Elizabeth Avellan is not only the producer of Spy Kids 3D: Game Over, she is also the wife of creator Robert Rodriguez. But there's no slacking here—Elizabeth works 24/7 to make the Spy Kidsdomain work like clockwork!

Q: Tell us exactly what a producer does?
Elizabeth Avellan: There are many different kinds of producers. Some of them are more creative oriented—they develop scripts with the filmmaker or the writers. In my case, I'm the physical production producer, where I handle the money and budgeting and make sure the scheduling happens and people are hired.

Robert Rodriguez is the creative side of the producing team. He's also the writer of the movie and the director. For example, he wrote the script so he knows what kind of actors he might want for the roles. He goes through the casting sessions and once he casts someone, I end up making the deals. I handle when they get here, make sure that the contract is fulfilled to the letter. I also make sure that those actors are taken care of, that they're treated well and that any of their needs are met.

So that's sort of how we divide it up. Robert chooses who he wants to hire for the heads of the department; I make sure that the heads of the departments get hired. They then fill their crew with whomever they need, and we make sure those crews have everything they need to make the movie happen.

So my job is doing a lot of personal relationship kind of things…a lot of management of funds and a lot of psychology. That's what's really fun for me about it—keeping a lot of balls in the air.

Q: How did you get started in films?
Elizabeth: I did a lot of theatre when I was in college, just working behind the scenes a lot. I took some film production courses in college. It was something that I'd always enjoyed. I liked movies. Robert Rodriguez—I met him when he had been making a lot of short films on his own. He wasn't even in film school yet at University of Texas at Austin.

First we were friends, and then we got married. When I met him, I started helping him with whatever we needed. Any little thing he needed, I just filled in any gap. They were little things, usually. He knew that I was good at what I did. I worked for the Executive Vice President of the University of Texas doing budgets and things like that. We both worked there and he admired my organizational skills, which is really what it takes to be a great producer. So when he made El Mariachi and Hollywood took notice, he wanted me to come with him.

I went to school while he was doing another movie with another producer. One of those producers mentored me—a woman named Deborah Hill—and she let me sit in on some meetings and listen to everything they did and said; how the tough decisions were made, how to make a budget stretch more. I had lots of mentors along the way.

I also took a lot of classes, so education really played a huge role in my ability to jump into a whole new business and to be able to do what I do. I'm always learning. Every movie you learn something new and it's education every time. To me that's the most important thing, education really.

Q: Where did you take classes?
Elizabeth: At a UCLA extension. There were some producing courses, screenwriting courses, and things like that, which I thought might help me with how people decide what makes a script or not. You know, a lot of going into a new business has to do with the terminology. So it's about learning the language of that particular business that helps you—it's the first education you should get.
Q: What made Robert pick Alexa Vega and Daryl Sabara?

Elizabeth: Robert was looking for kids who had sassiness about them—a spunk about them that wasn't fake spunk. He also needed them to kind of look something like they would be a family. That was a big consideration. We hadn't picked a mom yet and Robert kind of held out on having the mom for the reason that I'm stating. He wanted to make sure that these kids could be Antonio Banderas's kids, and who else's kids?

I think it really worked out well because even though Darryl has red hair, the mother [Carla Gugino] has red hair, but his nose is similar to Antonio's, and something in the eyes. You see them in a family picture and they look like a family. And Alexa has Carla Gugino's chin a little bit, the face. It's interesting how it all worked out, because it was really important to us. Robert specifically picked them.

Every once in a while he'd show me one or another and get my opinion, and there was a screen test with Bob Weinstein, the head of Miramax. They decided between them who should do it, because we knew it would probably be at least a couple of movies. So we needed kids who could pull it off in three movies. We needed four people who could be really a cohesive family.

Q: How long does it take from concept to final cut?
Elizabeth: Most movies take somewhere between nine months to a year. This particular one took more like six, seven months. It's a lot of work, but at the same time we didn't have to do a lot of casting because we knew who the characters were. We just had to bring in a few people—new characters. One of them is Sylvester Stallone, and he's wonderful. He's great in it. It does take a whole year of your life. It's almost like having a baby.

Q: If a kid wanted to get into films and acting wasn't their thing, what would you suggest they do?
Elizabeth: First of all, I would start making movies at home with the video camera. Anything they can do—nowadays there are so many ways. Macintosh has that program where you cut up movies. It's so easy to use—anybody can use it. My kids could use it.

But at the same time, make images so you can learn what it takes to make a movie, so you can find out, "I really like working with props," or "I really like making the things that we put in the movies," or "I really like doing the wardrobe." You know, all the different jobs.

And when you're making a movie you have to do them all, so it helps to whittle down ones you might not like or which ones you're really good at specifically.

And then there are several routes. You could go to film school. You could get involved with theatre when you're in junior high. And I'm not necessarily talking acting, but technical theatre, doing the stage-managing and the lighting and all of that stuff. Its just going to help you—all of that is going to help you develop the sense that it is a production.

Movies are a production; theatre is a production. They relate to each other in ways that you may not think they do, but they do. And then, I mean, either interning or helping people make short films during college. Even if you're not in film school, just help—I'll come give a hand; I'll do anything; I'll carry the light, I'll carry the camera, whatever. Just be a part of it, you know? Or if you're really good with makeup, go help them put the makeup on for nothing.

It takes a lot of working for nothing, but it's part of your education too. Makeup, for example, is not just making someone beautiful. For example, if someone has a black eye, you have to follow that black eye in the exact same way and you may be filming two days with a black eye, two days of no black eye, and then you have to do the black eye the fifth and sixth day exactly how it was the first and second day. Films are not always shot in sequence. Makeup is about telling a story and being able to do continuity through makeup. It's very detail oriented—it should be somebody that's really detail oriented.