El Mariachi - Hollywood's greatest myth

If there is $ 7,000, what will a Vietnamese filmmaker do? That money can give birth to a television episode in the price ... in 2010. In the US, $ 7,000 not enough to spend a day for a free movies star for a Hollywood star! And yet for $ 7,000, in 1992 a young director made a very compelling action free movies - plastic - writing the greatest fable in Hollywood history!

Robert Rodriguez is a Mexican-American, born in San Antonio, Texas. He is handsome but he does not like being an actor. Right from the age of 7, Robert began to fall in love with his father when he bought a videocamera, which included a home video camera. Since age 12, Robert has been around the magic world of film. He made a series of action and short horror free movies with his old camera and set up his own film on two video machines.

In the fall of 1990, Robert entered the screening program sponsored by the University of Texas at Austin. He won the award for his film adaptation of the short comedy film Bedhead, filmed in 16mm film, eight minutes in length. From Bedhead and his previous films, Robert has begun to establish his free movies style: quick cuts, sudden flashes, fast action moves that are full of action.

Robert brought Bedhead to the contest in several small and consecutive awards. The small prize money from the 14 winners, Robert has accumulated nearly $ 4,000, preparing for the first action free movies, The Guitar Player.

Knowing that there should be at least double the $ 4,000 to make The Guitar Player, Robert does not hesitate to turn himself into "white mouse." He enrolled in a low-cholesterol cholesterol clinical trial in Texas, and was paid $ 100 a day for 30 days!

While locked up in the lab, Robert enlisted to write and edit the script. Also here, Robert got acquainted with Peter Marquardt, also a "rat" like himself, Peter liked and asked to play the boss Moco, in return he will assist with Robert film without compensation.

Robert Rodriguez intends to make a free movies for about $ 10,000. With a cumulative amount of $ 7,000, Robert runs around to borrow the rest but only 2,000 more. Robert knows he will not be able to do anything in the US for $ 9,000. He came up with the idea of ​​filming the film on the Mexican border for cheap, and then sold it directly to the home video market in Latin America. When choosing a scene in the state of Coahuila Acuña (Mexico), Robert became acquainted with Carlos Gallardo and invited him co-producer and co-starring. The Guitar Player script has been portrayed by Carlos Gallardo in Spanish as El Mariachi.

El Mariachi is the story of a wandering guitarist, dressed in black with a black box, to earn a living in a border city of Mexico. But unfortunately he was tracked by local wanderers, mistaken for a killer just arrived here. The irony is that this guy also wears a black suit with a black box like a musician, but inside is a machine gun instead of an instrument!

The free movies is full of deadly blood, shot in Ciudad Acuña, the northern border city of Mexico for 21 days. Make action free movies, but you do not use storyboards, because all the crews in the film ... Robert Rodriguez alone does everything: scripting, producing, directing, editing, filming. , Set lighting, design, create special effects, record sound ... the only job he does not do is acting, since no one else operates the camera!

Robert cut the maximum cost: do not use the clapboard type input, instead, the actor signaled the scene and dial a few by raising his finger. A broken wheelchair bought hospital scrap iron, refurbished to replace the rails and dolly strollers. Do not use a dedicated video light system, but mainly use two 200 watt table light. Sound is recorded manually after each turn, with a cheap microphone connected to the cassette player. The scenery is just around the corner to avoid moving ... gasoline. With the exception of the main actress receiving $ 225, the amateurs of the film acted without remuneration, so they assisted Robert on his return. For that reason, he does not want actors to work so hard. He usually does not rehearse in the script before he talks to the actors and turns around.

Robert says that even the splash of blood can be boring without the humor and vividness of expression. So when filming the action scenes, every few seconds he cuts the scene and changes the angle of view, making viewers think he shot with multiple cameras at the same time. In order to save maximum film, all the scenes only have a 1-shot. If it goes wrong, it will change the angle and then continue, not back to the beginning! According to El Mariachi, it was only 82 minutes long, but it was astonishing to have 2,000 scenes - four times the average for an action free movies at the time!

Most of the weapons used in the film are water guns. However, a few machine guns were borrowed from the local police under scrutiny. But the real machine guns when using fake (lead-free) bullets, only firing one shot and jammed. In order to make a rifle ammunition, Robert filmed a shot from a different angle, then told the actors to drop the cartridges to the ground just like machine guns are ... bulletproof, when the post-production. Embed sound machine gun on!

Trunks that explode on human bodies are fake condoms that are attached to weightlifting belts and then inserted into the actors. Because the manual is not proper format so the scene of the boss Moco was shot in the chest and fell to the ground pain is painful rather than acting ... due to the explosion too powerful!

Robert is always on the spur of the moment to save money: use female prison guards and real prisoners, to save on the cost of hiring actors and uniforms. Because of the death of the free movies as a gossip - of course those who have been shot can not reappear - so anyone on the street is invited to act as a supporting actor! Robert is increasingly struggling to find black social actors. When Mariachi met with Moco's gang at the end of the film, this "gang" was mostly young teenagers!

The image of the famous turtle crawling in front of Mariachi was accidentally strayed during the shoot, which was kept by Robert because it was a good idea. Similarly, there is a scene where Mariachi buys a coconut, but Robert forgot to film his pay. Instead of driving back to that place to shoot additional scenes, he decided to insert the dialogue "Coconut Free!" ...

There are many of Robert's ingenious improvisations, especially the errors of continuity (in Vietnam called "sprinkle") have not been cut to save. At the end of the film, Robert spent all 24 16mm rolls, and spent only $ 7,225 on the total estimate of $ 9,000 he originally planned!

Robert estimated that if he did not have to pay for film, print and telecine, the production cost would be $ 600! "That's a huge amount of work. But I would rather work harder to have a free movies than to have nothing! ", Robert Rodriguez flattered!

Robert Rodriguez called El Mariachi the "cowboy free movies" (a popular dish in Mexico). Initially he planned to sell the film in the Latin American video market, then use the interest to make a bigger free movies. But, after being rejected by many Latin American video distributors, Rodriguez sent a demo tape to brokerage firm ICM (USA) to look for other small opportunities.

In 1993, Robert sent the film to the Sundance Film Festival, and El Mariachi won the Audience Award. By this time, the ICM company had informed Columbia Pictures that Columbia Pictures had agreed to release the film, with lucrative contracts for his upcoming projects, including Season Two, Desperado ( 1995) - at a cost of $ 7 million - 7,000 times more than El Mariachi!

Columbia has spent nearly $ 1 million on marketing, distributing, subtitling English, transferring free movies from 16mm to 35mm, and most importantly, re-audio the free movies. Robert personally oversaw the entire post-production, from editing, subtitle, harmony to Dolby Stereo ... Mark Gill, vice president of communications at Columbia, said he would spend $ 7,000 Original budget to do PR for the film, "That is the important message that I want the audience to know!".

El Mariachi earned more than $ 2 million in the United States, making Robert Rodriguez one of the filmmakers. In 1993, the story of the fabulous El Mariachi production, inspired Robert Rodriguez to write a book "pillow top" of the "poor world" free movies world: Rebel Without a Crew: Or How a 23-Year-Old Filmmaker With $ 7,000 Became a Hollywood Player (Revenge of the Needle: Or How to Make a 23-year-old filmmaker for $ 7,000, becoming a Hollywood player) .