IFH 252: Rebel without a Crew – $7000 Feature Film Robert Rodriguez Style with Alejandro Montoya Marin

Alex Ferrari 1:54
We have Alejandro Montoya Marin who is a writer, director of the movie Monday, and he made the movie for $7,000, which we've had many other filmmakers on. On the show. They've done low budget movies for five grand and I've done really low budget movies. But what makes out 100 special is he was part of the Rebel Without a crew TV series, which is based on Robert Rodriguez book of the same name. And Alejandro went through the entire process of being mentored by the legendary Robert Rodriguez while he was making his movie, as well as having cameras on him 24 seven, almost while he made his movie in just 14 days and have a budget of $7,000. So of course I asked like is it really $7,000 as a TV shows are like, you know, do they give you a little this give you that? He's like, no, they were pretty brutal. And they just gave them what they said they were gonna give them and there was no wiggle room at all. Now if you guys have been listening to me over the course of the last three years, you know, what a big influence. And what a fan I am of Robert Rodriguez. So I really had such a ball talking to him about doing something I always wanted to have done being mentored by Robert Rodriguez during the production of your first feature film. It is insane. But Alejandro was very humble, really cool guy. We sat down and just talk shop, and it was a ball. So please enjoy my conversation with Alejandro Montoya Marin. I like to welcome to the show Alejandro Montoya Marin. How are you sir?

Alejandro Montoya Marin 3:29
Hey, I'm good, man. Thank you for having me.

Alex Ferrari 3:31
No, man. Thank you for reaching out, man. You know, I'm glad that you told me you were a fan of the show. So that Oh, that's always a good way to start the conversation.

Alejandro Montoya Marin 3:40
Exactly. I listen to you until I heard those words and then like Hey! What's up?!

Alex Ferrari 3:46
But no, no, but seriously, man, and I wanted you on the show because of what you've gone through with your movie and working with Robert Rodriguez and all this kind of stuff. So we'll get into all of that. But first, first, I always ask this of all my guests. How did you get into this ridiculous crazy business?

Alejandro Montoya Marin 4:04
Into film? I've always been a fan of movies like I've always collected VHS tapes. I used to do mixtapes kind of like how you do like cassette with music, but I would do them with VHS

Alex Ferrari 4:18
I don't know what I don't know what a VHS is or cassettes or I'm sorry. I'm messing with you.

Alejandro Montoya Marin 4:25
I used to do like an episode of something that a commercial and a music video that a movie that

Alex Ferrari 4:31
Oh, so you were like making mixtapes but with movies. Yeah, that's awesome.

Alejandro Montoya Marin 4:36
I've always been a fan man. And then like, I even though I was born in the States, I was raised in Mexico and back then it wasn't very prominent to people to study film or like to make a living out of the arts.

Alex Ferrari 4:51
That's crazy talk.

Alejandro Montoya Marin 4:53
Yeah, it's crazy talk. But now look at this.

Alex Ferrari 4:55
I know and for Latinos even more crazy talk because it's so not even remotely in the culture?

Alejandro Montoya Marin 5:02
I agree. Exactly. You're pushed aside as the crazy one of the family. Counter doctors.

Alex Ferrari 5:08
No, you're you're the loco, you know, like I told my dad and my dad was like, how do you make money with that? And my only answer at the time was like, Well, I can PA. I can I can bet you what pa was, I didn't know that. I, I can make 50 bucks a day. And that was the big selling points. That I don't need to budge just 50 bucks a day. Yeah, that should hold me for my life. I'm good. That should work out.

Alejandro Montoya Marin 5:34
It's like a dog dog. Remember when he gets run over is like, Oh, I got $20,000.10 years ago, and I still have $900. So that will hold me off for two years.

Alex Ferrari 5:44
Exactly. So then how did you? How did the experience of making a lot of short films because you've I've seen and your IMDb you've made a ton of short films, your music, videos, commercials? How did all of that prepare you to make your first feature film?

Alejandro Montoya Marin 6:00
That's a great question. I think every time you do something different with whether it be a commercial or a short film, or a music video, you're kind of prepping. And you're kind of like absorbing all this. How do I approach this talent? Or how do I approach this shot? How long will it set me helped me to set up this kind of wide shot or this portion? It just kind of preps you. So when you have multiple experiences, you can reach the new one. And you're like, Okay, I got to do this, this and this. It'll be 90 minutes. So it gives you It gives you that familiar essence and situation that makes you kind of ease through things a little bit easier. Just excuse my redundance. But it just, it helps you understand what it will take to accomplish something that's more elaborate or similar to what you already do.

