Chainsaws, slackers, and spy kids : thirty years of filmmaking in Austin, Texas / Alison Macor.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Macor, Alison, 1966- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Motion picture industry--Texas--Austin--History.

Motion picture industry.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (393 p.)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Austin, TX : University of Texas Press, [2010]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

During the 1990s, Austin achieved "overnight" success and celebrity as a vital place for independent filmmaking. Directors Richard Linklater and Robert Rodriguez proved that locally made films with regional themes such as Slacker and El Mariachi could capture a national audience. Their success helped transform Austin's homegrown film community into a professional film industry staffed with talented, experienced filmmakers and equipped with state-of-the art-production facilities. Today, Austin struggles to balance the growth and expansion of its film community with an ongoing commitment to nurture the next generation of independent filmmakers. Chainsaws, Slackers, and Spy Kids chronicles the evolution of this struggle by re-creating Austin's colorful movie history. Based on revealing interviews with Richard Linklater, Robert Rodriguez, Mike Judge, Quentin Tarantino, Matthew McConaughey, George Lucas, and more than one hundred other players in the local and national film industries, Alison Macor explores how Austin has become a proving ground for contemporary independent cinema. She begins in the early 1970s with Tobe Hooper's horror classic, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and follows the development of the Austin film scene through 2001 with the production and release of Rodriguez's $100-million blockbuster, Spy Kids. Each chapter explores the behind-the-scenes story of a specific movie, such as Linklater's Dazed and Confused and Judge's Office Space, against the backdrop of Austin's ever-expanding film community.

Contents:

Hippies and the cowboys all looked alike

Living nightmare: Tobe Hooper and the Texas chainsaw massacre

Eagle Pennell and the rise of regional filmmaking

Made in Austin: the Austin chronicle and red headed stranger

Slacker: the least auteur film ever made

Mariachi kid: Robert Rodriguez and el mariachi

Reluctant quarterback: Richard Linklater and dazed and confused

Winning the battle, losing the war: the Newton boys

Company man: Tim Mccanlies and dancer, Texas pop

Office space: the making of a cult classic

Rebel with or without a crew: Robert Rodriguez and spy kids

Outside the system, inside the system.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (pages [345]-346) and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780292778290

0292778295

9780292792920

0292792921

OCLC:

613699725