I nesday. Ftir- AGGIELIFE icsday, February 22, 2(XK) THE BATTALION Page 3 Monday here will be a gene'; m. in Kleberg 113. Tuesday ans Treehouse: Jo fun, and fellowship )ur Savior s Lutheran Northgate. tasters: Learn public ziewing skills with Will be in Rudderi ue screen. Formoe ,e contact Laura at mmm LUITH IH E BAIT /ednesday jor Fair sponsored^ mg Service, Career ?mic Programs, andliloi o Enhancement X)p.m. in the MSCH esource tables offen eer information onttfciai fered at TAMU. Tuesday Director Robert Rodriguez Robert Rodriguez is an oddity in the film world. He stands me for having made the smallest budgeted movie ever to be eleased by a studio. I lis feature film debut, El Mariachi, cost mere $7,000 to make and was picked up by Columbia Pie ties for release. Rodriguez has since directed four highly ac- med films which include Desperado, From Dusk TillDcn\ n, [oadracers, and The Faculty. At a press conference held here Texas A&M Saturday afternoon. The Battalion was able to sk the renowned director a few questions. leaving the project was because everyone got fired — because they were not going to announce it for four months. So we had to say [it was due to] creative dilferences. I didn't really want to wait around. and they are just slugging around, in Texas everyone is still re ally excited to be working on movies. They are really enthusi astic. It helps because you are not having to go around and try to lift people’s spirits. ROBERT HYNECEK/1 HI Battalion film Austin, but they don’t have a place to shoot interior set scenes, so it drives a lot of business away. Q • The period in between El Mariachi and Desper- • ado was when you directed Roudracers, right? Q How do von feel about violence in the movies? Q # So, it’s already going, you’ve already bought it? Society: There will be; nth a guest speaker? ;xas city pharmacyif Q • Explain why you selected El Mariachi to screen • here at this festival? Yeah. I was looking for something small. • Can you talk a little bit about that project? Q Well, I really never felt like I needed to be every one’s parent, but it does kind of bug you. That’s why 1 am mak ing Spy Kids — because I wanted something like Desperado that my kids could watch. We are not even buying it. They are just going to lease it to us and the money that gets made goes back to the city to develop the site after we’re gone. It is only for an interim use, we’ll only be using it for a few years until they need the space. We are not really putting money in, it is not a commer cial venture. asters: Learn publics lewing skills with pos Will be in Rudder all le screen. For morel contact Laura at 6932 did not select it. They [the festival directors] selected it. "hey told me to come and they were going to show Mariachi, aid 1 was like, “Sure.” Q Talk a little bit about what the Texas Film Festi val is trying to showcase here with independent films and talk a little about your experiences. I w anted to take advantage of the dow ntime for me to go work with a film crew and practice with 35 mm. Someone of fered me Roadracers, and I thought that was good. In a month’s time I could write, shoot, direct and edit and get done with the whole feature and get some of that experience before going and doing Desperado. It was just to get some practice. Q Can you talk about going from El Mariachi w ith a budget of $7,000 to a film like Desperado w ith a budget of $7 million? Q Are you going to try to get some more time there allotted? ns Treehouse: Joirii on, and fellowship a! jr Savior's LutherarOy orthgate. they had told me to pick a movie, I would have picked Mariachi because that’s the one that I did by myself and it is he one that 1 find the most inspiring to people who want to be filmmakers also. Iniversity Women's Hi I didn’t think it w as a real picture and the way I made it be- A Newcomers Poll cause it wasn’t following the rules of filmmaking. It still came ormation Session# out and people still enjoyed it, and people still went to see it. I 11:30 a.m. Our tel would use that as an example for people to show them how you 2 May, 208 Cecilia Cos can really bend the rules and make up your own rules as far as »- For more information making an independent film. It can be anything you want, and 694-9198. ForcfiK atthat time nobody was doing movies like that. I Carolyn at 6907227. It just goes to show' that you can make it any way you want. . A lot of people cite it as something they used as an influence ednesday I on their careers. Q Do you have any more botched project stories like The Mask of Zorro’l With Mariachi, 1 was limited with what I had and what I had access to. When you can do anything, that almost makes it more difficult. You are thinking, “I can do anything. Now what should I do?” No, after that I was a bit wary of signing on before there was a script. Which was why 1 turned down some big movies. Q • What can you tell us about the hangars that are • being converted to sound stages in Austin? Q Do you have more fun doing your own projects than doing some of the bigger stuff? Yeah, because you can still make a really big movie. When you see the new movie, it’s going to look huge. It only cost $29 million, but it’s going to look like $100 million movie because I can control the costs. niversity Wonwis Ve will be going to W four on Tuesday, liege Station Krogeip a.m. for carpooling, til 3:00 p.m. PleaseS Till by March 14 at I care information call IT. 4n- ^ i • What does that mean for you? Q Tell us about the sequels for From Dusk Till Dawn. Was that something you always wanted to do? s often fund for eating4 ) because they may non L takes someone outskktf ! Trow ell said. "[Bui]i1k! i fuss at them.” )ses to seek help fromSs i. treatment becomes ati* , dietitians and counsel® m: Services are avalatk! onl\ 19 Honors hoursia ave to he enrolled intile! 