Alex Ferrari 6:53
So as opposed to the first short film you ever did where you had a shot list. That was about 150 shots in for an eight hour day. Yeah. And three people on your crew, you become more realistic of what can be accomplished within the timeframe.

Alejandro Montoya Marin 7:08
Exactly. You you. I always like to do storyboards and shot list. Just because I want to like I've never done anything past 10 grand so far.

Alex Ferrari 7:19
I where I feel you, brother, I feel you.

Alejandro Montoya Marin 7:22
So I kind of don't want to waste anybody's time. So I always go to the bare necessities of what will What do we need to sell the scene? Especially. And it helped me for this experience of Rebel Without a crew because I didn't storyboard my movie.

Alex Ferrari 7:38
Right! Wow. Well, let's well let's let's talk about it before we get into Rebel Without a crew. When was the first time you heard about the mythical story of Robert Rodriguez and how did it affect you as a Latino filmmaker? Well, I think I was about 11 years old. You're making You're making me feel old. But go ahead. How old are you? I'm older than user. Six. I'm still older than you. I swear to god if you say you're 37 or 38 No, no, I'm not and I'm not in my 30s let's just put it that way. Okay, hey 30s Amen, brother. Amen.

Alejandro Montoya Marin 8:17
So I was obviously I'm from Laredo, Texas. I'm from Laredo, Texas, which is two hours away from from San Antonio. And he's from San Antonio. He's first generation I'm first generation. So me loving film. And seeing what he did with so little and what he was climbing. It's, it was inspiring, man. Like I told him in person, and I think it's on the show. I would watch my dad's card and get an allowance, which was $5 and pay to watch his movies which were 495

Alex Ferrari 8:55
Wow, that's insane. That's actually that's a pretty big compliment.

Alejandro Montoya Marin 9:01
It's inspire me like him. Um, Robert, Kevin Smith. That hold that hold 90s group. Yeah, Tarantino PT Anderson.

Alex Ferrari 9:11
I mean, Linkletter all those guys

Alejandro Montoya Marin 9:13
Yeah. Like all of those guys inspired me to do to do film or, or to be like, look, I think if you are smart, and you give a creative script, it could happen me.

Alex Ferrari 9:26
Right? I mean, I think you know, for me man with Robert when I first I was in, I was in high school when when Robert without mariachi came out, and I read that book Rebel Without a crew cover to cover, in college, in college in college, I still have a first printing of it. And it I just, it just blew my mind because it was this kind of mythical story. I always say it's a this mythical story of a kid whose 20s 23 man 23 and he was making studio movies, you know, in a town. When there was no, like Latino's making movies, like not, not really not in the studio system. I mean, they had to beg. They had to beg to get Antonio Banderas as the star of Desperado. And he murdered it. Oh, God, I love that movies. Well, it's actually still one of my favorite robber movies of all time. I love Love, love, love this brought up. My favorite is Sin City. And sorry, no, of course. Gotcha. Gotcha. I'm getting a lot of those movies. But you know, so that's and for Robin, a lot of times you do as a filmmaker, you do need some inspiration. And there's there's no shortage of stories to inspire you. But Robert story was just so magical. Were a $7,000 movie, which was the first time anyone had ever done that got picked up by a studio. And then he went off and built up his career, and now he's working with James Cameron on his latest movie. You know, and they're buddies. I don't know if you knew this or not. I'm gonna give you a quick Robert. Robert. trivia bet. Do you know that the reason why James Cameron actually edited Titanic or co edited Titanic was because Robert did it. Yeah, because he was he was watching Robert edit movie. He's like, well, dammit, I should do that on my next movie and robbers like you absolutely should. And he won the Oscar for Titanic. They've been friends. They've been friends for they've been friends for ever, from what I understand. Alright, so So

Alejandro Montoya Marin 11:33
I just want I just wanted to like I'm really excited for alita Battle Angel.

Alex Ferrari 11:36
I like zoom. And I'm really I'm really curious to see the combination of James Cameron and Robert Rodriguez what comes out? I think that's gonna be a very interesting, interesting porridge. Gonna put out there

Alejandro Montoya Marin 11:50
At South by Southwest when they had the alita party. It's in their backyard or in the lot of troublemakers. And it's like this. half a mile radius of a fake city that they made that looks bad. It is I heard lowing dude.

Alex Ferrari 12:08
No, I heard that they basically built out a backlog on trial. It's it's there. It's not going anywhere.

