Excerpts From An Interview with Robert Rodriguez

In a summer of sequels, "Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams," can stand proud and tall. The second installment of Spy Kids, has bigger effects and is more innovative then the last. SK2 brings back the Cortez spy family to face yet another world saving adventure, while giving both kids and adults a wonderful magical ride along the way. The creative freshness of this movie can only be attributed to the genius of Robert Rodriguez, the director, writer, producer, director of photography, production designer-is there anything this guy doesn't do!-and composer. Robert has been able to consistently push the envelope of technology, and unlike other directors, has kept his budget from the first installment to the second, the same. He depends on creativity and not money to bring the story to life. He is an incredible talent, and truly an auteur.

Were you trying to make a Ray Harryhausen movie in part here?

RR: Ooohhh, I've always wanted to do one, and I used to think, I want to make my Sinbad movie someday. "Jason and the Argonauts" and then when I was doing Spy kids I realized, wow if we do a Spy Kids 2, I can make that Ray Harryhausen movie. It won't be dependant on being on its own and since it's part of a sequel it would be easier to get it made, and there are actually spies in this kind of thing that would go great together. You can load them up with gadgets then strip all the gadgets away and make them go on an old fashion Ray Harryhausen adventure. So definitely, definitely wanted to do that and go more old school with the look, so it felt more like stop motion and not look so Jurassic Parky.

So that wasn't pure animation?

Pure animation that took out all the blurry frames, laugh, just took out the blur frames. Especially in the lead character, the ape guy, I thought would be more personable, you know when he throws him the food? You know that he is a good guy because he moves like in stop motion.

Now the first one you were working with a relatively limited budget and you had to improvised and sort of come up with stuff that looked bigger than before then on this one..

RR: Oh yeah, even more so on this one. Even more so cause I didn't get more money. I asked for the same budget. Cause even though there was more than twice as many effect shots, over a 1000 effect shots. I told the studio I don't want more money, I just want to be more creative so give me the same budget which will actually mean less on this movie, and I'll just have to be more creative. And that's what's going to make this movie bigger and better, not the budget.

So what'd you do this time?

RR: All kinds of stuff. I production designed it this time, I DP'd this time, so when you have a scene like… (Laugh). Here's an example, when Steve Buscemi is in his little lair where the little miniature island is, and all those big rocks are behind him cause they are in the bottom of the cave. There's only three rocks, three rocks on wheels. So when he's standing there I wheel the rocks behind him and when we cut to another angle I wheel them over there. And then we're locked off, here we have the three behind him and so we don't even have to put up green screen or do any compositing. And then I just move, I just keep moving the rocks and leaving the camera locked up in a composite, So on those wide shots you look close, it's the same three rock formations but they're all just lit a little differently. Now any production designer would never let you show up on the set with three rocks and a lair. He'd get shot, right?! He'd make fifty. But I only made three cause I knew, I don't care, I have no ego for that sort of thing. I'll just move the rocks, put them on wheels like the old days, and you save so much, that across the board. When Antonio is on the big ship, I wanted to make a big statement that he is in a big mothership, right, and when the parents show up they're all like huddled behind him like he's on a suburban on a road trip to hell. So you gotta set it up first with the big shot, so when he's sitting there in his chair and he looks across and mom's over there, in her big chair, there's only one chair, only one, I only built one seat. What I did was--this crew flipped out even though they worked for me forever, they made the one chair--just make one chair, really? But the design. Alright just make one chair.--So I show up on the day, okay, lets sit Antonio and shoot him, and then we'll shoot across him, and now let's stand mom where she will be sitting so he has somewhere to be looking. Now move the camera over there and now switch places, and mom will sit here, and dad will stand there. We'll film mom. Now we'll flip the image, and now it looks like he's looking at her, and we've just doubled the size of the set, and all those shots they're in the same seat. I didn't even part her hair different. I wanted her hair to be different so you can see, hey look, her hairs on the wrong side!

Do you feel satisfaction when you can solve a problem?

RR: You have to, because you don't have the money. And it's more fun that way because then you have to think, okay I don't have the money, how can I be creative. How do I still make the big movie without doing that, it's more satisfying, it's more fun for the crew. And you save so much money, and in return you get a lot of creative freedom. I mean total creative freedom. I even made the posters. The studio doesn't call you then, you are able to just do. I want to do a Ray Harryhausen scene, no one is going to say no. You want to be the painter who can just sit there and paint. You don't want to have to be there going…did they take the paint brush away? Don't use yellow use red. Why? I don't know, just use red ah, ah, okay. After a while you don't know what you are even doing. So this way you are really free to just be able to do whatever you really want.

Lots of molds for the idol, did Lucas or Spielberg give you the molds for that?

RR: No! All the geeks have them. If you go to any of these conventions you can buy them for like ten bucks. They have them there. I've got one at home, and it's suppose to be Incan treasure. I know Steven and George so they probably won't get too mad. I thought I've got one of those at home let's just stick it in there and it will be funny for adults. You know parents have to drag their kids to these movies and I wanted to put something in there for them.

Why don't you shoot scope, have you ever shot scope film?