1 viors class, as long as!* 1 ve 3.4. the Curriculum Deveitf are due at the HonotsPi 1 ' ind winners will be ate r grant application canfel Program Web ultv. It’s great for me because people inspired me. People like Spike Lee and Steve Soderbergh really made me think, “1 should really be trying to do something.” If I want to make it, instead of griping about what I don’t [have], 1 should be fo cusing on what 1 do have. Q: What ever happened with you not directing The Mask of Zorrol That was a project that had just been plagued for a long time. Before I had gotten on, it had been started up and stopped a few times. It was really difficult to get it going. Each time you start a movie and stop it, that incurs cost. It was almost going to go. That studio was in a lot of trouble at that time. They had experienced a long slate of disaster-type films, i it was almost time for them to all get fired by Sony. That was when it happened. Everyone got fired, but they weren’t going to announce it for four months. So everybody was just sitting around, nobody really had any power. The movie was just going to get shut down, and we were going to have to wait. I could not say that the reason I was No. That’s just the nature of the company. Dimension is very much of a sequel type place. They have the movies that they make and if it is a title that will get the rental business, they will make a lesser videos for it and people always rent those. That’s how some of the extra revenue comes in. Quentin [Tarantino, director of Pulp Fiction] and I both feel like we are kind of helping build that company up. They want ed me to do The Faculty, so I was like, “OK, I’ll do that.” You let me do two kids movies and a Stevie Ray Vaughn movie, and I’ll do that. It’s something we have been looking at for awhile. We’ve been wanting to put up some sort of studio space. I’ve been shooting in Austin for awhile, hut I’ve had to rent out ware houses from people and it’s a pretty high premium right now because everyone has occupied Austin. It’s really hard to get space that you can use as stages. So when the airport was vacated, they just had these hangars sit ting around. They were going to mow them down, and it is go ing to take them 20 years to develop the site. So some of the filmmakers got together and tried to convince the city to allot a couple of them to sound stages. We’ve been doing pretty good. I’m not sure exactly where it is [in the process]. We’ve got to make it more of a multi-cul- tural, multi-media center and get other media involved other than film. It would be a non-profit. Part of the money we make would go to renovating and upgrading the stages because they are not really stages right now, just warehouses. We would like to attract more business there —keep the filmmakers there. A lot of the crews we have are really good. We’ve lost a lot of our movie business to Canada and other places. We hope it will attract business back to Austin. Maybe if it works out; then we can probably keep it there longer. If the community likes it there and if it does everything we say it is going to do, then we are going to be giv ing a lot back to the community. Getting people in the area to come get internships, especially the East Side of Austin be cause that is where it is. We have a lot of things we want to do. If we don’t, they can always get rid of us, but we are not putting a lot of money into it. Each production, instead of rent they would come renovate it. Put in air conditioning, put in sound proofing, leave something to make the stages a little better. Q You seem very self-assured and very confident. # In the filmmaking process, is there ever a mo- • ment when you experience self-doubt? Yeah. There a lot of times when you are not sure. But you get to trust your instincts and sometimes it is hard. Sometimes you will cover yourself, and then you will find your original inspirational idea was right. After awhile, you know when you have a greater force driving you. I have seen filmmakers who, somewhere along the line, lose it, though. They are really hot for awhile, and then all their films start going down. It all comes back to self-doubt. Q Can you tell us about the importance of coming • to smaller festivals like this one, and the impor- • tance of having film festivals like the Texas Film Festival? Q • You always talk about wanting to stay in Texas, • what is that about? When I was younger I never thought I would be a filmmaker because I didn’t want to go to L.A. You feel vindicated when you can stay in Texas and make movies and never go anywhere. Q Q # So will these be used for stuff other than just # film? It can be for film, commercial, multi-media, games. # Is it going to be a big studio? I know that it really benefits a lot of people who come to these, and they want to leam something. A lot of time it bene fits me just as much to come and talk about what you are do ing. You don’t really reflect on things that are past, and then, you look back and you are like, “Yeah. I really did do that all by myself.” It makes you remember where you came from. It gives you more confidence in a way. You see what you did to what you are doing now. Q • What do you see for the future of Texas filmmak- • ing? Is there a point you don’t want it to reach? Unlike in L.A. where everyone is so jaded by the movies It’s really not even a big studio. I’ve never even shot in a real studio. I’ve always just used warehouses that we convert