Alejandro Montoya Marin 12:15
So no. And they had the party there. They had functioning electricity, and like sewers, and like one wheeled motorcycles that are like from the future. No, no, no, dude, like, it made me want to see the movie so much better. So much more, because they put a lot of effort in making this world, like authentic. I mean, obviously, there's gonna be CGI for some stuff. But I'm telling you, dude, I was on the set. It was it was pretty magic.

Alex Ferrari 12:41
So can you talk a little bit about what troublemaker studios is and what Robert built out there. Because I've never been, I would love to go one day. I've talked to a lot of people who have and who've worked with Robert, but it's basically a filmmakers playground, if I'm not mistaken.

Alejandro Montoya Marin 12:55
It's basically his playground where he develops a bunch of stuff and projects and edits and works on stuff. So it's very, very guarded. They have security. They're super nice. It's just it's like, it's like the independent filmmakers dream like everyone that works there. Top to bottom are just super supportive. They love film. They're all movie geeks. It's like the ideal job. Wow, that must be amazing.

Alex Ferrari 13:22
So then tell me about your process your experience, submitting to Rebel Without a crew and what was the Rebel Without a pro series?

Alejandro Montoya Marin 13:30
So Rebel Without a crew is a TV show that people can go watch on go 90 right now all the whole seasons on right now you can binge it. And in the fall it'll be on El Rey network, which is Roberts channel.

Alex Ferrari 13:44
Why wouldn't Why wouldn't he have his own network?

Alejandro Montoya Marin 13:46
Yeah, right. Because, because it cuz it when he gets bored, he's just like, what else can I do? Okay, I'll try a network or fit.

Alex Ferrari 13:55
Exactly. Yeah, just an outlet for him to just mess around.

Alejandro Montoya Marin 13:58
Well, he cooks he writes, he edits he plays music like Dude, like, come on, up individually.

Alex Ferrari 14:05
Exactly. Alright, so the show so shows based around the book that he wrote years ago.

Alejandro Montoya Marin 14:11
Yeah, it's basically it's it's like a TV adaptation of what the book is. Only this time Robert chose five filmmakers across the country and he gives you $7,000.03 days to prep 14, nine hour days, and you shoot your first feature film.

Alex Ferrari 14:27
That's it. Now, how did you submit what was the submitting process like

Alejandro Montoya Marin 14:31
The submitting process? I did? Like I think I saw I've been a fan of the channel for a while like show the director's chairs. Love that show. Love, love. Love that. I love from dusk till dawn even though I haven't seen the third season. Right? And just because I you know, like they have like marathons of like Highlander Terminator two, like I watched the channel. Yeah. Yeah. And they boast Excuse me. They posted Something about a we're rolling we need filmmakers and Rebel Without a crew and blah, blah, blah. So I did and I, it was various stages where, excuse me, just a universe grows where you would submit projects, short films. And then from there it's it was several stages you submit shortfills, then of you they like that, that you submit a pitch and then as you met the pitch, then the script and then as you submitted script, you have like four Skype interviews and a psychological exam. And then how would you maximize? It was a big process, really psychological exam?

Alex Ferrari 15:36
That's all yeah, that's awesome.

Alejandro Montoya Marin 15:40
And, you know, like, What? Give me some storyboards show me a short film Show me.

Alex Ferrari 15:46
It's beat you up. They beat you up. Yeah. Now once you so you get the news, you got accepted, you lose your mind. Now, what is the next step? How what what was it like and how did it go? Once you got accepted?

Alejandro Montoya Marin 16:03
Well, I got accepted, and it was okay, you're gonna come in Austin and do your movie. And I don't even though when I'm independent, like I always have my dp a sound guy. And they do give you a plus one. So I immediately was like, Okay, I'm bringing the DP so it looks good. Like iMovie will look passable if I did about myself, right? I'm not a director photography. I know, sec three point lighting, you know, like basics, right? And, you know, getting there and the way they were treating us like, like, you know, like they you would turn around from the block and then there's like 10 cameras. And I can guarantee you I'm telling you this honestly, none of it. None of it was was planned. None of it was like oh, let's do this. So it creates drama, right? Like none of that shit. I mean, doing a movie for 7k has drama in itself.

Alex Ferrari 17:00
Right even more so you're right because you didn't know the layout of the whole place.

Alejandro Montoya Marin 17:04
Yeah, we would have done it here in Albuquerque no problem. I know. I know people with grip trucks I know my plus one manages a grip company.

Alex Ferrari 17:13
But so but did they basically just go here seven grand they gave me no other resources.

Alejandro Montoya Marin 17:18
No man made for the show. But when you see Episode One, at the end of the show, they're like by the way it's time to pick up locations and you're like alright, they put a binder in front of us and then go you got 15 minutes to pick locations

Alex Ferrari 17:31
Wow, that was an A but you but those locations were were set up that that you could use them not for free? Not for free.

