Rebel Without a Crew: Or How a 23-Year-Old Filmmaker with $7,000 Became a Hollywood PlayerPaperback, 1 September 1996

No one has landed on the cinematic map with more explosive force than Robert Rodriguez, director of "El Mariachi." Just how did this amateur filmmaker from Texas - with only one camera, no crew, and a budget largely raised by subjecting himself to medical experimentation - manage to complete a feature film for $7,000 and get himself wined and dined by Hollywood's biggest movie moguls? Now, in his own witty and straightshooting style, Robert Rodriguez discloses all the unique strategies and innovative techniques he used to make "El Mariachi" on the cheap. You'll see firsthand Rodriguez's whirlwind "Mariachi-style" filmmaking, where creativity-not money -is used to solve problems. Culminating in his "Ten-Minute Film School, " this book may render conventional film-school programs obsolete.