Like a lot of people (and probably some of you), I recently found myself marveling over the success of the new generation of horror filmmakers. Strike that, not just the success—the quality, as well. The recent success of filmmakers like Danny and Michael Philippou (Talk to Me, Bring Her Back), Curry Barker (Obsession), and Kane Parsons (Backrooms) made me realize something. It made me think back to one of the mavericks of the nineties, back when I was practically still a kid flipping through the pages of Film Threat Magazine, incredulously reading about a movie called El Mariachi that had been made for next to nothing by a young guy named Robert Rodriguez.
Barker reportedly made his first feature film, Milk & Serial, for around $800. Rodriguez made El Mariachi for roughly $7,000 more than three decades earlier. The numbers themselves aren’t what’s remarkable though, it’s the mindset. Neither filmmaker waited until they had studio backing or ideal circumstances. They made the best film they could with what they had and let the work speak for itself.
Most film fans are familiar with the story of El Mariachi, but here’s the condensed version. Robert Rodriguez was denied admission to the University of Texas’s film program, but he kept making movies anyway. He entered festivals and contests, volunteered for medical drug trials to raise money, and eventually scraped together roughly $7,000 to make El Mariachi, most of which went toward buying film stock. He refused to let a lack of money or Hollywood connections stop him. Instead, he proved his talent with the only thing that mattered: a finished movie.
That’s where the comparison to today’s generation becomes interesting.
Rodriguez needed the festival circuit and contests because, in 1992, that was one of the few ways an unknown filmmaker could get in front of the people who could change his career. Once El Mariachi caught the right attention, Hollywood came calling.
Rodriguez didn’t earn a second chance because he kept asking for one. He earned it because he made films good enough to win contests. Today’s filmmakers are doing something remarkably similar. Instead of contest judges, they’re winning over online audiences. In both cases, the work speaks first.
Curry Barker, Kane Parsons, and the Philippou brothers didn’t have to wait outside Hollywood’s gates hoping someone would let them in. They built audiences on YouTube first. By the time studios noticed them, millions of viewers had already validated their work.
The technology has changed. The path has changed. But the philosophy hasn’t. Rodriguez made the best movie he could with the resources he had, then did everything he could to get it in front of the right people. Today’s filmmakers are doing exactly the same thing—they’ve simply traded executives’ approval for audience approval.
That’s the parallel.
The festival circuit is still an important path into Hollywood, but it’s no longer the only one. Today, a filmmaker can build an audience online, demonstrate both talent and demand, and attract the industry’s attention without waiting for a festival premiere.
All of which to say, if you take anything away from the way Rodriguez and Barker got established, the bottom line is make your art, and don’t stop. There are more ways than ever to get it seen, and there is really no “wrong” way to go about it. The only constant is that no one will ever see art that hasn’t been made.
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