Robert Rodriguez's tips for filmmaking on a low-budget

Robert Rodriguez shot to Hollywood fame soon after making El Mariachi in Mexico for $7,000 with some friends.  His DVD commentary for El Mariachi provides some great tips on how to film a low-budget or no-budget movie.

1. Think of creative ways around spending money.  Refuse to spend money.  Once you start spending money, it's a hose that hard to shut off.  If your friends know that you don't have any money, they won't ask to be paid.
2. Take stock in what you have.  Your father owns a liquor store, make a movie about a liquor store.  Your mom works at a nursing home, make a movie about a nursing home.
3. Use good pieces of a take for action sequences.  Rodriguez filmed on 16mm and didn't have enough money to re-shoot mistakes.  When an actor tossed a guitar onto a balcony and missed, he used the first half of the take when cutting the scene and then showed other angles of the action happening.
4. Use your actors.  Instead of using a film crew, use your actors.  Chances are they are standing around waiting for you to film something.
5. Keep the lighing simple.  Use one or two light setups.  Rodriguez used two 250 watt clamp lights bought cheaply from a hardware store for indoor lighting setups.
6. Get 5 shots in one take.  Use a zoom lens on your camera.  During dialog scenes, zoom in closer for the second line of dialog, then zoom in for an even tighter shot.
7. Borrow equipment, don't buy and don't rent.  Borrow a camera from a friend. Buying and renting are too expensive and will take away money from other small things that can help improve the quality of your movie.
8. Get sound effects after the video takes.  While filming, Rodriguez did other takes without rolling the camera to get natural sound effects for each scene.  Usually on a low-budget movie it's easy to notice bad sound.
9. Film actors with tight schedules separately.  If your friends are acting in your movie and have regular jobs, chances are they don't have time to spend filming for an entire day. When shooting dialog scenes, film each actor separately if time is an issue.
10. Know what you want before you shoot.  When you don't have money, you have to know your movie before you shoot.  Anticipate the scene well enough that you can make editing decisions while shooting to minimize time and money spent.

Want to learn more?

The Robert Rodriguez: 10 Minute Film School (The 1st & Original) - YouTube
"Don't dream about being a filmmaker, you are a filmmaker."
* Creative and technical, you're unstoppable.
* Make a screenplay that you can actually make without having to make your parents poor.
* Watch your movie on a blank screen....Imagine your movie, shot for shot, cut for cut. Write down the shots that you see.
* Stop aspiring.  Start doing.


The Art of making the Movie - YouTube
Behind the scenes of From Dusk Til Dawn.

Robert Rodriguez - Ten Minute Film School - YouTube
Special effects used to save money when making Desperado and Once Upon a Time in Mexico.

Trivia time

El Mariachi was filmed in three weeks in August 1991 and had a limited opening (film festivals) in July 1992.

Desperado was released in 1995 on a $7 million budget and grossed $25 million in the U.S.  It was also filmed in Ciudad Acuña, Coahuíla, Mexico, the same small town that Rodriguez picked to film El Mariachi.

Once Upon a Time in Mexico, released in 2001 was filmed for $29 million, it grossed $56 million in the U.S. and $41 million in other countries. [BoxOfficeMojo]