Around the time Konk
died I started thinking about creating a more ambitious show, one that
included scripted live bits and funny edited videos. This was long
before youTube, and my first thought was student short films. The
University of Texas film program held a screening a couple times a year
to screen student film projects. These screening were open to the
public, and Ben and I attended to a couple. Most of the films were
either bad or not right for the show, but a few seemed like a good fit
and we approached the film makers about letting us broadcast the film on
our cable show. The answer was always no. They were film students,
and didn't want to have anything to do with television. It really
surprised us.
At the time, the UT film students were
using wind up film cameras and being taught to edit film by taking a
razor blade to their master footage. They had no interest in video at
all, it was a dead end.
Not long after that, Ben comes
back to White Boys Central with a videotape he got from work. He was
working at the Austin Chronicle and they had sponsored a short film
competition in conjunction with the UT film dept. He brought home a tape
by one of the winners called 'Austin Stories'. Robert Rodriguez was a
UT student who had been rejected from the film department because of
grades, and entered the contest to show the heads of the film department
what he could do.
He won, beating out many of the junior and senior film students who were in the UT film program.
He
won because the 3 shorts he created were great. Robert had been making
short videos for several years and it showed. The energy, the pacing,
the shot composition were all top notch. They really blew us away, but
one thing stood out to me. The shorts were shot on video, edited on
video, and had the style and energy of the stuff we were doing on
Access.
I had to get them on the show.
Ben got his contact info and we called him up. He said yes... immediately. No hesitation.
We
went to his place to pick up the tape and met his wife Elizabeth. Cute
couple. We hit it off immediately. Robert quizzed us on Access and we
got the story on him. I'm not sure who was more impressed. He was
blown away by the idea that you had access to high end video equipment
and and an opportunity to put your stuff on TV, and we were fascinated
by his story.
'Austin Stories' was a series of 3 short
films, and they were all shot on a home video camera using (primarily)
his siblings as actors. He had a big family. There was a piece missing
though, and I asked him how he edited them, because there were a lot of
edits and some sequences had a background music track. His response,
"Flying erase head"... I could put a long geeky explanation here about
this, but just suffice it to say that he shot these award winning short
films on a home camcorder, and edited them on two home VCRs by hitting
record on one machine and pausing and un-pausing while hand syncing with
the other machine.... Insane.
The other news was that he
was accepted into UT film program. After beating their best and
brightest he went to the head of the department and plead his case
successfully. So, he was off to learn the 'right way' to make movies
and we were off to broadcast 'Austin Stories'.
The shorts were a hit. We ran them several times.
A
few months later Robert came back to us with his film one project. Let
me start by saying that all film one projects suck. They were given a
wind up Bolex camera, a very limited amount of film, all sound had to be
recorded after the fact, and the edit bay included a roll of scotch
tape and a pair of scissors.
Surprise, it was good. He made a fun little silent film homage starring his siblings.
We showed it, it also got a great reaction.
Robert
about this time was getting frustrated with film school... he already
knew how to make movies, he just wanted access to the film equipment.
At the same time he saw all the toys we had and wanted to get in on that
action. For his next film project, he wanted to cut it on video. He
thought that it was crazy that they were making him physically cut up
his master footage.
It was going to take some time for
Robert to get cleared on the edit equipment, but I was up there most
nights. The equipment room closed down around 10 and the security guard
locked us in and went home. There were limits to the number of hours
you could book a week, but if you booked the last hour before they
closed up, you could stay there all night and take up as many edit bays
that were available. Most nights I was up there all night long... So I
would sneak Robert in and let him edit in one of the empty bays. Five
minutes of showing him the basics and he was off and running.
Next
up, he shot a great short called 'Bedhead', and he had a plan going
in. He was going to shoot it on film with the school's equipment, but
pay extra money out of his own pocket to get the film transferred to
3/4" video. This would allow him to get the look of film but all the
benefits of the modern linear tape editing system. Robert was raised on
MTV. Quick, precise cuts, often edited to driving background music
track. That was his style, and he had perfected his technique by
editing video. He saw the future and cutting film on an editing bench
was not it.
By the time he finished editing 'Bedhead', he
had finished all the required ACTV classes and was free to book his own
time. We screened Bedhead many times on the show, and it always got a
great reaction. He started sending it out to film festivals, and it
started winning... cash prizes. He ended up making back his production
costs and a little more.
His last project at UT was a
short called 'Pretty Good Man'. It wasn't his script, he wasn't
technically the director, but you could see his fingers all over it.
