"I write the script in December. January Josh Arnett, Marley Shelton come down fly Franken. We're shooting for 10 hours on my green screen. We shoot that opening sequence. Incredible opening sequence. ..."

"The following is a conversation with Robert Rodriguez, a legendary filmmaker and creator of Sens City, El Mariachi Desperado, Spy Kids, Machete, From Dustel Dawn, Alita, Battle Angel, The Faculty, and..."

"there was like one take and you only have one take to get it right? Oh, all the time where you're just like or just you know how long it'll take to reset and you're just But then you know what you you..."

"it'll be big and orange. Okay, we we'll shoot it in slow motion so it lasts a little longer because it just goes poof. So, I told the actors, I don't know how big this fireball is going to be, but jus..."

"radio controlled and we can't tell cuz we're shooting film, you know. So, we're like, "Oh shit, let's watch the dailies." Sure enough. Let's see if we can get maybe I can scratch the film right there...."

"got to roll with it and then and look look at the blessing you get because of there's a mistake. You probably actually got a better take by doing it later with them and then you had this incredible lo..."

"She's not looking at all. She's just concentrating on what what didn't follow her plan and not seeing the gift of everything else that's there. So she goes very reluctantly. It was so perfect. I wish ..."

"you go, "Well, why did I sign up for it? Did I raise my hand because I thought it was going to go be this big financial success?" No, I did it to work with my friends, to do something creative, to try..."

"amazing lesson to have because it makes you feel better about failure. Think of like The Thing by John Carpenter. You put that movie out the same weekend as ET. That thing bombed. Critics were calling..."

"know, later cuz you might not have had some information you have now that makes you look at it a lot differently. Like when I did I just uh did the audio book for Rebel Without a Crew, which I thank y..."

"released it and and did a sequel and did another sequel. If you look back in time, good thing I didn't get my way. My way had had this for a vision and it needed to do that which you would never know ..."

"Rebel Without a Crew is $7,000 movie. So, let's put it all in context. But you know, you know, you're going to hire bigger actors. You can get a big actor like Tiana Reeves for a $20 million movie. Yo..."

"would start making movies with that instead. Now I have for $8 I have a 2hour erasable tape of sound and picture. So I got into digital basically really early. I was doing which was really frowned upo..."

"my dad bought a second VCR for his business cuz I stole his other one. And I found that if I hooked them together I could play on one and use that pause button on the second. And this was the limitati..."

"But when you're a teenager, you don't know anybody who can come be your action star. And if you just bring your high school buddies, well, they just look like high school kids. So I use my little brot..."

"bucks, and it was 8 minutes. I bet I can make an 80minute movie for $8,000 if I'd use the same method. So that movie I did 6 months later I was making Mariachi cuz it opened up my mind to that I could..."

"approximation of the lens. But you could shoot slow motion. I could do reverse photography. If I filmed upside down, I could do because if I do a fast push into her, I'll never get the focus in right...."

"upside down. I have the strings in the back cuz you're not going to be looking at the back. And as it goes back, you pull it back and then when you reverse it, it goes and it looks so good. you can't ..."

"one take. So, my idea was this. How gangster is that? Well, it it was a test film. Right. Right. I thought it was I thought it was going to be a test film. Yeah. It's the only movie in history ever ma..."

"develop because we're shooting two weeks consecutively to get film shipped back and forth from Mexico to see if it came out. You just couldn't do it. I just had to, you know, double down on it. Do it ..."

"$7,000. You mentioned your friend Carlos as the star of the movie. Everything one take. And you know, I highly recommend people go back and watch that movie. It's it's just an incredible movie. It's f..."

"like Road Warrior. But I don't have enough money for the first one to do that. That'll be the second movie I do. How about we do a Genesis story? How he became that guy? So, let's do Mad Max basically..."

"basically. So, introduce that guy. He's in jail making phone calls and someone puts a hit on him. So we have action right away. There's a hit on him. He kills those guys cuz it's his operation. He's n..."

"the rest because you're asking yourself these prompt questions that you already have answers for from a past life, from a vision you had that you don't even know are there. This prompts it. It's kind ..."

"piano or guitar or sculpting or you can just you can do it. You can take it on and do it because it teaches you more about your main job. I become a better director by doing all those jobs because whe..."

