Title: Rebel without a crew, or, How a 23-year-old filmmaker with $7,000 became a Hollywood player
First published: 1995
Description: In his own exceptionally witty and straight-shooting style, Robert Rodriguez discloses all the unique strategies and innovative techniques he used to make El Mariachi on the cheap - including filming before noon so he wouldn't have to buy the actors lunch. You'll see firsthand Rodriguez's whirlwind, "Mariachi-style" filmmaking, where creativity - not money - is used to solve problems.

Culminating in Robert Rodriguez's "Ten-Minute Film School," this book may render conventional film-school programs obsolete.

Rodriguez also offers an insider's view of the amazing courtship he enjoyed with Hollywood's A-list. It's an entertaining tour of Hollywood's deal-making machine as he navigates you through studio meetings, pitch sessions, and power lunches with the biggest names in the industry. Candidly divulging all the tactics and tempting lures the warring studios used to win him over, he admits that he barely escaped with his movie and his soul intact.

Exploding the conventional wisdom that you need at least a million dollars to make a feature film, Rodriguez's inspiring nuts-and-bolts account features the full El Mariachi shooting script, postproduction tips, film festival anecdotes, and publicity blitz secrets. He clearly demonstrates the countless ways to do for free what the pros spend thousands (or more) on without a second thought.

Rebel Without a Crew is both one man's remarkable story and the essential guide for anyone who has a celluloid story to tell and the dreams and determination to see it through.
Subjects: Diaries, Mariachi (Motion picture), Motion picture producers and directors, Motion pictures, production and direction
Places: United States
People: Robert Rodriguez (1968-)
LC classification: PN1998.3.R633 A3 1995