmakers is to simply refuse to spend any money on anything. After watching this film it becomes very apparent that the only thing really preventing people from making films is a simple lack of ability.

For further study, Mubi.com has nice in-depth article called 30 Minute Film School that covers all the shot types and lighting setups one needs in order to make a narrative film.

Here’s a fascinating continuation of the 10-minute film school in which Rodriguez shows how he filmed a complex shootout for Desperado with Antonio Banderas by using a video camera to pre-plan the entire sequence.

One thought on “10-Minute Film School with El Mariachi Director Robert Rodriguez

  1. Yes finally we got to the point where cinema is a democratic form of art. Where nearly anyone willing to do a film can actually do it. Even with an Iphone… But still a lot of technical issues might rise while filming. The lower the budget higher the skills of the director must be, as he needs to know more about each field. So if he doesn’t have money to pay a good art director, and he didn’t make nice friendships in college, he must do it himself… Casting can be another tricky subject… But yes filming become an option for anyone with good ideas and images to show.

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