Guerilla Filmfare: El Mariachi
Written by James Bunn
While the history of no-budget cinema goes as far back as the early 60’s, the 90’s in particular saw an entire generation of filmmakers redefining the phrase “less is more”. This new class of auteurs were crafting micro budget masterpieces by any means necessary, proving cinema only required three ingredients — a camera, a vision, and ambition. Whatever was lacking in resources was replaced with critical thinking and creativity. A number of these homebred flicks would ultimately result in critical praise at festivals, distribution deals, and job offers from actual film studios. In 1992, a twenty three year old filmmaker from Austin, Texas would take Hollywood by storm with his own homemade film, made in a manner most would think impossible. Armed with seven thousand dollars, a borrowed camera, a couple of lights, and a tape recorder, Robert Rodriguez would craft his debut film El Mariachi with no crew and a cast of non-actors. He would not only serve as writer and director, but also the cinematographer, camera operator, picture editor, sound recordist, sound editor, et cetera.
SYNOPSIS
El Mariachi is a fast paced action flick about an unnamed traveling musician, whose dream has always been to make a living with his art. Looking for work, he visits a bar and accidentally trades guitar cases with a ruthless criminal. Unbeknownst to him, the guitar case is full of guns and ultimately embroils him in a case of mistaken identity. Fitting the description of the target of a hit put out by a local drug lord, the mariachi must use his new found instruments to protect himself at all costs.
BACKGROUND
Before the production of his feature length debut, Rodriguez would spend the decade prior making short films with a video camera and an editing system composed of two VCRs. During his time at the University of Texas at Austin, he would create his award winning 8-minute short Bedhead for eight hundred dollars, maximizing all the techniques he had taught himself over the years. With the success of Bedhead, Rodriguez decided it was time to start practicing making features. If he could make an eight-minute short for eight hundred dollars, he could theoretically make an eighty-minute feature for around eight thousand.
CONCEPTION
The initial plan was simple — make a trilogy of low budget Spanish language action films, sell them to the Spanish home video Market, then cut the best footage from all together as a demo reel to get financing for a real movie. This method was to ensure he could get the experience necessary before trying to work in the actual movie business. The trilogy itself would be based around a musician with a guitar case full of weapons known as “El Mariachi”. To help with this new venture, he enlisted the help with his childhood best friend Carlos Gallardo.
FINANCING
Though often reported as an even seven thousand dollars, the exact budget of the production was $7,225. Three thousand of it was secured during a, now legendary, month-long drug trial at a local medical research facility. The rest of the budget would be made up of personal savings and cash prizes from numerous festivals Bedhead was winning at. Ultimately, the goal was to complete the entire picture for no more than ten thousand. Upon securing the rights to distribution, Columbia Pictures would invest another two hundred thousand on the post-production necessary to release the film theatrically, and later home video.
EQUIPMENT
The lack of crew would result in a minimal list of equipment. The camera of choice would be a borrowed Arriflex 16s with a Kinoptik Tégéa 5.7mm f1.8 Lens and an Angenieux HEC Zoom Lens. The footage would be captured on Kodak 400ft 16mm film stock, twelve rolls of indoor stock and thirteen rolls of outdoor stock. Sound would be captured using a Marantz tape recorder and RadioShack microphone on standard ⅛” stereo cassette tapes. Indoor lighting would be achieved by two clip-on modelling lamps and lightbulbs balanced for indoor film stock. Natural light would be utilized outdoors, as all exteriors would be shot during the daytime exclusively. Other miscellaneous tools included homemade blood squibs, a pulley crafted by a local blacksmith and a wheelchair as a makeshift dolly.
PRE-PRODUCTION
To avoid wasting money and/or going over-budget, Rodriguez wrote the screenplay around production value already available at no extra cost. The decided shooting location would be Carlos’ hometown of Ciudad Acuña, Mexico. Here they had free access to a ranch owned by Carlos’ parents, two bars, a bus with a bus driver, and a jail for interior scenes, with exterior shots captured at various locations around town. With the assistance and oversight of local law enforcement, they had access to weapons. The most important prop and centerpoint of the plot would come in the form of a used guitar case. Carlos’ pitbull and a turtle were also included to give the illusion they had an animal wrangler on set. Casting would consist of Carlos as the titular Protagonist & Peter Marquardt, whom Rodriguez became acquainted with at the medical research facility, as the main protagonist Moco. The two supporting characters most significant to the plot, Azul & Dominó, would be played by non-actors Reinol Martínez & Consuelo Gómez. The rest of the cast, mostly non speaking, would be played by various town locals.
