Lots of work and several weekends. The Director was a good guy, but sure worked my ass off.
The result was pretty good. here it is for you to view! Oh yeah, I am thinner now!
http://vimeo.com/22187968
Went to the premier at Norris Theater on the USC campus. perhaps 400 people there.
When we left I was stopped my at least 6 audience members telling me how good I was! Boy did I like that.
No not just ego, but I always question my performance. Kudos sure help.
met a very cool yoing man there who was a whiz with coin magic. I plan to take lessons from
Ben Proudfoot!
I will add photos soon
Thursday, March 17, 2011
A feature Film at Last!
It is called "Monday the Movie" A brilliant writer-Producer-director named Nat Christan.
I played an ICU DR. I confess to being a tad nervous, very rare for me. I had 4 nice lines and I must have Been okay because Nat hugged me when I was wrapped!
As usual I though of many ways to deliver those lines afterwords. Always the way.
There is a huge cast headed by Molly Kidder of "Gray's Anatomy." A lovely woman and fine actress.
They are shooting in Minnesota now, A wrap party looms! I look forward to it.
I played an ICU DR. I confess to being a tad nervous, very rare for me. I had 4 nice lines and I must have Been okay because Nat hugged me when I was wrapped!
As usual I though of many ways to deliver those lines afterwords. Always the way.
There is a huge cast headed by Molly Kidder of "Gray's Anatomy." A lovely woman and fine actress.
They are shooting in Minnesota now, A wrap party looms! I look forward to it.
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Yeah, I know I said "No more student films". Things change.
I saw a sample of Sean Higgins film making and was impressed. A bright young man with taste.
I did go to the audition at USC yesterday. There was at least one actor there for the same role.
Perhaps a few more were auditioned that day?
By evening I was concerned, here I am doing a freebie and did not land the role! Just when I thought my skills were getting pretty good. I was, well not upset, but annoyed as hell!
Sean was to call me, and had not. I checked my mail before bed and Lo and behold I did get the role!
The film is called "The Aquarium". Not a lot of dialog, but a touching story, I am the lead. Lead, always looks good on ones resume.
The quality of Sean's work should make good "Reel" material. It will take a few Sundays to do.
Today Sunday November 31
A long and good day today. Kind of physical too, but only because of the zillion takes of me spilling bus fare and kneeling to pick it up. Using a cane to regain my feet, only to watch the bus roar off!
Photo of budding Cineamatographer, Nicole setting up a shot.
I did go to the audition at USC yesterday. There was at least one actor there for the same role.
Perhaps a few more were auditioned that day?
By evening I was concerned, here I am doing a freebie and did not land the role! Just when I thought my skills were getting pretty good. I was, well not upset, but annoyed as hell!
Sean was to call me, and had not. I checked my mail before bed and Lo and behold I did get the role!
The film is called "The Aquarium". Not a lot of dialog, but a touching story, I am the lead. Lead, always looks good on ones resume.
The quality of Sean's work should make good "Reel" material. It will take a few Sundays to do.
Today Sunday November 31
Photo of budding Cineamatographer, Nicole setting up a shot.
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Industry contact information
Head shots on succeeding pages !
Email me at kayak4evr@aol.com or contact Phillip EspinozaYou can reach him at Aqua Talent (310)859-8889
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One look at my resume and they usually comment, "Wow, you have been busy!
I have A few TV movies under my belt as well as too many student films to mention. Some were very nice, a few were disasters. Poor planning, poor writing and generally disorganized. Yep, they are learning
As a senior I probably don't have 20 years to become rich and famous! Kidding about the famous. I will be very pleased to do good work in films and commercials.
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"I am too old to wait for success, so I am going ahead without it!"
Apologies to Jonathan Winters.
Industry contact information via "Actors Access."
Represented by AQUA TALENT
I was once remarkably well "connected" in this crazy business. My late "best friend" was
Howard Brown. Columbia Studios called him "Wunderkind."
Howard produced all but one of the "Cheech & Chong" flicks. I would go to sets with Howard and had a generally fun time hanging out.. I was asked a few times.."Hey, wanna be in a movie?"
This was 9 years before the "Bug" bit me. Who knew?
Yes, I do take classes and attend industry seminars as well as CD workshops.
Cyb Barnstable of Sherman Oaks was my first instructor. I am now with Brian Reise. Brian is excellent.
I think i am "Teachers's pet", why? He picks on me constantly. I think I give as good as I get. I have plenty of "smart ass" retorts! he does roar!
My work ethic is good and I arrive at auditions and sets early!
My "big break" I thought was HBOs "Big Love." I got the gig because of "special skills" In this case it was knife sharpening. I was well treated and was walked through my scene.
The bad news was it was not shot. That happens in this business.
I am, however grateful for the great opportunity. I will wow 'em next time!
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A few videos here, I hope you enjoy!
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Here is a fun commercial I recently did.
