- Rolling! - Rolling, rolling.
- [Crew member] We got this.
- [Noodles] Who did this? - I did.
(ominous music)
- [Noodles] Did you just talk?
- I could always talk.
I simply chose to observe and listen instead.
- When you work on a movie,
you really need to be able to change things on the fly.
I learned this one the hard way.
Ojo used to have only one eye when she turned into an alien.
- And we actually filmed it that way.
As a back up.
And we actually finished the visual effect for it that way.
(film whirring) (gentle music)
Hi, this is Robert Rodriguez.
Director of "We Can Be Heroes".
- Greetings fellow grownups.
- I wanna talk to you about this film
which has now been out for some time.
It seemed to resonate with families all over the world.
It's because this film was made by a family,
for families.
And this series is about showing the different people
in the company called "RR Productions",
which happens to be made up entirely of my family members.
We all have double R names, Robert Rodriguez,
Racer Rodriguez, Rebel, Rogue, Rhiannon.
And they all played important roles
in the making of the film.
I wanted this film to really feel like children
were taking over the world.
Their powers are such heightened powers
that if you work together and partner with your children,
partner with the younger generation,
amazing things could happen.
There's so much incredible imagination that goes into it,
and it comes from the minds of children.
So we'll start off first with Rhiannon.
- Hello, I'm Rhiannon Rodriguez,
and I'm an artist on We Can Be Heroes.
- Rhiannon here inspired so many
of the characters in the film.
And the main character that was based on you,
because you're always drawing on your ever-present iPad.
- That's Ojo.
Her power is she's a genius drawer.
- About a month before we started filming,
my Dad told me I was gonna make
all of Ojo's drawings for her iPad.
Sent me the character designs and told me "go nuts."
- This is one of your normal drawings.
I had you downgrade your style,
'cause it was gonna be too stylish for a young girl
on the movie to conceivably do.
We didn't wanna make it look like she was too good at it,
so we had you downgrade your style a little bit,
and create something that looked like
it could be iconic, yet look like a little girl could do.
You drew two versions of this,
one with two eyes that gave her away, and the tentacles,
and then one with just the one eye.
- We decided that she was such a good actress,
and so expressive with her beautiful little peepers
that we just kept her with two eyes,
and gave her tentacles instead as her alien form.
- How'd you figure it out?
- It shows that the character designing doesn't stop
till you finish making the movie.
I'll practice drawing with anything I can get my hands on.
Paper, pencil, watercolors.
But technology like iPads and drawing programs
really do take it to another level.
Whatever you choose, it's important that you practice.
A lot.
All drawings are made up of a few basic things.
Lines, shapes, colors, and perspective to name a few.
Learning the basics will allow you
to make your drawings look their best.
There's plenty of tutorials out there made by great artists.
So if you learn how they use the basics,
and practice them, you will improve fast.
And that's Ojo.
Another important lesson I learned
is being ready to change your idea.
- [Robert] I had you draw many versions of these,
and you had to draw them on the set
because we wouldn't know till we got there
where things were gonna be.
- Yeah. - So you couldn't
even pre-draw them; we didn't know till we were there
that the desks were gonna look this way.
So you had to be on the set with your iPad
and draw very fast.
Draw all these really fun drawings.
Like I remember I told you, "This has to be--
- Yes. - important."
"This has to be in the drawing, you have to show the fan."
So we have to wait till we're there
so you could see it and draw it in.
And here is one of my favorites.
You really captured Wildcard's pose.
(both chuckle)
And then when you drew that, I thought,
"We have to have him in this pose."
- Yeah. - When he gets grabbed,
and in the film.
(fan crashing) (man screaming)
- I told you your plan wouldn't work.
(tentacles squelching)
- He can't help but conform to the pre-vision
that Ojo has had for him.
So that's a really fun extra little gag in there.
- It was fun, I liked it.
- One of the first drawings you did
was this little girl with an umbrella,
and it's raining on the inside,
and she's covered with water.
And that was like, we've done that,
and it ended up becoming Guppy.
So it's always fun to see how these early designs
transform over time into the final characters.
- I've been drawing for as long as I can remember.
I remember when I was younger,
my family and I would draw together.
My Dad and I would come up with characters,
and we'd draw 'em out.
When I was 11, my Dad had an iPad Pro he wasn't using.
And he thought, "Hey, my daughter loves drawing."
So he gave it to me along with a stylus.
That was when my drawing journey actually began.
Or at least when I started getting serious about it.
I was a mad woman, I made four finished drawings
every single day.
I loved it, I loved doing it, and I still love doing it.
