el mariachi / desperado (& a bit on se7en)

[Rob Lohman]

Does anyone else have either of these movies on DVD?
(I own the DVD double disc, one side has El Mariachi and
the other side has Desperado)...

For anyone who doesn't know these movies (shame on you),
here their short story.

El Mariachi was Robert Rodriguez's first major movie (he
didn't knew that yet at the time he made it), was shot
in 16mm for around $7,000. To cut the story short everyone
loved it and he was a famous man :) Then he made a
sequel (part 2) for $7,000,000 which was pretty nice too.
He is currently working on part 3, Once Upon a Time in Mexico.
Show with the new 24P Digital camera that Lucas is using
on Star Wars Episode 2 as well. Interesting times...

Now why I posted this. I discovered last week that this
DVD contains some very interesting extra features for us
wanna be film makers (ie, cheap movie making style).

The El Mariachi side of the disc has a 10 minute "film school"
thing on it, which is very enlighting! Talks about how to cut
and shoot your movie so that it looks expensive but really
isn't... THe whole movie also has a commentary track by
robert himself as he talks about things you see on the screen,
how it was shot, what shortcuts where taken etc. This disc
is very interesting! (I don't know if El Mariachi is available
on its own as well and if it has these features, but the
double feature pack does at it ain't very expensive to get
either!).

The Desperado side has a piece called "The 10 minute
anatomy of a shoot out" (or something like that) and
more or less is a continuation of the 10 minute filmschool
on the other side. It talks about how they staged and
shot the introductional bar shootout in the beginning
of the film. This disc also contains a commentary track
off robert but I didn't had a chance to listen to it yet.
I'll try to do that this weekend and keep everyone posted
if you want.

I never knew I had these interesting gems hidden away
in my DVD library, perhaps you don't know either! :)

Btw, the newline's se7en (seven) disc is a very very nice
disc as well. It has a behind the scenes on digital color
(or colour if your british) correction done for the DVD release.
You watch as they play with color correction on their Da Vinci
color corrector! Very interesting and informative stuff.

If you get a chance to check these discs out, please do!

Hope this helps someone :)

[Drewid20]

<<<-- Originally posted by Rob Lohman : Does anyone else have either of these movies on DVD?
(I own the DVD double disc, one side has El Mariachi and
the other side has Desperado)...

For anyone who doesn't know these movies (shame on you),
here their short story.

El Mariachi was Robert Rodriguez's first major movie (he
didn't knew that yet at the time he made it), was shot
in 16mm for around $7,000. To cut the story short everyone
loved it and he was a famous man :) Then he made a
sequel (part 2) for $7,000,000 which was pretty nice too.
He is currently working on part 3, Once Upon a Time in Mexico.
Show with the new 24P Digital camera that Lucas is using
on Star Wars Episode 2 as well. Interesting times...

Now why I posted this. I discovered last week that this
DVD contains some very interesting extra features for us
wanna be film makers (ie, cheap movie making style).

The El Mariachi side of the disc has a 10 minute "film school"
thing on it, which is very enlighting! Talks about how to cut
and shoot your movie so that it looks expensive but really
isn't... THe whole movie also has a commentary track by
robert himself as he talks about things you see on the screen,
how it was shot, what shortcuts where taken etc. This disc
is very interesting! (I don't know if El Mariachi is available
on its own as well and if it has these features, but the
double feature pack does at it ain't very expensive to get
either!).

The Desperado side has a piece called "The 10 minute
anatomy of a shoot out" (or something like that) and
more or less is a continuation of the 10 minute filmschool
on the other side. It talks about how they staged and
shot the introductional bar shootout in the beginning
of the film. This disc also contains a commentary track
off robert but I didn't had a chance to listen to it yet.
I'll try to do that this weekend and keep everyone posted
if you want.

I never knew I had these interesting gems hidden away
in my DVD library, perhaps you don't know either! :)

Btw, the newline's se7en (seven) disc is a very very nice
disc as well. It has a behind the scenes on digital color
(or colour if your british) correction done for the DVD release.
You watch as they play with color correction on their Da Vinci
color corrector! Very interesting and informative stuff.

If you get a chance to check these discs out, please do!

Hope this helps someone :) -->>>

Rodriguez lets himself be a guinea pig for a month or so to get the 7000 for the film. While he was the guinea pig in the hospital he met the guy who later played the bad guy in el mariachi and the guy in the white suit in the beginning of desperado.( same character). El Mariachi was supposed to go directly to mexican video but turned into a cult classic that made Rodriguez famous. He kinda messed up with tarantino making all those installments of from dusk till dawn. Hopefully the next desperado isnt as bad as those last two.