"not coming out, it's because I'm blocking it. Mhm. And if I were to do this and I'm flowing and if I were to say, "Wow, I just wrote 10 cards. I don't know if I can write more. How did I do that?" You..."

"through and the ideas will come and the answers will come because it's not you. And if you can take your ego out of like you'll be blessed with this neverending flow of ideas because don't take owners..."

"that guy. Jump in. No, it's not you. You just got to be the hands. And that that that relieves a lot of pressure from you cuz then you don't have to ever have to do anything really. You just have to b..."

"seven for just a few frames so I know which reel it is and then that 10 minutes of film is just one shot after another and I use almost every frame of those shots cuz I was cutting in the camera now a..."

"resourceful. You allow it to get maybe a little bit out of sync sometimes. I didn't allow it, but Oh, yeah. I would let it if I just didn't have a way to cut away, right? And I would try to sync it as..."

"another movie. Man, you look like James Sper. Shit. You should be the bad guy in my movie and it'd be cool to have you as the bad guy. He goes, "But I don't speak Spanish." Well, that's okay. All righ..."

"people in that kind of headsp space and then we're all open to it to where the character is supposed to go, what the what it's supposed to sound like instead of me being very, you know, manipulative t..."

"cuz I'm the DP. Because if I had another director of photography, be like "Oh no, no, we have to relight and all this stuff." It's like no no let's just do this this let's go. He's doing it right now ..."

"action connected with the actor that's because it's like a dance you end up that's so to hear remember on on Dust Till Dawn Michael Parks in the opening scene he's talking about the two guys that are ..."

"a because I knew I was going to be doing a panel discussion with him. They asked us to do a panel discussion about violence and movies in the '9s even though it was only 92. So we're on a panel togeth..."

"I'll tell you what what what happened. Um I'm not I'm very shy person, you know, very shy. I'd have to go talk. I'm sure you probably feel like you're not an aator or anything, you know, just have to ..."

"people were laughing so much at your intro. They just wanted to hear a story like this so badly. I heard someone next to me say, "I'm going to vote for his movie." They hadn't even seen the movie yet ..."

"long lens pulling my own focus. When I finally had to do a real movie, I was operating the camera in my first real movie with a crew and I get the camera and a guy comes over and he focuses for you. T..."

"come, it can be crippling. when I knew I could only use those things from Mariachi, it's like, "All right, well it's very it's very simple." Now, let me show you how cheapkate I was. Like, I did not s..."

"or follow up a success. That's when artists get really crippled cuz sometimes they start tiptoeing around as an artist going like, "Oh shit, now it's my second film. My first one did really well. They..."

"they had it with that guy. But I started thinking I even said, man, I just rewatched Temple of Doom last night. I don't know how I'm going to do this horror movie. Like I'm just never done anything li..."

"film making at a studio level because if I make even if I make a good movie if I make a great movie he's making great movies and he's getting this dog shit. I don't know if I could take it you know. S..."

"of film students don't get this job, so give up that dream." So I was like, "Oh I guess I got the best job." But then I started working with my kids when we did uh I had a TV show called Rebel Without..."

"follow on show which is where you make Red 11. Yes. So that's the one I did. So then it came time for me to do one. So I made a movie called Red 11 based on my experiences in the medical hospital. But..."

"lessons about how you take on something impossible turn chicken shit to chicken salad and make it work. And that's the string. That's life. That's the process of life. So many people say, "Well, I'm n..."

"Brolan's girlfriend said, "Josh, hey, my girlfriend just said she said his wife now, but time are you guys doing drugs? You leave the set." And you come back and you're all like and I go, "No, we're p..."

"helps you creative problem solve. So that basically working with my kids made me realize, oh, now I know exactly what I want to do for the next 10 years. I only want to make movies with my kids becaus..."

"DoubleR Productions because we all have double R names. All the kids. So if anyone ever wants to do anything, we can use our company. So let's make a logo and I'll make t-shirts and notepads and stuff..."

"a movie and it still counts as a view. They may watch five minutes and change the channel. So, do you complete a movie? That's really where they, you know, really value. Not only do they complete, but..."

"keep the cost down. Can I actually ask you just to focus in on action? You've created a lot of epic action films. What makes for a great action film? It comes down to the character, you know, like if ..."

"looks incredible. You can see every beat of sweat in this movie. I was watching it again with somebody, a female, and there's always a point when you're watching that movie where she'll turn and say, ..."