- Another character that was inspired by you
was Facemaker.
- He makes the craziest faces.
(Facemaker makes ghostly noise)
And I just thought, it was just so funny
to see you contort your face,
and I thought, "That's gotta be a superpower.
I mean, all kids love to make faces."
- It's what happens when you grow up with brothers.
- And we would do this liquefy trick, remember? On Rogue?
He had such big eyes.
And you all loved this Photoshop trick I did
where I liquified his eyes and made him really sad.
And we used that on Facemaker,
and that gets a big reaction, but it's based on,
again, some of the fun games we play at home.
Your nickname for instance.
Her name is Rhiannon,
but her nickname since she was two was Missy.
So, she always went by Missy.
So the character of Missy is one of the four characters
that were based on her.
I mean, the relationship between Marcus and Missy
is very much based on our relationship.
Growing up, the father daughter experience together
is something that's just very sacred and life-giving.
And so inspiring, and it's a different energy.
It's just really a cherished relationship to have,
and I wanted to put that into a film.
So the thing about the eggs cracking,
we always would cook together.
- Dada, I wanna do the eggs.
(egg cracks)
- Okay, put it in there.
Crack it hard against the, (gasps), okay.
That happens with me.
I mean, in the movie, Marcus,
nothing but egg yolk and eggs go into the sink,
and with me, I get into a rhythm.
Crack the shell, put the shell in the trash
and the egg in the bowl.
Shell in the trash, egg in the bowl.
Eventually, you get out of order,
and the yolk goes into the trash
and the shell goes into the bowl.
(Rhiannon laughs)
Gets me every time, so we put that into the movie.
The handshake that they do
at the end of the movie,
is something, we've always just done that.
She did that for us, and a nod to our relationship
since her and Pedro are basically playing you and me.
- Yeah. (both laugh)
- And how strange is that, Easter egg here.
- Yeah, right? - Rhiannon plays Big Bean,
the character of Big Bean
that is carrying the character of Missy on her shoulders
at one point in the school yard
when they're trying to get a ball.
And that's Rhiannon there.
And we thought, how surreal is this?
Missy is carrying Missy, a character based on you.
- Yeah. - Another character
that was inspired by you is, you're always singing.
- And this is Acapella.
- It me. - Mmhmm.
- I thought, well that needs to be a superpower,
so Acapella came directly from
Rhiannon's love of singing.
She even sings a little part of a song in the movie
called "Wake Up Sleepyhead." - Yeah!
- That we were just jamming.
(Robert playing rock guitar riff)
Can you add the lyrics?
♪ Wake up sleepyhead ♪
♪ Get out of bed ♪
♪ You sleepyhead ♪
♪ Wake up ♪
So this is our jam room, this is where we rock out.
And thought a lot of times, the music for the movies
come out of those jam sessions,
and this was an idea for "Wake Up Sleepyhead."
We wanted to have an alarm clock sound
that woke Missy up out of bed.
- Mmhmm.
(playing upbeat hard rock guitar riff)
♪ Wake up sleepyhead ♪
♪ Get out of bed you sleepyhead ♪
♪ Wake up ♪
(upbeat rock song plays on radio)
♪ Wake up sleepyhead ♪
- One of the strangest things, months before the movie.
We were listening a lot to an artist you discovered
and I discovered at the same time, Haley Reinhart.
- I think actually you were away, I was at home.
And I sent you that video, one of the videos
of something she sang, and you said,
"Oh, I just found her recently too."
- I had just found her in a different way,
in something else. - Yeah.
- That's just the universe
pushing different artists together.
And she came to us with that acapella version
of "Heroes"; she recorded it in her car
and sent it to me just as a demo.
And I thought, "Oh my god, this is the whole ending sequence
that unites Missy with her father."
I mean, the whole thing comes together.
All the dots connect, right?
- It all does. - And it feels pre-destined,
and it's a big moment, and it comes through the music,
it comes because we were both listening to it
at the same time while painting the drawings
that tell a future, which is what the story of Ojo is about.
She tells the future with her drawings,
and we kind of, by accident,
told the future with our drawings.
It's a pretty spectacular, awe-inspiring phenomenon
to be apart of.
Art, in any way, shape, or form, with your family.
Magic happens.
- It all boils down to practice and skill.
I drew like everyone else when I was younger.
I drew stick figures with heads that are too big
for them to possibly walk.
It's something you need to work towards
if you wanna get better.
Like anything, it takes practice.
Everyone's got a creative side to them.
You just need to find a way to bring it out.
Can't wait to see y'all use your creative noggins.
Thanks for watching.
Have a good day y'all.