Most prominently on the opening credits which were drawn and animated by
Robert and his wife Elizabeth. He came on the show with his friends
from film school to screen it, and it was on this episode that he
spilled that he was planning to go shoot a feature in Mexico in the
summer. He was mum on many of the details, but it was clear that he had
a plan, and he was heading south for the summer.
While
his film student classmates were talking about finishing film school,
moving to L.A or N.Y.C., and getting a job as an assistant to an
assistant to someone who had the job they really wanted, Robert was
planning to take the summer off and make a Spanish language feature in
Mexico.
He had this idea that he could make a feature and
sell it to a Mexican distributor for $20,000, and if he could make the
movie for $10,000, he could use the $10,000 profit to make another
movie. Making shorts was OK, but if he wanted to be a real director, he
had to make a feature. One bonus of making it in Spanish, was that if
it sucked, nobody would see it. He could make 3 or 4 of these movies
and in the process, he would learn a lot more about film making that any
college class could ever teach him.
Every couple weeks
Robert and I would end up running into each other and he'd give me an
update. The script was written... he had the key actors... the date was
scheduled... He was a little worried about the camera. He needed to
rent one, and then there was the insurance, which might have been more
complicated since he had to take it across the border... And he
couldn't afford the camera that he wanted, so he was going to have to
settle for lower quality camera...
"You know Robert," I say, "I happen to have a 16 millimeter film camera sitting in my living room."
"What do you mean?"
"Just that, I have a camera, and I'm not using it."
"What kind of camera is it?"
"I don't know, it's big.. it's an ari something"
"Arriflex?"
"Yeah, that's it"
"OK... you're saying that you have an Arriflex 16MM film camera... at your house... right now...?"
"Yeah, why don't you come by later and check it out."
... and he did... and he was very happy.
We'll back up a second... there's a little story here.
I
had a friend who got me on a video crew shooting crowd reaction shots
on a state-wide satellite broadcast. The gig was fairly tedious, but the
pay was good and it looked good on the resume. When the shoot was
over, we had to take the equipment back to the warehouse. It was my
first time there and the place was piled high with crap. We stow the
equipment and I'm wandering around while my friend finishes up.
I
spot about a half dozen equipment cases stacked up in the corner, and I
open one. The case is covered in dust, but inside is a film camera.
At this point, I know my way around most consumer, industrial, and
professional video cameras, but I had never touched a film camera like
this. I call my friend over and ask him about the cases. He explains
that the production company is all video now, but years ago they used to
shoot all their commercial work on film. They probably hadn't opened
these cases in a decade. I ask him if they work. He figures they
probably do, but the battery packs are probably shot.
So... then I ask if I could borrow one.
He says "Sure... Nobody would miss it, just bring it back in the same condition."
A
few weeks later, Robert Rodriguez is walking out the front door of
White Boys Central carrying a case, and he has a big grin on his face.
He's able to get new battery packs, and test the camera. The film comes back looking good, and he's all set to go.
I
only see him one more time before he leaves. He stops by to show us a
severed head. If you've seen the movie, there is a dream sequence and
in it the Mariachi's head rolls into the frame. Robert had befriended a
special effects makeup artist, and he loaned Robert the head for the
movie. He showed us bits of the story-boarded script, and then he was
off.
A few weeks pass, Robert is in Mexico with the camera, and my phone rings...
It's my friend.
He says, "Hey Keith, I need to get that camera back."
"Um... OK... why?"
"Oh the boss decided that he wanted to clean up the warehouse and found the cameras, he wants to sell them off."
"Really... Can I buy it?"
"No, he doesn't want to sell them individually, he wants to sell them in a bundle."
"Oh, OK... When do you need it back?"
"Oh today or tomorrow would be fine..."
"OK, well... Can I call you back in a little bit?"
"Can you get a message to him? Cause I need to get the camera back to the guy I borrowed it from as soon as possible"
"I'll see what I can do."
... yikes...
It all works out, within 72 hours, the camera's back in Austin, and Robert was able to get the shots he needed.
He
gets the film processed and transferred to 3/4" tape and starts
cutting. First he cuts a trailer and brings it down to the show. We're
blown away. We play it on the show and everybody loves it. Austin is a
film town, and the callers are really responding to it.
While
hanging out, Robert hears some music we're playing by Marc Trujillo,
and asks about it. I give him Marc's number and Marc composes some
soundtrack music for the flick. I didn't know Marc very well, he was
really my friend Gray Miller's buddy, but there was just a lot of talent
bubbling up around that time, and it's funny how the connections got
made.