ed. But you build your sets and they are pretty soundproof. You need a space that is big enough, has enough parking and has enough freespan, which those do. No support posts, so you can build sets and shoot all your interiors. A lot of people come to Q So festivals give you the chance to reflect? Yeah. You have a much better perspective of what happened to you later on. It makes you put all kinds of things together. It makes you think about where you are going. It’s great to see someone’s face light up when they get inspired by something. Oscar time marks Hollywood’s own ‘season of giving’ ON Eairor liter .raphics Editor -apbics Bailor Bailor adio Producer feb Editor cc &: lechnotog) ^ LOS ANGELES (AP) — Is there anybody left in Hollywood who hasn’t been nominated for some kind of award this year? Entertainment awards are proliferating, with 332ceremonies last year, up from 252 in 1997, ac cording to the trade publication Variety. The industry has ovations and backslaps for di rectors, writers and cinematographers, and salutes for the best movie trailers, the best publicity cam paigns and the best raising of awareness on social issues. Even the awards shows can win awards. 'Tirehoopla all builds up to Hollywood’s grand est night, the Academy Awards, on March 26. Awards by groups such as the Directors Guild and Screen Actors Guild offer a sneak peek at how some top Oscar categories might play out, while organizers of other ceremonies schedule their awards to feed off Oscar excitement. “We definitely wanted to do ours before the Os car nominations,” said Laurie Silvers, president of the entertainment Website Hollywood.com, which presented its second annual awards for top movie trailers about two weeks before the Academy Award nominations came out last week. “We want ed people thinking about whether the best movie trailers have any association with the best movies.” Some of the award ceremonies this season: —Faces and follicles get their due at the first Hollywood Makeup Artist and Hair Stylist Guild Awards on March 19. Guild Awards chairman Alan Fama said movie makeup and hairstyles often are overlooked and the awards are meant to “bring attention to the fact that our work is not just for a beauty-shop clientele. You don’t just spray an actor’s hair and have them come back next week.” “We definitely wanted to do ours [awards] before the Oscar nominations/' — Laurie Silvers President of Hollywood.com Awards will be presented in such categories as contemporary and period hairstyling and special- effects makeup. Nominated films include Sleepy Hollow, Tea With Mussolini and Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me. —Positive social and moral messages in film and TV will be lauded at the 23rd annual International Angel Awards, selected by two groups, Excellence in Media and the National Association for Family and Community Education. Contenders in the movie cat- egory include The Green Mile, The Straight Story, Music of the Heart and Runaway Bride. —Animal welfare is the theme at the 14th an nual Genesis Awards presented by the Ark Trust, a humane group. The awards this year will include honors for the movie Instinct, which fosters respect for great apes, and the animated feature The Iron Giant, which in cludes a stark anti-hunting scene, said Ark Trust founder Gretchen Wyler. —Foul - days before the Oscars, the 37th annu al awards for best promotional campaigns will be held by the Publicists Guild of America. Nominated for best movie publicity efforts are American Beauty, The Matrix, Stuart Little, The Talented Mr. Ripley and Toy Story 2. “Publicists are always the last to be recognized for anything,” said Henri Bollinger, who heads the guild’s awards committee. Ceremonies themselves sometimes gamer honors. The Oscar, Grammy and Tony broadcasts all won Emmys last fall, while last year’s Oscar show is nominated in the TV musical variety cate gory for the Directors Guild awards March 11. There are also awards no one in the industry wants to win. Several awards are for poor filmmaking. The 20th annual Golden Raspberry Awards for the worst movies of 1999 will be announced the day before the Oscars. This year’s nominees for the Razzies include the blockbusters Star Wars: Episode I— The Phantom Menace, Big Daddy and The Blair Witch Project. ***** "ft 76GUMBY 764-8629 Pizza Hours Sun - Wed 11am -2am Thurs. - Sat. 11am - 3:30am Brent BarWey. eocr-Scott Jenkins GUmYOFiLUt MENU Choose any one of the 1.14” Cheese Pizza 3. 10” 2 topping + soda 5.10” Pokey Stix + 5 wings 7. 12” Pokey Stix + soda following *5.99 2. 12 1 topping + soda 4. 10 wings + soda 6. 10” Cheese Pizza + 5 wings 8. 10” Cheese Pizza + 2 pepperoni rolls 9. 5 Pepperoni rolls + soda x Off Campus Aggies Graffiti Party X X When: To*iighti®7:30 Where: College Station Conference Center What: General Meeting Theme: Graffiti Party Ozx li'i il'i JL 21 CO EZX o p 55 Wear an old t-shirt that you do not mind writing on and bring high-lighters to write cm under biacklight. There will be t-shirts sold for $3 if you don’t have one. 32 S 55 Ft* Office: Koldus 137 Phone# 845-0688 http://oca.tamu.ecfu It t» never too late to join. ^ VI Tired of the same old movies? Come view a foreign film! What: “Cyrano de Bergerac - a dashing French officer falls in love with a girl named Roxanne but must hide his feelings due to a physical defect Where: Gallery B at VISC Forsyth Center Galleries "When: Thursday, February 24, 2000 at 7:OOp.m. Admission is free and a short discussion about the movie will accompany the viewing. Presented by tHe International Students Association and the JVISC L.T. Jordan Institute for International Awareness