Ray Pride

Robert Rodriguez loves with digital video. "Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams" is a kicky, trippy extension of the gag-laden "Spy Kids" original, but he shot it and "Once Upon a Time in Mexico," a third "El Mariachi" movie, in the time it would normally take to make one film. Now he's as much a proponent of the digital handover as he is of kid empowerment and Latino representation on screen. "I wanted to get old school," the 33-year-old Texan says. "I'm a product of the digital age. I started shooting on video at twelve. Now everyone's got little digital cameras and editing equipment on their computer. They're probably all at home right now saying the same thing I said when I saw 'El Mariachi': 'Hey, this almost looks like a real movie!' I want to get the message out, you're making real movies, y'know, continue with that, learn that. Don't even think about film. Film is going to be gone in a year or two. Those little five dollar movies you make with one cassette will cross over to what moviemaking will be in the next five, ten years or so."

He's about to shoot "Spy Kids 3," and he's keeping control and low budgets. "Making a movie is not about the process of getting a big crew. Just going out by yourself and shooting, that's still a movie. There's a wrong idea, which seems logical. 'Oh I get my big chance to make a movie, let me get as much money from the studio.' It's actually the worst thing you can do. They'll be all over you to get the money back, you won't enjoy the process, you won't have any creative freedom. The money's gonna get spent on things, you won't even know what. That's why I always ask for less money, 'cos you can still make a huge movie, no one even questions you. You just tune the station, nobody's coming around to change the dial."

"Spy Kids 2" is now playing.

(2002-08-07)

Also by Ray Pride

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