Alejandro Montoya Marin 17:42
Due to the camera equipment and the sound like yeah wouldn't break. Oh, they didn't give it to you for free half my budget went on camera and sound and grip.

Alex Ferrari 17:50
Really? What kind of camera do you use?

Alejandro Montoya Marin 17:53
We use it was a it was the C 300. Okay. Okay, yeah. Pretty decent camera respectable camera. Absolutely. Yeah, you can definitely get some like good depth of field that crushes the black background really nice.

Alex Ferrari 18:08
So they really kind of put you through the through the wringer like you had to really make a movie for seven grand. Yeah, no. Yeah, dude, it was it was how about post did you do all the posts yourself?

Alejandro Montoya Marin 18:19
That you are able to bring people to help you like I've learned I brought a colorist and I edit and my day job. So it wasn't as difficult as I know that for other people, but Sure, I can have someone that's a really close friend of mine to give me tips and stuff like that. But yeah, like we did music like the soundtrack came out of those seven grand and I think I saved about 17 $100 by the end of the shoot because I knew my soundcheck was gonna was gonna be pivotal. But we were able to get music by like sleigh bells Harlem. Yeah, right? Yeah, like my goal was we got to make the soundtrack. One of the best independent film soundtracks,

Alex Ferrari 19:01
Right and it sounds amazing. I saw I saw the list of music guys. You guys amazing.

Alejandro Montoya Marin 19:08
Yeah, thanks, man. All the bands were amazing. Just to mother West helped us out he's a friend and a record label in New York City that, uh, that you know, we've been working together. We're actually going to New York this Friday to screen the movie at Soho Film Festival and we're going to go to a magnetic fields concert next day.

Alex Ferrari 19:28
So then I know for my understanding Robert Rodriguez didn't mentor you a little bit.

Alejandro Montoya Marin 19:34
Yeah, Robert was very hands on man. Like he would come up and give us tips about like, Look, locations. Do this. Why don't you do that? Then you have set we have to one on one. Now we're anywhere from like 15 to 20 minutes doing 1000 elite, a short film and three commercials, right? Sure. Sure. Why not? Yeah, right. Because why not?

Alex Ferrari 19:59
We'll be Right back after a word from our sponsor. And now back to the show. But he didn't help you. And he didn't mentor you a bit.

Alejandro Montoya Marin 20:13
Yeah, he would give us tips. And a lot of the tips that I grabbed from him was about editing. So it was really cool that he went to every set and visited every set. And when he went to my set, he stopped for a bit. He looked at me, I did one take, and then he goes into your editing in your head, aren't you? Like, yeah, he's like, perfect. I do that too. It'll help you. Like he starts giving you tips of like, you should do this. But maybe not worry about this unless you have time. Just how to maximize time because we only had nine hour days.

Alex Ferrari 20:49
So you couldn't go over? You couldn't go over?

Alejandro Montoya Marin 20:51
There was just no way because you have a crew following you. And the house that we were at is usually an hour away from all downtown Austin. Right? So that would that would like, I want to fuck up our times.

Alex Ferrari 21:06
So then, basically, and I've said this many times before is time is your your biggest enemy when making a movie is that that clock keeps ticking no matter what that sun's going down. Yep, no matter what. And no matter what kind of gear and crew and all that stuff, time is something you cannot control and they cannot stop.

Alejandro Montoya Marin 21:26
Well, yeah. And especially under this like budget, because if you had manpower, yeah, I mean, it won't look the same. But you can you can kind of mimic that something with a 10k. You know, but then you don't have that like?

Alex Ferrari 21:41
Exactly, exactly.

Alejandro Montoya Marin 21:43
My short film or the movie I basted a lot at night, because that way, we could utilize the depth of the city of Austin, which has a lot of light. And then with like maybe a panel on the fail, you can you know, you can cheat.

Alex Ferrari 21:56
Now, as far as the show is concerned, the five filmmakers, is there a competition within the five film thing? Or it was just getting on the show was that's that's the goal, and you're making your movies the goal?

Alejandro Montoya Marin 22:07
Yes, let's attack an option. It's not a competition. It's basically just the journey of how we handled the stress and how we did our first feature film and you know the result of it. You can see them you'll see the movie very soon. On go 99 right, because right now they're letting us tour film festivals.

Alex Ferrari 22:24
Now, so I'm assuming there was some drama on the show. You don't wanna I'm assuming there was some drama on the show? Yeah, I'm sure there was. But was there any on yours on your episode?