"twice. Let me tell you the second time it happened. One, you're making that and you go, "Okay, this is how it has to go." But then now you're invested in this person. You go, "Oh man, she has to die. ..."

"isn't my movie. This Oh, the bad guy. Oh, there's a scene in my movie where the bad guy has two girls in bed with him and they figured that was a whore house, but it was just this apartment. So, they ..."

"moment this thing and it's like cuz you feel like that way when you're when you're creating stuff like you're creating something and then now it's taking on a life on its own and like oh no now this c..."

"game because they're just swing way beyond you. Jim Cameron was like that. So, like when I first met him, I was trying to impress the hell out of him you know, because I was such a big fan. I was abou..."

"They're like, "Ah, we're going to go make the next Polyshore movie instead." You know, like we don't understand this thing. And Mirramax got it and they had just been bought by Disney. So they produce..."

"He goes, "In fact, one of my friends Simmon and said,"I want to sit you down and tell you all the things that are wrong with your movie, but I'll wait till you get back from the Can Film Festival." An..."

"osmosis, you're like learning some up. You're seeing that there isn't a trick. Yeah. I thought he had a trick and that's why I couldn't get any further. He's using the same brush and the same paint. W..."

"was I mean you've worked with him a lot and you've I mean he's one of those badass humans on the screen. You've created that. Can you just talk about what it's like creating those characters? What was..."

"Mexican character. That's like as authentic as you can get. And there was no one who was getting any jobs cuz no one was creating any. So there was no one that had any movies under their name because ..."

"together. So I have that somewhere just telling me about and it's Salma. It's Salma. She's her with her energy, with her passion and funny. She became instant friends with my wife. You know before the..."

"they saw it on the big screen when they're watching the dailies, then they were like, "Oh my god." Then they saw it. then they saw what I saw when I met her. But they it sometimes you like you say, wh..."

"You know, this whoever this actor is. He walks in and I see him. It's Danny Trejo. He sits down and I had the prop knife already made and I say, "You need to have this in your hand and look like you s..."

"around to doing it. So, when I did Spy Kids, I put him in Spy Kids and I said "Hey, let's pay tribute to that character we never got to make and you'll be Uncle Machete. He's a gadget guy, but he's go..."

"And I used I wanted to I was adamant about being resourceful again. All those shots that are in the trailer are really great. I got to reverse engineer the trailer into a movie so I can use that shot ..."

"unexpected, surprising kind of interesting casting. So, Robert Daiir is an example of that and that's just a great role. The second aspect of that, I heard the story that you can just get an actor in ..."

"realized finally after many years because I've always edited, I realized this is why movies cost so much. There could be 150, 200 people on the crew and I swear not one of them knows how to edit. Not ..."

"That's some weird shit, right? That's the magic of creativity. It's like sometimes when you have a vision, it's not clear, but it's coming to you from the future. So, you got to just follow the voice...."

"on the day thinking on your feet. So I'm gonna show you this um this test. Okay. So, for Dust Dawn the TV series, I would always shoot the the first episode and the last episode of like a seven or eig..."

"I'll fix it later, but the three days it's going to be pure pipe. It's just going to be coming through because you're just going to be picking up the pen. So anyway, he went he came to me with this id..."

"somebody with a vision to to do the whole thing. So, this is what it would look like if you were on the set. I'm going to show you the footage and I'm going to show you the the scene. I have to show i..."

"it upside down. We'll flop it later. Give me the main camera. Okay, DJ, start running towards that bullets and grab it and pretend like it gets shot out of your hand. I shoot it in slow motion but I'm..."

"bullet. One went in. Now, second jump. When you do the next jump, as if we just passed those other moments. You've caught a bullet already. So now you're going to snap it closed and start your turn. I..."

"in. I just cut it that night because I cut my own sound effects. I cut my sound effects in. You can already tell it's going to work. You can already see even with the bullets not there, you can tell b..."

"conveys the sound better, you know? I'll use different kinds of sounds that just have impact and put it somewhere like when he hits the ground or so I like playing with all that in post when I'm editi..."

"my studio. It does draw you in. It draws you in and it makes you go now think of ideas you never would have thought of before. Mainly because it has a filter. Well, now I I don't have to think of all ..."