PRODUCTION
Principal photography took place over fourteen shooting days in the summer of 1991. A shooting ratio of 1:1 was implemented to avoid wasting film stock, with reshoots to be planned only if certain shots didn’t come outright. Plans for reshoots never materialized and were ultimately not necessary. Having an imaginary final cut already in his head, Rodriguez “edited in the camera” by shooting in short bursts capturing all the necessary angles and distances along the way. This not only helped conserve film stock, it also gave the illusion it had been captured with more equipment and crew. The main obstacle the production faced was in regards to sound. The downfall of the Arriflex was the motor was too loud to allow for recording audio simultaneously. The only work around for this was to shoot each scene twice. The first take would be the scene shot silently with the camera, while the second take would be acted in front of the microphone and tape recorder, both being synced later on in post. To necessitate meeting the desired runtime, Rodriguez would shoot footage that resulted in various nightmare sequences throughout the story. In fact, most of the seemingly creative choices happened out of circumstance and limitations. While the shoot was originally intended to last three to four weeks, but the owner of the camera needed it back by a certain date. After shooting wrapped, Rodriguez headed back to Austin to begin post-production.
POST-PRODUCTION
Post-production commenced at a public access television studio in Austin, Texas. Frustrated with the expense and troublesome process of cutting on celluloid, Rodriguez opted to have his film negative transferred to ¾” VHS and cut a master on video. Before entering the cutting room, Rodriguez would also cut a rough version of the film as a guide to save time. With the footage and audio captured separately, the sound would be manually synced and transferred to another generation of tape. In working with non-actors, the sound and picture tapes would often match up with ease due to the individual speaking in their own consistent rhythm. If there were any moments dialogue fell out of sync, there would be a cut to a reaction shot or other nonverbal happenings in the scene. A troublesome obstacle arose when adding the music and sound effects after the picture was fully edited. VHS tapes only have stereo sound, allowing for a maximum of two audio tracks. The only way to add more layers was transferring to another tape.
This transfer resulted in one side as the main track and the other free to record over and add new layers. Each transfer resulted in generational degradation of the picture. The musical score was provided by five different musicians, including Robert’s own cousin Alvaro and brother Cecil. The majority of the music was guitar based instruments and mariachi pieces performed by the titular character. Those pieces were all recorded by Rodriguez using the same tape recorder and microphone used during production. One composition, however, was a dramatic and layered ambient piece by Robert’s friend Marc Trujillo. This piece was made at Marc’s four track home studio with multiple instruments, including a sampler and was used in all the of the nightmare sequences.
RESULTS
The final cut of El Mariachi resulted in an action packed bonanza with quick cuts and equally quick wit, clocking in at a lean eighty one minutes. It’s hard to categorize the film as a whole, as it is a kaleidoscopic blend of neo-western aesthetics, exploitation film violence, arthouse imagery, and slight bits of campy humor. As a director, Rodriguez clearly has a mastery of getting the right performances by simply trusting his actors, despite none of them having prior experience. Carlos’ performance in particular was virtuosic, striking a perfect balance between charm, wit, and charisma. The main highlight of the film, however, is the cinematography and editing. Rodriguez’s eye behind the camera effortlessly extracts grace and beauty out of the constant chaos, especially during the film’s nightmare sequences, while the precision and tempo of the editing could only be rivalled by the likes of Walter Murch. Despite being rough around the edges at moments, El Mariachi still shows more promise and vision than many other films made with multimillion dollar budgets and dozens of crew members.