Alejandro Montoya Marin 22:41
I mean, they kind of like do like a montage of of what everyone's going through and yeah, like Dude, we had a bond just stuff happen in mind. So it's like what's the worst thing that happened to you during the shooting your first feature? There was several my man our one of our actors had to couldn't take the job. And it was like the day we had to choose actors. So if you want to see what happened check it out. It rained on us after unloading all the equipment setting up it started raining. And then we got pulled it like cops came in and tried to shut down the set. Really? Oh, bro, you dude, you're gonna have a blast.

Alex Ferrari 23:21
Oh my god, I can't wait to watch the show. I'm dying to watch the show. that a lot of a lot of craziness. Now what is the biggest lesson you learn from this entire experience?

Alejandro Montoya Marin 23:33
Our patients have learned to practice patience. That it's okay to over prepare over prepare, but there always has to be an element of spontaneity onset. There always has to be and every time I do a project, I become more allured and more in love with actors.

Alex Ferrari 24:00
Hmm absolutely man but

Alejandro Montoya Marin 24:02
Actors that really want to work met divas that are trying to you know, to get attention. Right,

Alex Ferrari 24:08
Right. Right. Yeah. People who are in the craft. Exactly.

Alejandro Montoya Marin 24:11
Professionals not like I can't talk to you in my I have to like I saw the documentary where Jim Carrey played great time. It's a great documentary, but I don't think I would have had the patience to deal with him. Yeah, man, I would have been like, Jim, I'm gonna fucking beat the shit out of you wasn't a child.

Alex Ferrari 24:31
But the thing is that he was doing that to Milos Forman. And Milos like is an Oscar winning director. I know and he couldn't handle them. But when when you when you hire someone of that caliber doing that kind of work, you just strap on and hold on tight. And you just roll with it because you've got to because at that point, Jim was Jim. Like, he was the one of the biggest stars in the world at that moment. Oh, yeah. You just

Alejandro Montoya Marin 25:01
I say no, because I've never gone to have that opportunity. But like, let's say, Oh, I made I wrote a script that Daniel Day Lewis came out of retirement, I'll be like, dude, do whatever you want. He could like fling crap at me like a monkey. I will, I'll be fine with it.

Alex Ferrari 25:18
Exactly. If that's what gets you gets you to the point that you need to get to Daniel. Fine. I get you. One of the best pieces of advice I ever heard was from how to work with actors like of that caliber, is because I always asked, you know, directors when they come on the show, like how do you work with these big stars? You know, if you if you have the opportunity to work with a legend or big star, and this director Zack forgot his. I can't say I can't pronounce his last name, but he directed a movie with john malkovich. And as john was john malkovich, you know, like, how do you direct john Malcolm and it's your first movie? Yes. So how did he do? He did he was wonderful. He walked up the jet to john on the first day and goes, how do you want to be directed? And I was like, That's amazing. And he was like, thank you for asking. And, and he gave him that because it's john Malka, but you're not going to treat john malkovich like you're going to treat a first year actor.

Alejandro Montoya Marin 26:13
Well, you can treat actors the same like I've noticed that some actors respond to overcome flirting and you're doing a fantastic job let me respond that way. And I know actors that I'd be like Hey, stop fucking around let's do this and they boom they just fucking get on it.

Alex Ferrari 26:29
They go they go some more actors are some are more needy, some are more off and they like just let me be. Yeah, everyone's different. Everyone's different but if you but with a with a star of that caliber on set if you don't get that code well within the first half day. Yeah, the rest of the shoot you it's gone. If they want to start pushing you around. I had this one director I knew they had a did a movie with with like, some big let's just call them big action stars. Got it? That if I tell you you name you know who they are at? 80s and 90s action stars. Okay. Yeah, I'm pretty sure. All right, within the first 15 minutes, they tested them. And that was over. And they beat him up and pushed him around the entire show. The entire show because he did not know how to handle those kind of personalities. So it's it directly is not only about cameras and lenses, and micromanaging a whole set. Dude, it's insane, man. It's insane. Now talk talk a little bit about the movie we've been talking about the making of it. What's the movie The name is Monday. The movies called Monday. Tell us how you came up with what's it about all that good stuff.

Alejandro Montoya Marin 27:42
So Monday is an action comedy. very inspired by after hours and Scorsese. Yeah, right I love I love right all those like really fast paced PT Anderson kind of movement. Yeah. And it's a it's about a stoner who gets fired and dumped. So when he tries to get his life back together, he gets caught in the middle of a cartel war,

Alex Ferrari 28:05
Of course. why it happens every day.

