Rodriguez’s Hypnotic is introduced by its designers at the Blue Starlite… where the movie was shot!

Hi there, how you doing? My name's Kayla. I'm one of the production designers on Hypnotic. And just when you look around tonight, it's so incredibly beautiful tonight. You'll see this, see this extraordinary setting around us and how visually stunning it really is. And our director, Robert Rodriguez, absolutely fell in love with this setting, and he's been shooting here for many, many years. And Austin is constantly changing, and you can see around us how much so. And so it was a really great chance for us to be down here.

Yeah, this is a lot of fun to come back here. It was 2 years ago, I think, that we were up here on that corner. We had Ben and his crew coming out of that door right there, 4A. You'll see it in the movie in a few minutes. Um, this is a great location, and we originally booted this up in Santa Clarita, California. Um, we were 3 weeks— we worked there for 8 weeks.

6 weeks.

6 weeks there. We had sets built. March 13th I saw that South by Southwest was canceled, and that's when I turned to Kayla and said, I think we might have a problem.

Seriously.

Within a week, we were shut down and gone. And that cost us a lot.

I think the, obviously, the good fortune we have shot here for so many years. Of course, you know, we, I think we shut down a total of 3 times before we were actually able to get the film made. And as Robert has mentioned, I think we had like a 55-day shooting schedule originally, and it ended up being, you know, something like 33 days.

We shot it in Austin, but we're so familiar with Austin. First time we worked here was in 1998 on The Faculty for Kevin Williamson.

And there was this kid named Elijah Wood who then became Frodo in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings.

Yeah, we had him first. In fact, he did his test reel for that movie right after that with George Yes, he did. Pardon?

Lord of the Rings.

Lord of the Rings. You can come closer. No one watches this.

The one that, um, you all had him for.

Oh, The Faculty.

Oh, I remember The Faculty. Kevin Williamson was really huge for, uh, the TV series Chicken Little.

Um, he had a lot going on.

Yeah, he did.

But we, we definitely, um, you know, it's— as Austin is changing so much, we, we really had to look for a good route rooftop location for a sequence that you're going to see. And we, we did it. We did some trick photography.

Oh yeah.

Built kind of a trick setup here.

We duplicated the corner of that and put it on a 5-foot-high platform with the pipes and everything.

Oh wow.

Oh, there you go. Yeah, there's the platform.

Oh yeah.

That's right there in that corner. And we pulled it back 12 feet from the edge and had the big 2-foot stunt cushion back there, and you actually could roll off the rail. And it literally looks like he went right off the side of the building. Because safety first. In camera, no digital effect, no process shot.

That's awesome.

And Robert loves that. He loves to be able to cut in camera and do it for real.

Yeah.

And William Fichtner loved it too because it looks like he just did this hairy 4-story fall.

Yeah, he had fun. And I think obviously Robert had fun. I don't know if you know, but Robert had— he had been gestating this movie since like 2002. And we had, you know, we knew him and were working with him at that point. I think it was Spy Kids 2 that he originally started to have the idea, and his kids even knew about it.

Yeah, he was on a binge watch of all the great Hitchcocks. Yeah, Vertigo, some of my favorites.

We show Vertigo up on this roof like 4, 6 times a year. Yeah, yeah, that was actually the first movie we showed when we, when we opened here during the pandemic. We showed Vertigo. Yeah, this building looks like the opening of North by Yeah, the lines and the South Pass font and everything.

Yeah, that great opening scene. Yeah, so this is kind of unusual, this rooftop location, because the space above a parking garage usually has a building on top of it. Yeah, this is a state garage that was built a long time ago. There'll be no building here ever, right?

Or, or, or the, the roof is very thin by the top of it. There's like only a couple lanes for parking. The fact that this is so sprawling.

Big real estate.

Yeah.

And you're surrounded. It looks like a process shot.

Yeah, yeah.

I mean, I feel like I'm in a volume and it's some kind of trick.

Yeah. And it is, it is actually a favorite spot. Like on Sunday mornings, I just have to tell you, we'll get our Joe's Coffee and we'll come up here.

Oh, really?

We have breakfast up here on Sundays usually.

But, but we had taken some photographs and the light on, on the day we were shooting had all these ripple effects in all these windows and made these incredible hypnotic patterns. And that was one of the things that just was so captivating. Because we definitely had to look the entire time we were looking for locations for, for like repeating patterns, things that would cue. And also downstairs on the bottom floor, you'll see a breezeway that had the pattern, the beautiful solar blocks. Yeah, we used those and then we made our own, um, of those solar blocks and added them.

I was wondering when, when I was watching, I was like That's like— and also like one of the posters is of Ben Affleck in front of, of, of, of the, the wall. And, and that wall is so distinctive. It's like, it's beautiful. And when, when I first took this location, that was the first thing I noticed. Like, oh, when people come in, they're gonna see this wall. That's good. I like that.

So you're in for a treat.

Yeah.

And I just have to say, Steve and I are also huge fans of like beautiful cinder block. Oh yeah.

Like all around the country, like you find those unusual ones. But yeah, very big photo library.

But yes, Robert was definitely— he was keyed on and was clearly thrilled that we were able to come back to Austin. And there's— I just have to say, there's also a train yard in Austin that we were able to shoot in. Very, very hard to do nowadays. You know, you can't really— you have to have absolute control.

Yeah, you can't stop them once they start. And we actually We actually have— well, you'll see. I don't know how many spoilers you guys can tolerate, but there is a great shot where Ben is under a train and it's moving over him, and we did it for real. It's really like right here. That is amazing. Completely controlled.