DISTRIBUTION
After the final cut of the film was prepared, Robert & Carlos headed to Los Angeles, CA to attempt to secure a distribution deal. During their stay in LA, Team Mariachi visited Spanish home video distributors Film-Mex, Mex-American, Million Dollar Video, MexCinema and Cine-Mex. After numerous meetings Mex-American offered to purchase El Mariachi for twenty five thousand dollars. While the contracts we’re being drafted, Robert ended up in a meeting with Robert Newmann of ICM (International Creative Management) to give him a demo tape with a trailer for El Mariachi and his short Bedhead. After viewing the trailer, Newman demanded to see the full feature. Upon viewing El Mariachi in full, Newman immediately signed Rodriguez as a client of ICM. Once word got out and more industry personnel saw Mariachi, Rodriguez became a hot commodity. After being courted by the likes of Disney, Paramount, & Tristar, Robert would ultimately sign with Columbia Pictures. Since the contracts from Mex-American never arrived, Columbia would purchase the distribution rights to El Mariachi.
Columbia loved the film so much, they offered to make a film print and screen it. Having only ever viewed it as a practice film, Robert was resistant in the beginning, but would warm up to the idea since Columbia was paying to have a 35mm print made. After successful test screenings, Mariachi would be shown at the Telluride, Toronto, & Sundance film festivals. At Toronto he would make friends with Quentin Tarantino, who had just made Reservoir Dogs. At Sundance, two other no budget films were in competition, Laws of Gravity by Nick Gomez & The Living End by Gregg Araki. Despite debuting in 1992, El Mariachi would go on to win the Audience Award at the 1993 Sundance Film Festival and Best First Feature at the 1994 Independent Spirit Awards.
RELEASE AND AFTERMATH
After the festival circuit, El Mariachi would release in theatres and make upwards of two million at the box office. This success would be replicated with the release of both subbed and dubbed versions on home video. Post-Mariachi, Robert Rodriguez would go on to have a very fruitful career. Carlos would continue collaborating with Rodriguez behind the scenes and in small roles on a number of projects over the years. Peter Marquardt would reprise his role as Moco ,in a flashback sequence, for the 1995 follow up Desperado, play a minor role in 2003’s Spy kKds 3-d: Game Over, and star in 2011’s The Shadow People before his untimely death in 2014. None of the other cast members would pursue careers in film after. El Mariachi would get not one, but two sequels starring Antonio Banderas in the lead role. The original, along with 1995’s Desperado and 2003’s Once Upon a Time in Mexico would become known as “The Mexico Trilogy”, named in tribute to Sergio Leone’s “Dollars Trilogy”. In an effort to promote the use of hispanic talent, He would introduce Hollywood audiences to Salma Hayek and regularly cast the likes of Antonio Banderas, Danny Trejo, and Cheech Marin.
In the early 2000’s, he would simultaneously create the successful Spy Kids family film franchise and adapt Frank Miller’s Sin City with Miller himself co-directing. He collaborated with best friend Quentin Tarantino on the 1996 film From Dusk Till Dawn and again in 2007 on a project called Grindhouse, which saw the two directors each making a film to release together as a double feature. 2019 saw the release of Alita: Battle Angel, based on the manga series Battle Angel Alita. From a screenplay co-written by James Cameron, Alita would be the first film Rodriguez would make as director only. It took almost 30 years, but the Rebel Without a Crew finally worked with a crew. 2019 would also see Rodriguez returning to his roots with Red 11*, a film based on his legendary stay at a medical research facility, made for $7000 dollars.
Realizing others could learn a lot from his experience, Rodriguez published the journal written around the Mariachi production as the book Rebel Without a Crew or How a 23-Year-Old With $7000 Became a Hollywood Player. To this day, that book and the film itself are inspiring aspiring filmmakers everywhere. The story of El Mariachi is a unique combination of dumb luck and calculated risk. Though it’s not something easily replicated, it proves the best way to accomplish anything is to just go out and do it.
*At the time this article was written, Red 11 has yet to be released for public consumption
REFERENCES:
1. Rodriguez, Robert (1996). Rebel Without a Crew: Or How a 23-Year-Old Filmmaker With $7,000 Became a Hollywood Player. Dutton Signet. ISBN 0-452-27187-8.
2. Broderick, Peter. “The ABC’s of No Budget Filmmaking.” Filmmaker Magazine, Winter 1992/1993 https://peterbroderick.com/writing/writing/abcsofnobudgetfilmmaking.html
James Bunn is a content creator with a passion for 70's cinema, low budget indie flicks and the filmmaking process. He hopes to, one day, transition from appreciating films to making his own. He currently releases music under the alias Boutique Paul and is a host, composer, and sound engineer for The K Cut & Prefer Not To Say Podcast.