Alejandro Montoya Marin 28:11
So it's him kind of like escaping the inevitable because when he gets caught in a cartel war, he gets a you know, he's like, basically like, you have to kill this person or we kill you in your family.

Alex Ferrari 28:24
Nice. Nice. So you're really pushing the the obstacles on this poor character?

Alejandro Montoya Marin 28:31
Oh, yeah, no, we tried. And we tried to make it like a roller coaster ride. And my movies only 16 minutes. But I think what we set out to do we did. I went into this to the Rebel Without a crew show. Not trying to Oh, make the next reservoir make the next holiday make the next year? No, just make a movie that has no plot holes. You're really under a lot of stress and cameras pointed at you. 24 seven. Okay.

Alex Ferrari 28:58
Okay. I couldn't imagine being sane. It was it was pretty insane. Yeah, because it's it's difficult enough to direct a feature up but then to have the pressure of A documentary crew following you every second of every day. You can't lose your shit. You can't say something stupid because now it's on tape. Yep. Oh, God. Yeah, it's been an experience.

Alejandro Montoya Marin 29:23
So that's what the whole goal was. It's just like look, just make make sure you have no plot holes and have a good time make a bundle

Alex Ferrari 29:31
Survive basically survive.

Alejandro Montoya Marin 29:33
Yeah, it also be I also every time I do a movie I always think of the spectator like I don't know if I said that right. Sorry. English is my second line. The the audience member expect that or expect our audience Yes, of course. I do movies that I would love to sit down and like I would watch Sure. Like if someone told me that page, you know what I mean? Yes, of course it will be I'm like I watched the shit out of you.

Alex Ferrari 30:00
That's awesome, man. That's awesome. Now you also just, you got to another milestone if not making your first feature, if not having Robert Rodriguez, mentor you, if not shooting all around Austin and having a good old time and being on a show. You just screened your movie at South by Southwest this year. What is the hell was that like?

Alejandro Montoya Marin 30:22
That it was amazing. I mean, I remember for people that are not in the film industry, like I was telling my cousin's right, like, Hey, we screened I don't know, March. It was March 12. Actually, I remember the exact date. And they still hadn't had they're from Mexico City, and they hadn't had taken spot a week before. And I'm like, Hey, I just want to let you know, this isn't a rinky dink Film Festival. It's one of the top in the world. If you think you're gonna just like waltz in get tickets. It's like, bro, it doesn't happen that way.

Alex Ferrari 30:57
They're like, Oh, this is a little film festival. Okay. No, yeah. Exactly. He didn't even give us tickets. Okay, well, that. Sorry, man. I can't. Oh, God, I could only imagine the craziness. I mean, yeah, I mean, look as filmmakers you want. You want Sundance you want south by you want Tribeca. Toronto can, you know, the top five, like, you know, and there's and there's been a handful of other ones there as well. But there's only really five to 10 big festivals in the world that mean anything anymore, in a lot of ways, and South by Southwest as climbed up that ladder to be arguably one of the top two or three festivals in the country.

Alejandro Montoya Marin 31:46
Oh, yeah, dude, no, it was an experience like the whole city of Austin like

Alex Ferrari 31:52
I've never been I've never been but they shut down. I hear

Alejandro Montoya Marin 31:55
Dude. You're gonna have a blast. There's, there's always parties. There's always people. There's craziness. No, no, it was so much fun. You got to you get to meet. Like my star. Jamie got to meet Ethan Hawke. Like it's just, I got no, it's so much fun, man. It was it was overwhelming. And you know how you when you have one of the best moments in your life or days in your life? It goes by really quick. Yep. That's how it was man. And there was the show. Yeah, it's over. But thanks to the show, I could always relive it because it was just ear to ear smile and just you know, enjoying just going for the ride.

Alex Ferrari 32:34
That was a lot of fun. That's so awesome. And so what's the net? What's next for you, man?

Alejandro Montoya Marin 32:38
Well, we're already in talks of doing another feature we got financed to do another one that we're figuring out of it's doing one full movie or partially financed to do another one

Alex Ferrari 32:49
Are we talking another seven grand or are we a little bit higher? I mean, it's in your anytime it's eating? You're an artist. It's above the art.

Alejandro Montoya Marin 33:00
No, Kenji. I'm a fan art. Now we, um, we were actually thinking, am I doing a sequel? For for Monday? Yeah, it will be called Tuesday.

Alex Ferrari 33:15
Of course. And then you got five more five more sequels make a whole series out of it?

Alejandro Montoya Marin 33:19
Yeah. Right, if they like and if people watch the first one or the second one.

