How a Twenty-three-year-old Filmmaker with $7,000 Became a Hollywood Player

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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 words, Robert Rodriguez discloses all the unique strategies and innovative techniques he used to make his first movie, 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. Rodriguez's nuts-and-bolts account features the full El Mariachi shooting script, post-production tips, film festival anecdotes, publicity blitz secrets -- and even an insider's view of the courtship he enjoyed with Hollywood's A-list