Sunday, June 24, 2007

A Little Inspiration from Rodriguez

How does one remain inspired? It's difficult when you have demands: a full-time-plus job, domestic responsibilities … how do you keep the dream alive? Sixteen years ago I graduated from high school with the aspiration to become a Hollywood screenwriter-director – a hyphenate, one of those amazing people like Billy Wilder, John Huston, Cameron Crowe, George Lucas, James Cameron, Woody Allen.

Now, to be honest, it took me a while to get moving on that dream. I didn't finish my first screenplay until five and a half years after high school. I've written three more since, and I've filmed my own extremely low-budget movie. But in 2001 I got a real job, and in 2003 I got promoted. I work nearly 50 hours every week, I have a busy life, and it's often difficult to find the mental inspiration or energy to keep the dream alive.

One needs to be motivated. Inspired.

I guess, for me, one of the most inspiring things that I've encountered in the past few years, that re-kindled the flame and made me not want to give up on the dream just yet, was seeing the featurette, "Inside Troublemaker Studios," one of the special features on the Once Upon a Time in Mexico DVD. That disc came out in late 2003. I was three years into the filming of my own low-budget miniDV production, and it seemed like I would never get to the end of filming, let alone editing, and I was about ready to throw in the towel.

I wasn't, at that point, the hugest fan of Robert Rodriguez. I enjoyed Desperado when it came out, and I took inspiration from his book Rebel Without a Crew. I was educated and entertained by the audio commentary on El Mariachi. His Four Rooms segment was hilarious, and it was the best part of that whole experiment (sorry – Quentin). However, Rodriguez's films since then – From Dusk Till Dawn, The Faculty, and Spy Kids – while decent, were not necessarily my cup of tea.

The special features on that Mexico DVD, however, really inspired me, especially the "Troublemaker Studios" featurette. Rodriguez essentially had converted his garage into a full post-production facility. He had a mixing and sound recording studio, editing and score creation workstations, a visual effects hub, a kitchen, workout equipment, and sound-effects editing stations (with staff), all in his freaking garage! Admittedly, it was a very big garage, with some additions – but it was still his personal garage, on his home estate in Austin, Texas. It was like a miniature version of Lucas's Skywalker Ranch.

That was what I wanted to be doing! I didn't want to move to LA and become part of the rat-race there, just being another aspiring nobody in a sea of aspiring nobodies. I wanted to build a miniature version of Robert Rodriguez's garage in my house! (Well, very miniature, like in a closet or something – but hey, it's a start!) After seeing that featurette, I was excited, I was jazzed, I was ready to forge forward and complete my first film.

If you're a fellow aspiring digital filmmaker and you're in need of inspiration, I recommend checking out any of the commentaries, featurettes, and ten-minute film schools on any of Rodriguez's DVDs.

(Robert Rodriguez has written and/or directed El Mariachi, Roadracers, Desperado, a segment of Four Rooms, From Dusk Till Dawn, The Faculty, the Spy Kids trilogy, Once Upon A Time in Mexico, The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl, Sin City, Planet Terror (from the Grindhouse double feature), and he is currently working on Sin City 2).

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