I’ve been a huge fan of Robert Rodriguez for years, and his book “A Rebel Without a Crew” was among the first I’ve recommended to filmmakers, photographers, musicians, and really, anyone working alone or with a very small crew.
I recently listened (again for the nth time) to a fantastic 2-hour interview that Tim Ferriss did with Robert Rodriguez. There are SO many wonderful stories and useful lessons that you should listen to the whole thing. Trust me, every minute is worth your time.
On today’s post I’d like to share the most interesting parts, especially those applicable to the 1 Person Crew approach. Here we go!
“The creative process applies to anything you do.”
“That creative process blows me away and it applies to so much, even if you’re not a director or a filmmaker. The creative process applies to anything you do. How you raise your children, how you cook food, how you run a business. Creativity is so much a part of that.” Robert Rodriguez
“I only do one thing, I live a creative life.“
“When people say “Oh you do so many things. You’re a musician, you’re a painter, you’re the composer, you’re the cinematographer, you’re the editor”…. I go “No, I only do one thing, I live a creative life.” Robert Rodriguez
“Everything can be creative, even a business call.”
“I write my scripts, come up with ideas, while I’m play with my kids, while I’m cooking them a meal, which is a creative exercise, art you can eat.
“When I want to get into a character I might I’ll paint him first, and see visually what he looks like, or musically what he sounds like.”
“Everything can be creative, even a business call. Suddenly you go “this is kind of out of my league” but let me add my creativity to it and maybe I’ll solve something no one else will be able to solve.” Robert Rodriguez
“Stay where you are and come up with something that can be sold.”
“As a film student coming from a family of 10 kids living in Texas people constantly said “if you want to be a filmmaker you need to move to L.A.” Stay where you are and come up with something that can be sold.” Robert Rodriguez
“There’s no separation between work and play”
“When you put creativity in everything, everything becomes available to you. Anything that has a creative aspect is suddenly yours to go and do. And there’s no separation between work and play.” Robert Rodriguez
“Doing a $7,000 movie wasn’t impossible, but nobody had done it before.”
“People kind of forgot that that’s how movies really started. It was always like couple of guys with a wind up camera and Buster Keaton in front. It wasn’t a business yet. When it became a business suddenly everyone had a job and you needed 200 people, because it was now an industry! But that was not what the art form was originally. It was just the manipulation of moving images and you can do that with two people, one person. That was a breakthrough idea.” Robert Rodriguez