Then he went away for a few months to cut the film. I saw him here and there, and he always looked beat.
He
finally came to me and said he was putting the credits on, and wanted
to know how I wanted to be listed. Since my big contribution was the
camera, and I was not supposed to have the camera, much less loan it to a
friend to take to Mexico... I said, just make it a special thanks to
"The White Boys"
He had another problem. The contract you
make with Access states that the product you create with Access
equipment, has to air on Access first. Once it's aired, you can do what
you want with it. You have two ways of getting a show on the channels,
submit a tape to programming or schedule live time. The problem with
submitting a tape, is that taped submissions would go into the library
to be played back whenever Programming saw fit. He wanted to be clear
with Access, but he didn't want them to have a copy, in case it might
mess up any deal to sell it.
"No problem", I say. We'll just have the World Premiere on my live show.
This
way he fulfills the contract with Access and does not lose control of
his ability to sell it. I'll need to add a hour on to my normal
scheduled live time, and that will take a couple weeks, but it's not a
big deal.
A few nights before the show, I get a call, and
Robert has quite a story to tell. I seems that in the last 10 days, his
whole world has exploded. He got the tape to a guy in L.A. That guy
starts showing it around, and before you know it, it's the talk of the
town. More importantly though, Stephen Spielberg has requested a copy,
but he wants one with subtitles. I'm more familiar with the edit
equipment, and he wants to know if it's possible to do on the Access
edit machines.
"...No... well... not really. You can't do
it in the edit bays, but you might be able to do it on the CG in the
main studio. You'd have to lose a generation to do it... Do you have
Main Studio Certification?"
"No"
"Well, I've got time scheduled tonight, come on down and we'll figure it out."
It
turned out to be fairly easy, luckily since Robert was not shooting
sync sound on Mariachi, he kept the dialogue to a minimum. He worked at
Mark's desk while I finished the prep for that week's show. It was a
long night.
Premiere night went off without a hitch, we did the show, showed the movie, and then an impromptu interview after.
If
you watch the tape from that night, a couple things stick out, first
that the movie is just great, very close to the theatrical release, and
second, that there is an annoying copyright notice that keeps coming
up. Robert insisted on this because he said that on one trip to Mexico
to sell his short film 'Bedhead' to a Mexican TV distribution house,
they said that they already bought it. After much discussion, they
showed him the tape they bought, and it was indeed his short film...
with a little tag in the lower corner of the screen that said "White
Noise". Someone, evidently had taped the short off our broadcast, and
went to Mexico and sold it. Crazy.
Then Robert went to
L.A. and we didn't see him again for quite a while. The company that
bought the film wanted to release it into theaters, and he spent months
and several hundred thousand dollars get to a film cut made.
One
day, I get a call. They're finishing up the movie, and it's credit time
again... and someone at the studio is uncomfortable putting a credit to
"The White Boys" on the film. They're pushing the Latin angle hard in
the press and it doesn't seem right that the 'One Man Show' that is
Robert Rodriguez needed help from some white boys. I laugh, and say it
doesn't really matter anymore. He puts my name and Ben's name in the
credits and that's how I got my one and only IMDB credit. :)
Robert
published a diary about the making of El Mariachi called 'Rebel without
a crew', and I appear a number of times in it. The only story he left
out was the one about the subtitles, and in a funny way that's the one
I'm most proud of.
Robert would have made El Mariachi
without ever meeting me. He would have found or rented a camera, he
would have figured out an editing solution, and eventually he would have
been a successful Hollywood director, but he had an offer of $25,000
from a Mexican distributor for the movie. He almost took the deal, but
they were slow in getting him the check, and in that time he started to
get noticed in L.A.
He had a compelling story... young kid makes a $7,000 action film... but Hollywood don't speak Spanish.
I
may be wrong, but I think that exhausting night we spent putting
subtitles on the film really helped the buzz about the movie spread,
because it was seeing the movie that sold you on his talent, and as that
tape was passed around Hollywood, I wonder how many people would have
given it a chance without subtitles.
One last bit. When
the 3rd Mariachi movie debuted in Austin at the Paramount, Robert asked
my wife and I to be there. After the movie, he did a Q&A and in his
opening remarks he ask me to stand up. He introduced me to a packed
house and said that if it weren't for me that Mariachi would probably
not have been made.
That was very kind of him to say. As I
said before, he would have made that film anyway. Robert had both the
talent and the single-minded focus that it takes to be successful. I'm
just glad that I had a front row seat to witness it.