My very first film below.
"Geriatric Hat Trick"
Written & directed by by Felix Allen
No Lines, but the "Star."
This is the tale of an aging Magician who comes out of retirement to do one more show for a senior citizen's center. Little did he know that his skills had long since vanished.
I think the audience was amazing. They were residents of Del Amo Trailer Park in Long Beach, CAThey are not trained actors. Their expressions are priceless
I did this one for Biola College. The writer-director was well prepared and thoughtful young man.
We did the whole shoot in a few hours! Pretty remarkable!
"Won In a Million"
A nice bunch and a great kid!
Shakespeare Fishing Tackle Commercial
CLEMMY'S ICE CREAM !
Friday, March 12, 2010
A very good day! Ice Cream too!
I did a nice commercial for "Clemmy's Ice Cream" today. It is great stuff and has NO sugar or Lactose
Yes plenty of calories.
It has to be perfect for Diabetics or "Pre Diabetics" You can Google them and find a store that carries them near you! I will sure tell my Internist about the product!
The production company was a delight. I wasn't the "star" but they did position me next to him! I'll take it.
They fed us way too well! I was done at 4:00 and made it to an Audition at Universal! I felt I did well.
I always feel that way! The rule on auditions is, do them and for get about them.
Coming soon, my own "Reel", as well as a feature film
April 4, 2010
No more Student Films!
Or Background work. I made a post on Showfax, an Actors site re: my adventures in the above.
They overwhelmingly advise against doing this kind of work, even when I felt it was a unique venture.
Basically they said "If you are going to act, act, forget about the no pay, low pay gigs.
My friend Beth will be over today and help "clean up" my resume. It is too wordy and has extraneous stuff the CDs and others just don't care about and Will simply discard.
Here I thought looked pretty good. Man 'O Man it is a learning process!
------------April 6, 2010------------
We met Beth and her husband. Both delightful! My resume is now up to industry standards,
We dumped all the, what I thought, was cool stuff.
Now maybe we will keep it out of the waste basket! Thanks Beth!
----------April 14, 2010--------------
It has come to my attention that a great agent commented that I had a sweet face!
maybe, just maybe........
April 4, 2010
No more Student Films!
Or Background work. I made a post on Showfax, an Actors site re: my adventures in the above.
They overwhelmingly advise against doing this kind of work, even when I felt it was a unique venture.
Basically they said "If you are going to act, act, forget about the no pay, low pay gigs.
My friend Beth will be over today and help "clean up" my resume. It is too wordy and has extraneous stuff the CDs and others just don't care about and Will simply discard.
Here I thought looked pretty good. Man 'O Man it is a learning process!
------------April 6, 2010------------
We met Beth and her husband. Both delightful! My resume is now up to industry standards,
We dumped all the, what I thought, was cool stuff.
Now maybe we will keep it out of the waste basket! Thanks Beth!
----------April 14, 2010--------------
It has come to my attention that a great agent commented that I had a sweet face!
maybe, just maybe........
April 25, 2010
A reel at long last.
Thanks, Bill Lippincott.
To all you non actors, a reel is a compilation of bits 'n pieces. The purpose is so that a CD, Director etc can see how you look and act on camera. It is all about the actor! As it should be. I have seen a few where I wasn't sure who was being showcased. A lot of skills are needed by the tech wizards that create a reel, They are not inexpensive!
I like to think I come across as different characters. I hope so.
When this is on "Actors Access", industry members can, with a simple click, see what he/she are getting.
It will be great to just hand it to a perspective agent.
(this link is Tnot responding...yet. bear withThis link seems not to be resAAponding
Sunday, October 17, 2010
"The Dairy of a Wedding Planner"
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VIDEO: Episode 2, Wedding Nazi's
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rpqgml7wkwI
Thanks to Brandi Ford I am now SAG-E, it took three years to achieve that. All agree not to join unless it's for the "right" role. Once a member one can no longer do Non-union work.
It is funny because when I was a kid in a liberal (politically) household, Taft-Hartly was railed against as a union busting legislation. SAG will be happy to get my $2400.00 !
When to join SAG?
This has always been a difficult decision. I made a post on AAs Showfax, a site where actors can post questions and get some fine answers form more seasones actors I mad a post asking if I ought to add
SAG-E to my resume. I did mention that I was now eligible to join.
Here is one in depth response from "WTJ."
"SAGe on your resume means you are allowed to join SAG at any time. But it doesn't necessary mean you are able to join or that you are willing to pay the membership fee to join. It is quite expensive to join SAG.
It makes no difference for non-union auditions or jobs. SAGe and non-union are the same thing. But for a union job it could make quite a difference.