Alex Ferrari 33:23
Now, as far as distribution is concerned, how does that work? And who owns it? Do you own it as a troublemaker on it?

Alejandro Montoya Marin 33:30
Yeah, it's gonna be screening on go 90 and l right. So they have they have the rights. And I'm perfectly fine with that. Because I got it. I said, I'm a fan of El Rey network

Alex Ferrari 33:40
So that it's on El Rey, you'll be like happy as all hell.

Alejandro Montoya Marin 33:44
Oh, heck yeah, dude. I mean, obviously, we can sell distribution for like, International. That could be awesome. Just other languages. Check the movie out.

Alex Ferrari 33:52
Sure. Of course, of course. Now, listen, so I'm going to give you a lightning round of a bunch of questions to ask all of my guests. What advice would you give a filmmaker wanting to break into the business today?

Alejandro Montoya Marin 34:04
It's gonna be hard. You're gonna get no, every day, multiple times a day. But if you really love it, and you and this is the only thing you want to do, do it. Because it's a beautiful feeling when you accomplish or you take a step up. So do what you love. But make sure you're going to suffer. It's going to take a lot of work and you're gonna have to learn and work a lot. If anything is is like those eight years of pain are all worth for that one minute of, Hey, I

Alex Ferrari 34:33
Just screamed at South by Southwest. I agree. But isn't isn't Isn't that like that moment you'd like? I've been busting my ass for a decade. But I just got here and it's all worth it.

Alejandro Montoya Marin 34:44
It's weird. When rubber I'm not gonna lie, dude, Robert. Shared we got our first review from a game of Geek No, yeah. or

Alex Ferrari 34:58
Kind of Geek than a geek or something like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Alejandro Montoya Marin 35:01
Damn it I'm so I feel so embarrassed that I can't remember. I gotta say, I gotta plug the police

Alex Ferrari 35:09
Doors but what did they buy? You're looking What did they say?

Alejandro Montoya Marin 35:12
They gave me such an amazing review on the movie like they saw it and they loved it that Robert shared on all his social media, our movie poster nice yeah man and I was just like Jesus Christ. You know what I mean? Like Of course of course of course. I was like I cried a little.

Alex Ferrari 35:38
You should cry a lot, sir. That's a hell of an accomplishment, man. No questions. Now, can you tell me the book that had the biggest impact on your life or career?

Alejandro Montoya Marin 35:48
I mean, obviously Rebel was a one

Alex Ferrari 35:49
Rebel Without a crew. Of course,

Alejandro Montoya Marin 35:51
Rebel Without a crew was one of them. But I love the Godfather. Like I loved the Godfather I that way I love the movie already. When I was a kid, like I saw that movie way too young

Alex Ferrari 36:05
I my my six year olds already seen it. It's amazing.

Alejandro Montoya Marin 36:08
That's a fantastic movie. And then reading the book was just pretty mind blowing. Like, I was like, oh my god. This is amazing.

Alex Ferrari 36:17
Right!

Alejandro Montoya Marin 36:17
It's an amazing movie. There's a lot of stuff that that's not in the movie. So it just makes everything seem better, or not better. But like, we discovered little layers of it's,

Alex Ferrari 36:27
It's more flavor. It's just different layers of flavor to something that you thought was delicious in the first place. Now, what is the lesson that took you the longest to learn whether in the film business or in life?

Alejandro Montoya Marin 36:39
And by the way, it's game of nerds?

Alex Ferrari 36:40
There it is good game of nerds?

Alejandro Montoya Marin 36:43
I think it is game of nerds. Jeez, that's a that's a tough one. Man. I think one big one that I've been discussing a lot is you can't really compare yourself to everyone because everyone has a different trajectory that you're going that they're taking to get to the top or to get to one of the top spots or you know,

Alex Ferrari 37:13
Wherever they're going wherever they go.

Alejandro Montoya Marin 37:14
Exactly. So when you see someone that didn't struggle, maybe as much as you or

Alex Ferrari 37:22
Like Robert like, like Robert like 23 he gets a frickin studio deal. Yeah, man, but he sold his blood. He was married. He had kids he married enough. Fair enough. But a lot of people, a lot of people would still bust his balls like you were 23 you got it handed to you. But they don't know that story of all the other stuff they had to go through to get to that point. But still, I get a I see your point.

Alejandro Montoya Marin 37:41
Yeah, no, it's you just can't compare yourself. If it happens, it happens. I think that I never wanted. First of all I can I don't think I'll ever be as talented as Spielberg or Rodriguez or Tarantino. But if I those guys are just like they're just so good at what they do. And I think the fact that if I can make a living and live comfortably doing art and making films, I it feels like I accomplished what I set out to do in life.

