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.

Robert Rodriguez directing El Mariachi as a 1 Person Crew.

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

The hottest current global trend in visual storytelling involves productions where one person is required to be the filmmaker, photographer, sound engineer, producer, director, and even editor, often working on shoestring budgets, minimal gear, and tight deadlines.

After circling the globe for 18 months, and having traveled to 61 countries very often working as a one-person crew, I’ve developed a fair amount of tricks, fine-tuned my workflows, and learned to do more with less.

Why me and why now?

Great question with multiple answers. First, I believe that education is the strongest currency one can own. Second, there’s no crew smaller than one, and nobody wants to travel with more or heavier gear. And third, I’d like to create the content I wish I had available when I was getting started, 18 years ago as a photographer, and over a decade as a filmmaker.

In addition to honest “from the trenches” experiences I’d like to share the most relevant techniques covered on my books, online courses and workshops, but from a very practical and (hopefully) useful perspective.

I also plan to tackle subjects like “adding production value through camera movement” or “mastering 4K workflows on the road”, and break them down into a few core principles that people can understand and utilize.

My ultimate goal is that anyone involved in run and gun scenarios like weddings, NGO, corporate and sporting events, documentaries, red carpet premieres, product launches, tutorials, video podcasts, and even short films benefits from the content on this site.

Category: Storytelling

Robert Rodriguez explains the 1 Person Crew approach.