Well, when Troublemaker called me, you know, as for the scouting location, they're like, we want to rent your drive-in rooftop for, for a movie shoot. And I was like, great, that's awesome. And they're like, there's one catch. We need you to take down all your drive-in movie screens and everything. thing. And I was like, oh. I was like— I remember that.

I remember that.

And I was like, I was like, so Robert doesn't want my drive-in, he just wants my roof.

But pays off, as you'll see.

No, no, totally. No, of course, as a drive-in owner, I was like, how can you not want to shoot at the drive-in? But of course, I— yeah, but, but, but, uh, it's going to But I'm glad it wasn't because the fact that it's clean and it just, it works so well, and then you can actually see it at the drive-in. So it all comes full circle. It paid off.

This, this was fun for us tonight, obviously, because, you know, of course for us we have memories here. Every moment we hear the voices of our friends and our crew and like, like the struggle and the travails right in this area. And then, you know, it's like 2 years later, oh my 2 semis worth of equipment up the cellar. It's really strange. Yeah, but yeah, you know, I, I know it was, it was a labor of love for Robert.

Yeah, well, we're thrilled. We're honored to be able to show it, and our plan is to show it for as long as people will come and see it.

So it's a beautiful film. I will say, we completely scouted Los Angeles. We looked at all the beautiful downtown stuff in LA. You've seen it a million times, right? Everywhere we went, I was like, oh, there's this. I can't look anywhere that hasn't been shot. It turned out much better here.

Oh, we were thrilled. We have an awesome location manager named John Crowley. He helped us. You probably know him.

Yeah, yeah, we had talked. He's the one who said you got to take your screens down.

But Austin crew, I mean, we've worked for years cultivating really creative people. That's what's the greatest thing about Austin.

I will say one other thing in her biography. We first worked with Robert on a little movie 95 called From Dusk Till Dawn. Wow.

Yeah, well, all the way from then.

All the way, bro. All the way.

Amazing.

A real lucky break for us.

Yeah, that's awesome.

Yeah, we have fun.

Do you have any questions? I mean, you haven't— anything you've been dying to ask about anything besides where's the popcorn, right?

Down over there.

This is our 30th year, I think.

29 or 30 years. 33, but something, you know, some number like that.

How long have y'all been working together? We've worked together since a movie called Madhouse.

Correct. 1989.

Kirstie Alley, rest in peace.

Kirstie.

Yeah.

Out of California originally, or?

Uh, we're both from Arizona, but we We didn't really know each other there. Yeah, we spent a couple of decades in LA.

But now you live here?

Grinding away. He does. I live in a little place called Tucson, Arizona. Oh, it's awesome.

Yeah, I lived at the— just down from MGM on the corner of the 90 and the 405 freeway for 20 years. Yes, well, it's Sony now. Yeah, when I moved there it was MGM.

Yeah, but, but we, we worked with Robert on From Dusk Till Dawn.

That's amazing.

In Los Angeles in the old Lowry's factory.

Still smelled like spice.

Yeah.

The bar, the big bar, we were in there 6 weeks shooting and it smelled like spaghetti sauce.

Yeah, the spices and the aromas. But it was such a beautiful location. It's gone now, but it had this like courtyard and the fountain. Totally like—

she danced in the fountain with Harvey Keitel. I have a picture of her dancing.

I mean, either way, but I think Robert loved it because it was like being in Mexico, the bougainvillea and the fountains and the tiles.

It was a hacienda, beautiful architecture. So I remember that movie, it was very beautiful.

Like, I mean, there was a lot going on vampire-wise, but then—

Yes, a lot going on vampire-wise, but yeah, it was 2 movies.

Yeah, it was a heist movie and then all of a sudden it turned into a vampire movie.

I have one technical question. That I just thought of right now. Uh, it's, it's not the most interesting question, but as the person who runs the drive-in up here, how did you guys deal with the water?

The condenser.

The condenser?

Yes.

The one day we shot up, you were able to turn that off. It was cold enough the condenser shut off by itself.

Oh, amazing.

Because that thing is horrible.

That thing is so— like, if you guys— like, if this was on right now, it would be hard to hear us. Like, actually, that's why It's good. We're a drive-in.

So the first thing I noticed when I came here tonight was that that thing wasn't running because usually the water's right.

It's a beautiful effect. Yeah, and actually it makes a little mist in the summer, which is kind of nice.

But a wee bit loud for sure.

Yes, very loud.

Very loud. Cool.

It's the only disadvantage of this location. But yeah. Oh my God, there it is. Well, for that, originally we're scheduled for just about 60 days in Los Angeles.

We—

every time we booted up, it cost us money. So there was no more money to be had. So we ended up shooting 39 days. We took a 60-day schedule and almost cut it in half.

Crammed it.

And we were hauling ass the whole time. That's a lot of work. It's Robert's forte.

Fortunately, yeah, he's a really good shooter, really good cutter. Obviously, we all have shorthand together. I mean, we don't need to— don't need to say a lot. It's like just right on it.

So, and pretty much the same crew, yeah, now works on all the movies. That's really nice.

Yeah, enjoy.

Well, thank you so much for coming and doing this.

This is so special.

Thanks for showing up.

Yeah, I wish we were in the— you know, sorry, I wish we were in a house so I could watch you guys. When you see where you are in the film, it's going to be fun.

Yeah.

Too, because then afterwards I'd be like, okay, now question: What the hell was that?

Cool.

Well, thank you so much, guys. Wonderful, wonderful having you guys. Enjoy the movie, everybody. All right.

Okay. Okay. Nixon, thank you so.