You’ve worked extensively with filmmaker Robert Rodriguez. Is that why you’re attracted to digital video?
“It’s a mix. It’s definitely part of being with Robert and seeing what he’s able to do with digital video. You know, it’s what gave me the entire decision that I would never touch the film camera. If Robert’s not touching a film camera, how would I dare do it? But at the same time, I’ve had a video camera in my hands since I was 14 years old. I don’t want to develop a film. I don’t want to load a magazine. I don’t want to deal with stuff that I have never had to be dealing with.
I think film is such an anti-artistic form in so many ways. The level of performance that we got in ‘Secuestro’ we could have never been achieved in film. It’s as simple as that. Sometimes we were shooting for 40 minutes with three simultaneous cameras. There’s no budget that can give you that in film because you have to change the magazine. So it doesn’t matter how it looks, if the performance is not as good as it is in video, then it’s worse. People go to the movies to see people - to see performances - not to see the quality or the beauty of an image. And that’s why I would never work in that format –in 35.”
You’ve set the bar high with your first film. How are you going to follow this up?
(Laughing) “My intention is to try to reinvent every genre that I work in. If I’m going to do a scary movie, I’m gonna try to change the rules of scary movies. And if I can make a little classic out of every film that I make I’ll be satisfied. If not, at least I’m gonna try.”
What genre are you tackling next?
“Fear. I think fear is the more ambitious of the feeling you can get in an audience. You would never get to the level of happiness with a comedy as much as you get to the level of fear with a real, real scary story. But I’m not talking about, you know, a monster or anything. I’m talking about real psychological - philosophical fear – something that’s not gonna give you nightmares that day but that week.”