[Dan O'Bannon]

Do you know where I could buy a copy of this DVD,

Thanks Dan

[Rob Lohman]

A lot of online DVD shops carry these films
(especially se7en).... try the following:

US (also mail overseas):
http://www.dvdexpress.com/
http://www.amazon.com/

Europe:
http://www.play.com/

Canada (also ship overseas):
http://www.dvdboxoffice.com/

and there are lots more... I found that
El Mariachi / Desperado disc easily at
DVD express for example:

http://www.dvdexpress.com/product_movies.asp?type=Movie&PRODUCTNUMBER=4179

Good luck

[Dan O'Bannon]

Thanks Rob I appreciate your quick response

Dan

[Alexander Ibrahim]

Take a hard look at the features on AI. They go into every aspect...each with its own featurette. VFX is of course mentioned extensively, but then again so is lighting, acting, sound composition, sound effects design, set design...everything.

It sure ain't info on how to do these things on the cheap, but it is definitely good info.

I think well of Matrix Revisited and the 25th anniversary TRON. Both of those are mostly effects oriented of course, but if you pay attention you get other goodies out of them as well.

AI just floored me with its special features though.
(no it has nothing at all to do with the fact that the movie has my initials on it <grin>)

[Alexander Ibrahim]

There are TWO versions of Seven on DVD out there.

The special feature about color correction is only on the 2 disc edition.

FWIW, this feature is very trying, there is no way to emulate the effects the colorist chose for most DV NLE's. Most color correction offered, even if you happen to have a Digisuite, affects the entire image.

On seven they show a lot of specific control over image areas, like say a face. The only NLE I know that can do this is a high end Avid. Now, if you want you can add a partially transparent graphic with a motion tracker in your compositing application.

Aura 2.0 is the best low end application for this. AE can do it, but more painfully. Aura can at least work realtime if you have enough CPU power and an uncompressed image on disk.

After Aura, I'd jump to either Shake or Inferno for this work.

You will be FAR better off correcting this in camera during your shoot.

For example, to continue the face example, what the DP forgot to do was add fill to the face. In film this is forgiveable, after all the DP can't really see his image on set.

As a video person YOU have no excuse. You have a monitor on set right ? You can really see your resulting image right there on the monitor

[Rob Lohman]

You are correct that the color correction bit is on the double
disc. My bad. If possible I will edit my original post.

I didn't meant for my comments to be taken as this is possible
on DV NLE's too. It was meant as an inside as to what is
possible with image alteration and what color differences
do to an image. I thought (and still think) that it is quite
informative!

On my current short that I'm doing (which I shot with
pratical lighting primarely because of time and money
ristrictions -> see my articles on the site) I am going to
employ some After Effects color correction work (converting
to black and white for one sequence and some other work
on others). Although it probably would have been best
to try to shoot it as close to what I wanted originally, this
is not always possible (or doesn't work out this way). Then
color correction might be a nice option to have, even if it
isn't that advanced as hollywoods!

[Alexander Ibrahim]

Just because you might not be able to do this on your NLE doesn't mean that there aren't valid lessons to learn.

For one, knowing that Hollywood can do this explains a lot about why their movies look the way they do, and yours don't.

Seeing WHAT they do in post gives you hints about how to improve your production to avoid that timeconsuming post work.

No, No, my statement that you can't do it on your NLE is far from being an indictment of your original note. Quite the opposite - if you can't do this type of thing in post, then you have to take the time and get it right on the set. That means you have to pay more attention not less.

Pointing out the Seven color correction documentary is great because it is an example of things to think about.

As to doing it...it is possible. Most NLE's can't, but a lot of users out there have compositing applications with pixel/motion tracking, so they can approximate the effects if not replicate them.

Not only that, but a lot of DV moviemakers can and will get time on some very sophisticated color correction tools when they finish their movie on an Avid or whatever. They of course need to know what can be done, and what can't.

No, your post is important and valid, please don't take my reply any other way.

[Rob Lohman]

Great! We seem to be on the same line of thought here...
Sometimes words can be a bit misleading. By the way, I cannot
edit my original post. It is too old. Chris?

I see from your profile that your into LightWave, nice! Used
it with DV? Any thoughts on this?

[Alexander Ibrahim]

I will start a new thread.

Done. It is located under General DV discussions.

3D animation and DV

Hope that it is of interest.

[B. Moore]

Have you found any "Easter EGGS" on the DVDs

Bruce

[Rob Lohman]

There are a couple of silly ones... Check out the following site:

http://www.eeggs.com/tree/1899.html

[Chris Hurd]

Interesting link, Rob -- thanks!