Alex Ferrari 38:12
No, absolutely. I mean, if you can make a living doing your art My God, you've won, right? You've won dude. And like, and you don't have to be the major league, you know, star that hits 100 home runs in a season. Like exactly you could be the guy with a 250 average and that's just working and getting people on base and doing your job and making a living doing what you love. You don't you know, there are those look, there's there's only one LeBron there's there's only one Michael Jordan and you know, there's a whole a whole League of guys who wanted to be Michael Jordan.

Alejandro Montoya Marin 38:46
Exactly. It's, you know, it's I don't know, man. I feel like that's the that's the ultimate goal. You're doing what you love. It's like the RED LETTER MEDIA guys on YouTube. You know what I mean? They look like they're having a blast.

Alex Ferrari 39:01
Yeah, absolutely. Look rocketjump those guys. I mean, yeah, it wasn't the teeth, chicken teeth or roosterteeth. roosterteeth. Yeah, Rooster Teeth, chicken T. Rooster. Rooster Teeth. Those guys are they're having a ball. You know? Are they making Avengers? No, but they're having a ball and that's okay. That's perfectly fine.

Alejandro Montoya Marin 39:25
Right time. They're paying their bills. They're hanging out with people that love art and they're having fun. Like, dude, you're good.

Alex Ferrari 39:32
You're good at that point. Now, what are three of your favorite films of all time? Star Wars The Godfather of pulp fiction. Good, good trio. Good. Good. Good. Now and where can people find you online?

Alejandro Montoya Marin 39:45
They can go to Instagram and look up Alejandro Montoya Marino, one word, or on Facebook and it kinda Mongolia marine and also on YouTube. I have a YouTube page that I don't really do a lot on but it has music videos, short films, and I usually document on my iPhone when we go to another film five minute videos of just what we're doing on a montage of music and nice to do

Alex Ferrari 40:11
Nice that and of course you have your website.

Alejandro Montoya Marin 40:14
I do www.AlejandroMontoyaMarin.com.

Alex Ferrari 40:17
Very cool, man. Alejandro, man, thank you for sharing your journey with us, man. And congratulations, man. I mean, you've definitely you're one of five people who had a very unique experience. So that's why I wanted to have you on the show. And thank you again, for the inspiration, sir.

Alejandro Montoya Marin 40:32
No, thank you so much for having me, man. And hopefully, people can go check out the show because it definitely has a feel of inspiration and a feeling that you shouldn't you shouldn't give up if you really want it. Because I mean, come on, man. I never I never thought in my mind. Yeah, I'm gonna shake Robert Rodriguez and and we're gonna talk about credit or in his office.

Alex Ferrari 40:56
Right! That's generally not in the cards for most people.

Alejandro Montoya Marin 41:00
Exactly. I never thought it would like we would say that, like, You're crazy, man. Thank you so much for having me. This was fun. I was looking forward to this.

Alex Ferrari 41:08
Thanks, man. I gotta admit, I'm a little jealous, I gotta admit. No, but seriously, I want to thank all 100 for coming on and sharing his journey. But I mean, who wouldn't want this opportunity who wouldn't have wanted to be mentored by Robert Rodriguez and go through this process, and I'm so glad it's worked out for him. And Monday is an awesome action movie. And if you guys get a chance to watch it, definitely see it on the El Rey network, which I'll put links in the show notes at indiefilmhustle.com/252. And if you guys have not read Robert Rodriguez, his legendary book called Rebel Without a crew, about his experience making, and mariachi and his Hollywood experience, which I think is even more interesting of what he went through, and how he kind of rose the ranks with that movie. It is a an eye opening book. So I will have a link for it in the show notes as well. Please check it out. And also check out the show it is going to be airing on the El Rey network. I'd also like to thank our new sponsor streamlet.com. Now if you're selling your film on amazon prime, and noticing that you're not getting a whole lot of cash for nowadays, think about also putting it on streamlet. It is a SVOD platform, a subscription based platform where your movie will not be buried, it's free to submit and has a royalty rate three times as much as Amazon. So you get to keep all the rights. So if you want to submit your film today, go to streamlette.com that's s t r e a m l e t t e.com. And I'll leave a link to it in the show notes. And that's it another one in the can number 252 Thanks for all the support guys. And again, if you have not gone to filmmakingpodcast.com and leave me a good review a good five star review. Stop what you're doing right now and go do that. If you liked the show, it helps me out helps to show out so so much. So thanks for your support, guys. And as always keep that also going. Keep that dream alive. And I'll talk to you soon.