"up, what do you do? you you start you start to put the pen to the paper and it starts just flowing. You have no choice. You have to get out of the way and open the pipe and it just comes out and you'r..."

"actor, put them into this with the power of technology into the real world. So convey all the emotion, the richness of the human face. Can you just speak to the process of bringing that world to life?..."

"photorealistic. And he goes, "Curious to see how photoreal it'll be when we're finally done with this process cuz you don't get to see it till it's almost done." And I was like, "Wow, he's just shooti..."

"let's shoot mostly live action and we'll just replace her. But we still have to figure her out. You have to cast the right actress. And when I saw Rose Salazar, she was just amazing. She made me cry a..."

"so little. Like, I'm literally calling the guy on the phone. How do I use this camera? You know, that's how little I knew about it. But I knew by doing the job I would learn by being both. That's real..."

"interesting in that he's so prolific. I walked into his writing studio and it'd be like on a one of the tables like you have those papers there. Imagine them that thick, that thick that thick. All scr..."

"only movie on the Sony lot being edited digitally. Mhm. Not only was I editing on a computer, I was editing in my house, which in 1994 was just unheard of. So, I'm there in my house and they made me c..."

"looking for because you can't always explain it to somebody because you don't always know yourself. It's part of you kind of come up with it as you do the process. Just on a small tangent about the di..."

"where it was like, okay, let me splice these two sound things together and it was so hard to get it to do, but people would be like, you got that movie out of that equipment. Where now it's the other ..."

"hit. Nobody does 3D like that. But I I wanted that. I want shit falling in people's laps, you know? So you remember so you go, okay, this is why I'm wearing the glasses. I'm wondering why. And when I ..."

"him to do. It's all on me. I write the script in December, January. Josh Arnett, Marley Shelton come down, fly Frank in shooting for 10 hours on my green screen. We shoot that opening sequence. Incred..."

"like shit man this is great I'm in. He's in. Wow. go get everyone else from that was just easy to get. And we were filming the movie. So February right? Building the few little sets we had like the ba..."

"know like just that that lesson I had forgotten. You have to say, "I'm a non-smoker." I'm a non-smoker. So, what does a non-smoker do? If you believe you're a non-smoker, you hate smoke. Start choking..."

"It doesn't make sense to me how manifesting works, but it does seem to work. Like basically visualizing visualizing a path towards a certain kind of future. It I guess everything around you, everythin..."

"we're honestly if we're just in that I wouldn't have said, but I heard you rip on fucking guitar. And I've heard you play kind of amazing in all different kind of context. Oh, but I I should be like f..."

"I'm not mean just you. I mean, anybody who just like who who pauses, who hesitates. You don't have to have doubts. Why would you have a doubt? Because you know the process now. It's like if I don't kn..."

"talked about the importance of journaling because living is living. I love that phrase. I came up with that cuz it's like, "Wow, I see so many people who get after you for like filming a concert and t..."

"and part of your life. Otherwise, it just went by. It went by. Like I'll ask people like, "We just had a really, what did we do last week? What did we do last Wednesday?" And they're like "I can tell ..."

"chair episode. I look up Michael Man. Michael man all the conversations we had since 94 that I wrote down that I felt and it's like oh my god I can't believe we said that. That's how I knew about that..."

"could tell myself but I can't take a time machine closest thing is telling your kid because then they can take that information and process so many times they've come back and said wow dad that lesson..."

"play the old tapes. We don't even have to do anything anymore. We banked so much amazing stuff that we've all forgotten that, you know, my kids just love watching their old home movies. They they hard..."

"moment is because you see the fragility of it too, you know. Does it make you sad? Does it break your heart that you know the number of memories we get to create is finite? That this life ends. Eventu..."

"they when I tell people they flip out when I tell them that? Yeah. Like I said, I want a character to be like that. Like he's dying. He's like, I don't want to forget this dream. I don't want to forge..."

"to be. They don't have to have any doubt anymore. They don't have to wonder well, am I supposed to be more business-minded or can I be creative? Isn't that some kind of frivolous? Is that a real job? ..."

"Anytime you got pushed, like if you go back to your life at your really critical moments in your life where you went that way instead of that way, there was probably somebody there who said something ..."

"there was no internet and stuff back then. This was like literal press reviews public. It was like why are they targeting this guy, you know? They just did not like he just had unprecedented success a..."