RR: I don't shoot film anymore. But I did do it in Once Upon A Time In Mexico. That will be my first scope movie because I was able to do it on HD. It looks great. I wanted to shoot scope before, but I just didn't like anamorphic lenses. They're terrible because everything is out of focus...all the time. Go to the movies and see, the biggest movie. I love John Woo movies, but I remember seeing Mission Impossible 2, and the opening scene Tom Cruise is there in the airplane talking and he is out of focus the whole time! Why's the focus on his ears?! The ear lobe look, and it's like it can't catch him. There's no, no depth of field. And then if you shoot super 35mm, that's just the worst, cause that's just a giant optical, by the time you see that on the screen it's like you're looking at VHS by then. So I've just always hated film and now that I've gone to HD you've got the choice, you can make it 16X9, 1.85, or if just want to go ahead and crop all the way down you can have 2.35 instantly, so it's great.

I noticed that you thanked George Lucas in the end did he help you out a lot with shooting in digital?

RR: He just inspired me to go shoot it. I wouldn't have been able to make the same movie if I hadn't shot digital. I was mixing Spy Kids, this was early on, he had only done his first wave of shooting, and he was generous enough to let me come see early early footage of Episode 2. Then he convinced me, and yeah I saw it, and it looks remarkable, but I had to go home and do a test myself. See it side by side, film and HD of the same set. I was already doing a re-shoot on Spy Kids, so I shot with the film camera and then I brought in the HD and I shot the same shot, and I transferred them both to film. I thought I would see where it breaks apart, where it looks like video, where it doesn't quiet keep up. So I don't want that video look at all. And then I looked at the two and I thought, oh my God! Look how bad the film looks! I couldn't believe it! It looked like super 8 next to the HD. HD transferred to film not HD digitally projected which you saw, that's digital projection, just transferred to film, it looked better than film.

What did the HD allow you to do that you couldn't have done on film?

RR: It's almost like the difference between editing on an Avid and editing on film. You know you sit there and you cut film manually and you can't really see what you are doing, and then on an Avid. No one cuts on film anymore. Back in the early 90's I remember everyone was against, all the editors were against, scared to death of Avid's and all that stuff. So, you're going to have to relearn everything, doesn't take but ten minutes to relearn that stuff. Now you put a gun to their head and they won't go back to cutting on film. Forget that! So, cinematographers are all against, now they're all afraid of this new camera, they're going to have to relearn everything, and you do, have to relearn, but it takes ten minutes. I mean, I didn't even know what I was doing and I was down there shooting in Mexico, by myself and I was DP'ing it cause I knew that no DP wanted to touch the HD stuff. And, it looks amazing. (Laugh) So it's really not…difficult, people, creative people are just the slowest to adopt new technologies, they're always against any kind of change and it's ridiculously sad.

Do you have any plans for the DVD and also a special edition of the first Spy Kids?

RR: Yeah I didn't know when to put out the special edition I've always been so busy, and I thought we are already doing Spy Kids 3 and it will be out next July 23, that means the DVD will come out that Christmas. I think I'll wait until then to do a triple box set that has all the making of's, and all the fun film school for kids, and do just one big thing, so I don't have to sell the people the same movie twenty times.

So does that mean this one will also come out as just the movie before you do a three pack?

RR: Right. This will probably come out, I think, in December or something.

So the extra scene you put into Spy Kids 1 that won't be available until…

RR: It won't be available, that's the best scene in the movie too. It's a great scene, they go swimming through a cave of sleeping sharks and they wake all the sharks up.

When was the decision made to go ahead with number three, since this one hasn't even come out yet?

RR: I called the studio back in March and said, guess what we're making? Spy Kids 3. They said, I didn't know there was going to be a three. I said, neither did I, but I've got an idea and I'm going to tell you right now. I told them the idea, and they said, "Oh my God, let's make Spy Kids 3."

When will you be shooting it?

RR: We shoot in November, yeah.

So you wrote the script already?

RR: I'm still writing the script, I mean, it just comes. It's one of those big ideas that just…you don't even have to write it, it just comes to you. Ahh, that's what happens next! I keep drawing it.

If you weren't in the business at all, and you didn't have the breaks, what would you be doing?

RR: I'd be a chocolate maker. I don't know what I'd be doing, umm, I'd have a cooking show.

Are you serious?

RR: Probably. I love to cook. I cook good. Everyone comes over and goes, you know if this writing, directing, producing, editing, shooting thing doesn't work out you can be a cook. (Laugh) I cook everything; I've got a huge kitchen. I've got a wood burning oven, magna stove, seats around it, it's sort of like a cooking show already. My boys sit there watching me cook. I don't even serve on plates, I just toss them stuff when it's ready.

What can you tell us about Once Upon A Time?

RR: Nothing. I really don't know…it's such, it's such a cool movie, I mean, opening scene, Johnny Depp and Cheech, facing off, a flashback again, you know how Steve Buscemi was telling the story? Now Cheech tells the story. Ah, it's just so cool, and Salma's part of the story, it's just really neat. It's fun. If you liked Desperado at all, you'll really love the movie. And it just keeps going, it's got more characters, and Willem Defoe is playing a Mexican (Big laugh)…Mickey Rourke's in it, he's really cool.

Is it a trilogy or is there any thoughts, ideas for a fourth one?

RR: Well I'm showing Johnny Depp a scene where he's walking down, double guns, all bloody, walking down, slow motion all shot up, and a thick voice over from the seventies goes…can't give his name away, but I'll say, the man, the man in black is back…Once Upon A Time In Mexico Part 2…he'd love to come back and do it again. It was so cool, the movie was so fun. He got to do some really great stuff, he was great in action. He never does action. I'm like, I thought you never like to do action? He said, "You've converted me."

SPY KIDS 2: THE ISLAND OF LOST DREAMS OPENS NATIONWIDE ON AUG 7, 2002