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Summary: The best book I ever read on filmmaking.
Review: REBEL WITHOUT A CREW was simply the best book I ever read about filmmaking. It inspired me to make my own ultra low-budget film (THE PIG FARM) and to create a website where I keep journal entries about my progress in the same way Robert Rodrigues does it in his book. Every young filmmaker or would-be filmmaker with no money should read this book. It's fun, funny, informative and extremely inspirational. You too can do what Robert did. I'm living proof. Read the book and find out how. - Michael Lee Barlin, Director, Writer, Producer of THE PIG FARM - 35mm Feature Film
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Summary: Fun romp through making a movie, seems all too easy...
Review: Robert Rodriguez has been billed as a 23 y.o. amateur, but he has been cutting film since he was 10. He has had 13 years of experience-success is never overnight. The book is fun, and glosses over the nitty-gritty. It purports to give an idea of how to make a film but it gives the barest glances at the upcoming boom in low-budget filmmaking, when everything will go digital. It does have a lot of information on how he made the movie, how he paid for it. He will do anything to get the movie done! The movie gives a peek into Hollywood, but stays respectful: Rodriguez is at a place where he still needs friends in the biz.
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Summary: An excellent book for the beginning filmmaker
Review: Rodriguez proves how heart and desire are more important in making a movie than equipment and technology. This book is a must read for any filmmaker or even anyone who simply loves watching movies. This book is funny and sharp, yet didactic and straightforward. The reader of this book will learn more than spending a semester in a film course at a major university. Pick up the book and rent the movie.
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Summary: I read this and was INSPIRED! Tony Robbins would have been..
Review: Great listing of the hardships it takes to achieve your dreams. This book is to the point, well written, and will inspire you to take the no-nonsense, sell your body to science, go out and do it approach to filmmaking. This book also chronicles the amazing story (in itself) of the making of El Mariachi for 7 grand. He inspires the reader by showing how anyone can do what he did to make it to the top. I turned the last page ready to sell my body to science! One of my favorites on filmmaking.
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Summary: The best practical book on low-budget filmaking ever
Review: This book was exceptional. Clear and to the point it delivers tons of good tips to independent filmmakers. I'd deffinitley recomend it to a friend.
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Summary: INSPIRATION FOR ALL FILMMAKERS
Review: I found this book to be very inspiring. Rodriquez tells his story with a lot of humor. After finishing this book I felt like I could make a film and to hell with whoever stood in my way. I whole-heartedly recommend this book.
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Summary: Very good read for wannabe filmakers...absolute must!
Review: This book is very informative without being boring. It takes an often complicated businessBRand makes it easy to understand. PRobert Rodriguez is truly an inspiration to up and coming filmakers like myself,his ten-minute film school is almost shockingly easy to learn from,and his exploits at the research hospital to raise the money for the making of EL MARIACHI is very funny and almost sureal.Speaking of which I am still trying to decide if i'm willing to go to the lengths that Robert did to get the moneyBRfor my first feature.Becoming a leatural lab experiment is not something that appeals to BRme...at least not at this time.
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Summary: A must for every new filmmaker !
Review: This book depicts very well how it is to make a film with a very low budget and no crew. It is also interesting how he got his way into Hollywood. The book is written in a very nice style, I just love it ! :) :) TWO THUMBS UP !!!! :) :)
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Summary: More realistic then it looks.
Review: The most important thing about this book are the things it tells you that some people may be tempted to ignore. Joe Queenan, who tried to follow in our hero's footsteps by making a $ 7,000 film of his own, followed none of the lessons in this book and totally missed the point. As a result, he wound up making a tremendously disappointing $ 65,000 film instead. (Search for 'The Unkindest Cut' for his story). The author cut his teeth on video, which in my mind was the ideal medium. It's cheap, and you can gain a lot of experience that way without spending that much money. We high tech types can always buy a Canon XL-1 or similar camera, which is capable of quality levels approaching film. So it's incorrect to say that our hero had no film experience, although most of the people he hired didn't. He became amazingly lucky, but something people might not have noticed is that his original plan was sound and realistic. Make three films, distribute them in a market that was dying for films regardless of quality, and step up in quality and budget as he learned. Then, with a portfolio of three films that made modest amounts of money, present yourself to the studios. The story of how fate managed to get him an agent and short-circuit the whole process was hilarious and incredible. But I don't think aspiring filmmakers should forget that he had a sound original plan, not something built on dreams. I highly recommend this book to anybody interested in understanding how to make an inexpensive film on your own. Personally, I think video would be a much better medium for most people reading his book. The overwhelming majority of the initial $ 7,000 cost were related to buying and processing film. It was actually edited originally as a video to stay within the budget and to be sellable as a video in stores. Taking the original negatives and re-cutting them as a film was what cost the $100k Columbia put into it for distribution. It's worth looking at Joe Queenan's film as a counterpoint: He, not being as cheap, rented better equipment and as a result got synch sound (which saved much of the expensive post-production). However, his editing and other post-production cost about half of the total budget of the film, thanks to the high cost of renting film studio time. Had he bought video equipment and released it as a video, he could have saved a great deal of that.
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Summary: A KEEPER
Review: I'll cut to the chase: I bought this book a few years ago and I haven't stopped reading it yet! A great book to keep on the shelf for reference and entertainment. Rodriguez is telling a wonderful, inspirational story and the guy knows how to write. Perhaps the most useful of all is his 10-minute Film School chapter. I can't imagine anyone with an interest in this field not reading this book.
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