#465 – Robert Rodriguez: Sin City, Desperado, El Mariachi, Alita, and Filmmaking
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Who is Robert Rodriguez and what is his filmmaking background?
The following is a conversation with Robert Rodriguez, a legendary filmmaker and creator of Sin City, El Mariachi, Desperado, Spy Kids, Machete, From Dusk Till Dawn, Alita, Battle Angel, The Faculty, and many more. Robert inspired a generation of independent filmmakers with his first film, El Mariachi, that he famously made for just $7,000. On that film, in many sense, he was not only the director, he was also the writer, producer, cinematographer, editor, visual effects supervisor, sound designer, composer, basically the full stack of filmmaking. He has shown incredible versatility across genres, including action, horror, family films, and sci-fi, with some epic collaborations with Quentin Tarantino, James Cameron, and many other legendary actors and filmmakers. He has often operated at the technological cutting edge, pioneering using HD filmmaking, digital backlots, and 3D tech.
And always, through all of that, he's been a champion of independent filmmaking, running his own studio here in Austin, Texas, which, in many ways, is very far away from Hollywood. He's building a new thing now called Brass Knuckle Films, where he's opening up the filmmaking process so that fans can be a part of it as he creates his next four action films. I'll probably go hang out at his film studio a bunch as this is all coming to life. His work has inspired a very large number of people, including me, to be more creative in whatever pursuit you take on in life and have fun doing it. And now, a quick few second mention of each sponsor. Check them out in the description. It's the best way to support this podcast.
We got InVideoAI for video generation. Brain.fm for focus. NetSuite for business. Shopify for e-commerce. And Element for hydration. Choose wisely, my friends. I do try to make these ad reads interesting and personal, often related to stuff I'm reading or thinking about. But if you must skip them, please still check out the sponsors. Sign up, buy whatever they're selling. I enjoy their stuff. Maybe you will too. Also, if you want to get in touch with me for whatever reason, go to lexman.com contact. And now onto the full ad reads. Let's go. This episode is brought to you by InVideo AI, a video generating app that allows you to create full-length videos using just text prompts. Perhaps, obviously, InVideo is the perfect sponsor for this conversation with Robert Rodriguez.
He has been, for decades, the guy willing to use cutting-edge technology. Digital, HD, VR, 3D. And now we're in a time and a space where it's not quite used by the big filmmakers because they're not really sure how to leverage its power. And so I think it's really the role of the independent filmmakers to start playing with video generation. Start playing five seconds, ten seconds at a time, seeing what you can do in a storytelling art form. I do think it's a skill I've used in video a lot. There's some aspect of it, you have to kind of nudge the system into that direction. I mean, it really is like having two directors. And there's things that humans are really good at, and there's things that AI is really good at.
The dance between the two is where the art form is. Anyway, you can try NVIDIA AI for free, saving you lots of time and money you'd otherwise spend on editing, animating, and other production costs. Go to nvidia.io slash lexpod. That's nvidia.io slash lexpod. This episode is also brought to you by Brain.fm, a platform that offers music specifically made for focus. I remember thinking that focus or the lack of focus was 100% the consequence of your mind and nothing else. That you should be able to shut off the world and deeply focus on a particular thought or line of thought or on nothingness or on your breath, like you do in meditation. You should be able to do that just with the power of your mind. And in some sense, I still believe that.
But I think there's just some things that make it easier. I first discovered that, I don't know how long ago now, but listening to different kinds of noise, white noise, brown noise, and realizing, whoa, something is happening here. The mind is just much more naturally, much quicker, much more efficiently able to achieve that state of focus where you shut off the rest of the world.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
Who is Robert Rodriguez and what is his filmmaking background?
0:00–13:41
2
How did Robert Rodriguez manage explosions and one-take shots in his movies?
13:41–28:51
3
What lessons does Robert Rodriguez share about success, failure, and creativity?
28:51–47:10
4
How did Robert Rodriguez make 'El Mariachi' on a low budget and what challenges did he face?
47:10–1:36:24
5
What is Robert Rodriguez's approach to creativity and multiple filmmaking roles?
1:36:24–3:34:51
Speakers
3 identifiedMore from Lex Fridman Podcast
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