Rebel Without a Crew: Or How a 23-Year-Old Filmmaker with $7,000 Became a Hollywood Player Book

In his own witty and straight-shooting style, Robert Rodriguez discloses all the 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 witness Rodriguez's whirlwind, 'Mariachi-style' filmmaking, where creativity—not money—is used to solve problems. Culminating in his "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. 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, this nuts-and-bolts account features the full "El Mariachi" shooting script, postproduction tips, film festival anecdotes, and publicity blitz secrets. He 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 determination to see it through.

When Columbia Pictures picked up Rodriguez's low-budget independent film, El Mariachi, and offered him a million-dollar contract, the rules of the Hollywood game were irrevocably changed. Complete with a shooting script of the film, this book is both one man's remarkable story and an essential guide for anyone who has a celluloid story to tell--and the determination to see it through. Photos.