The Robert Rodriguez Ten Minute Film School

This is the first in a long series of 10 minute film school segments that Robert Rodriguez does for all of his films now, including those that are less real film-schools as they are tutorials on advanced digital film-making (seemingly) done all easy. I'd probably watch this one more than once if one were looking to get into film-making, but even if not I might recommend it the most out of all of those he's put together for his DVD releases. Not that some of the others ones don't retain interest, but with this you really get to see ALL the nuts and bolts, so to speak, around a great 8,000 dollar production. The scene examined under a microscope to great effect is the chase scene, as all of the mechanics of a scene like this- which goes by like a real adrenalized action scene in any given Hollywood movie- get taken apart scene by scene. It's also fascinating to here the specifics of what he used to film it all, and how he got away with so much with so little (it's a real 'indie' movie, but even still on first glance if one didn't know it could be assumed this cost a few hundred thousand dollars at least). And, at the end of the ten minutes, it's a good little bit of exposition by a filmmaker who knew exactly what he wanted for the scenes and pulled it off shot by shot, editing "in the camera", and using cheap props and ALL real extras to good effect. In short, a fun, interesting film school by a filmmaker in his guerrilla prime.

Robert Rodriguez has always impressed me. He works every job he can on his productions, and manages to make fun, cool and entertaining films for much less than they look like they cost, and while his writing may sometimes lack something, his movies are almost always worth watching. The fact that he was initially inspired by another film-making idol of mine(who also works several jobs on his films, and makes marvelous films, arguably better ones than Rodriguez does, and does so for reasonably small sums of money, as well), John Carpenter, is simply icing on the cake. Where many directors will come off as self-absorbed and focused only on their own work, Rodriguez seems like the kind of guy who'd be your good buddy, and he serves so many excellent tips on the art of making motion pictures in this documentary(which, in spite of its title, is actually longer than ten minutes... but I'm certainly not complaining, because they fly by), with "you can do this, too" in his tone. Whilst he was arguably fairly lucky on his first production, with many things working out very well for him, it is inspirational... and he passes on the torch to young hopefuls, like he himself once was, in this visual examination of how he pulled the thing off. Describing how he shoots, how him working most of the jobs creates opportunities that no regular film-crew has and how he managed to do scenes with dialog in spite of having to record all the sound separate from the actual film footage, he hands out countless tips worth gold in the hands of people as talented as he. I recommend this warmly to anyone interested in film-making, whether or not they plan to attempt to make something themselves. Just over ten minutes packed with experience from a film enthusiast who continues to bring marvelous films in under budget. 9/10

I watched this on the El Mariachi/Desperado DVD and I must say this is a very good video. Rodriguez takes you through the filmmaking process very quickly, skipping the extra stuff that doesn't matter. He tells you how to shoot, where to shoot, and how to cut scenes together to pull off effects. After viewing this in college, friends and I tried to make a movie, although it isn't done yet. It is possible to do everything dirt cheap if you have family and friends who don't mind lending you stuff to use. All in all, if you want to make movies the Hollywood way, but don't have the X-men (2000) budget, this will tell you how.

P.S. For more details on filmmaking, watch the El Mariachi DVD with director's commentary and watch Anatomy of a Shootout: 10 More Minutes.