Robert Rodriguez
speaker
1,180 appearances
3 recordings
3 series
first heard Apr 2025
last heard 16 Nov
Robert Rodriguez’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
Trend
recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Nov 2025 with 1.
Appearances
And when it happens, I'm going to point it out and it's going to be like magic and we're just going to go, okay, we're accepting it and we do it. And it gets people in that kind of headspace. 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 to get a certain thing.
I don't know, it's just whatever feels good.
Yeah. Well, you're a performer and you want, and there's no other, you know, it's not like a live show where you get the approval of the audience and you're like, oh, well, they, they like that joke. I mean, do more, you know, really the director is it. And a lot of times the director's way behind a monitor somewhere. That's why I still like to operate the camera.
Cause when I'm operating the camera, it's like this, we can have a hundred people here. We wouldn't know because they go away. It's just us. They just disappear when it's the camera guy is the director. And we're going, let's do that again. Let's do that again. There's a shot in, I'm lighting Sin City myself.
I have my crew setting lights and I have this great shot of Clive Owen where he's holding down Benicio's head in the toilet. You know, Benicio's not there. It's just a closeup of him at this point. And I'm practicing my shot. I'm zooming in slow in his face. And people are still walking behind him on the green screen setting lights. And I'm like, I'm rolling. We're ready to go. We're getting this.
I can already tell. We're already in the moment. What you're doing right now, just keep holding that look. Now, one jolt, like he's starting to fight back, but you don't even flinch. Cut. Okay. Never mind. You guys can stop moving that shit. We already got it. Holy shit. Yeah, it's like that. Wow. Yeah, it's like that because you're so locked in. That's a great scene, by the way. Great, right?
Holy shit. And you can feel it. It's like, if I wait for these guys, this moment will be gone. And then another one was Mickey Rourke. He had so much freaking dialogue. He had just done this whole big dialogue scene. He had another one that said, let's go ahead and start with a wide shot.
where the two actors, if I'm the camera, you know, Mickey and Elijah are here, let's get a two-shot, and we'll come around on Mickey close-up. We'll turn Mickey around for the close-up. Let's start with the wise thing, get used to the lines, and most of it's going to be sold in the close-up. We sit down, Mickey starts delivering the take. I'm like, hold on, hold on a second.
I brought my camera over, zoom in, just adjust that light real quick because I'm the DP. Because if I had another director of photography, they'd be like, oh no, no, we have to relight and all this stuff. It's like, no, no, let's just do this. Let's go. He's doing it right now. And I go and that performance is just right then.
And so you can feel that when you're, also you're operating and you're the camera guy and you're the DP. It's like high-tech guerrilla filmmaking. Yeah, we're on a green screen, but it's like, All the crew needs are marching orders. Just put a light back there, hitting them harder. Like this is a 5K, make that a 10K. It's gotta be stronger.
They don't need to know that I'm gonna make that a lamppost later. They just need marching orders for the moment. So I can just kind of tell people, do this, do this, do that. And then I know what I can accomplish with the actor and then everything else falls into place later because I'm gonna put all that in later.
Once you know how to do a lot of jobs like that, you can just move at the speed of thought, which is where the actors love being creatively. Because nobody knew what green screen was back then. They're like, what is this again? So I explained it as, well, it's kind of like doing theater, but instead of a black curtain behind you with a prop, it'll be a green curtain.
And you might just have a cup or just a steering wheel, but it's just you and the other actors, just like this. And everything else will be painted in later. We're just talking. We're locked in. If we stay locked in, we'll look great when there's rain coming down and we're on a ship later. But it comes down to this, right? And the more... It was so fun to do those kind of movies.
To this day, you try to be close to the action, connected with the actor that's performing. Because it's like a dance. You end up... That's so good to hear. Remember on Dust Till Dawn, Michael Parks in the opening scene, he's talking about
two guys that are running around killing people just before he gets shot and there's a i just start doing this slow zoom i remember this take eight start doing the slow zoom on him and i'm like i hope i get all the way up to where it stops zooming when he finishes that speech because there's no set way and i don't know how he's going to say but you're just locked almost telepathically and as he's delivered there's no edits he's just going yeah they killed four rangers two hostages
It's just like, wow. And you're just so pulled in. I'm just like, oh my God. And then it stopped. It's like I ran out of Zoom right as he finished that speech.
You know, they just trust that whatever they get from their crew, they just accept it. Just like, you know, you would get to take the thing. There's so much intimacy to that connection. I could not be behind a monitor, even if I had communication with my cameraman. Okay, now start zooming in. You're not going to know. You have to feel it. You have to be in there. It's like a dance.
It's like trying to do a dance with a partner and you're across the room. It's like, no, you got to be there up close, feeling the energy. And it's the creative spirits whispering to you both. It's not your own idea. You're capturing a moment that's magic. And there's true magic that happens on a set. And that's what brings you back. Because you know... I didn't direct that.
And they didn't act that. That came through us and we just had the cameras rolling and we captured a ghost.
It's like that.
Showing 701–720 of 1,180 · page 36 of 59
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