Let's say, for example, you audition for a day player role on CSI Miami and the producer likes your audition and wants to hire you. The producer now has a dilemma. If he hires you and you don't join SAG immediately, and you do the job, he is subject to a stiff fine from the union. Frequently an audition is held on Monday for a role that shoots Wednesday or Thursday. That's not much time. Are you sure SAG has their records in order so you can join at the drop of a hat? How sure can the producer be? How can he be sure you really will pay the membership fee when you are getting paid only $809 for the day. Even months down the road, the residuals for that one day of work is not likely to pay enough to cover the fee.
At the audition you can always say you have the money and will join if you get the part. But it is unlikely the producer will even be at the audition. You will probably be on tape being filmed by a 20 year old assistant that has nothing to do with decision making. The producer will watch the audition tapes later in the day or the next day. And even if the producer is there he most certainly has life experience with people saying they will do something that they don't do.
Some actors put SAG on their resume when they are really only SAG eligible. They are willing and able to join right away. They do this so CD's will not worry about their union status. The danger of doing this is that the CD may check with the union to see if the actor really is in the union.
I worked in an agent's office and sometimes the CD notices would tell us to submit only SAG actors. They would specify "No non-union and no SAG eligible actors." They simply did not want to deal with Taft Hartleys or the possibility of union fines. Why should they? They don't need to. They have more actors than they will ever need for day player or co-star roles which is the only roles you are likely to be considered for without major credits. The bigger roles come later when you have more credits.
So you very likely will not even be considered for serious SAG projects as a non-union or SAG eligible actor. You will miss being called in altogether. You won't even know the opportunities you are missing because you won't even be considered.
Professional actors are union actors. They are in the union. They aren't teetering back and forth. They hard charge for the big union projects and the big bucks. They don't mess around.
I'm not saying join the union. I don't know how you got your SAG eligible status. If you got it by doing a few lines, or even one line on prime time network TV, that's great. If you got it by doing a SAG commercial, that's good too. You were Taft Hartleyed for that and you are therefore SAG eligible. But if you got your SAGe through the voucher system doing extra work you still haven't got even one decent SAG TV or movie credit.
But then again, Jerry, at your age it's well past time to stop fooling around. Most SAG actors that are 50+ have dozens of major SAG credits listed on IMDb. Even if they've only added one or two credits a year for 30 or 40 years they've built up a ton of stuff. CD's actually expect to see that with older actors. But that doesn't mean you should get despondent going up against those guys. But you really have to shine. And the only way to shine is to be a great actor and be fully union otherwise you will not be brought in to audition for good stuff very often.
I would say, use your intuition. Is it time to join? Do you have an agent? Are you getting good pay doing non-union jobs? What does your gut feeling tell you?
I know you have a hard time resisting those student films that you book so easily. I get the feeling you still do extra work even though you don't like it. It's hard to do but sometimes you simply have to let go of the little, silly, stupid stuff. Yeah, that's right, I said it. It's stupid stuff. Those things may have had some value at one time in the beginning but not any more.
Maybe now it's time to go for the gold and only the gold even if there is danger and high risk. Holding on to the past can be a real drag that never allows you to shine like a star. "
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MY RESPONSE
I will try to cover a few of your points.
1. My excellent agent says not to join 'til you have to.
2. The student film I am on now should be good quality. I have seen his work. I am the lead too, that helps. It has been very physical. The "stunts" are easy, but the takes are endless. I do feel it.
I took the gig cause I was very free.
3.Background? NO. the only reason would be for SAG vouchers and that need has been met. Would I do BG? I guess so, but under very special circumstances.
4. I was Taft-Hartlied and had a few good lines,
I know once in the union I cannot take NU work. I hate to be inactive for long. My gut feeling might be to go for it, but my excellent agents opinion matters a lot.
Thanks for your in depth reply.
"I am too old to wait for success, so I am going ahead with out it!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8jE6JQSJIo
http://jerryestensenioractor.blogspot.com/2010/03/i-have-been-acting-for-less-than-3.html
I study with Brian Reise.
I did a commercial in Sweden! What an adventure!
“The Swedish Gig"
A wonderful country! Yes a week or so does not make one an expert, but what I saw and the people I met were indeed wonderful!
The production company “Acne” was superb. We were treated royally. We, being eight American actors who were flown there just for this gig. We were fed on Salmon.
Shish kabob and other foods too numerous to mention.
The filming went well. I was last as always. Yes a few takes. On one the Director said “You cannot do it better than that!”
Everyone spoke English including the man on the street. Our hotel was the
“Scandic Anglia.” If not a 5 star hotel it had to be close. It cost close to $300.00 per night. All paid for by Acne. I extended my stay and they were glad to pay the tab.
I did not stay as long as planned. Sightseeing alone is not fun. Next time I will twist my wife’s arm to make sure she goes.
The people are blonde and tanned, why the tans I don’t know. Blondes in California would burn!
There are hundreds of Islands around Stockholm. Many boats ply the waters. I since learned it is called
"The Swedish Archipeligo"
I visited a few Islands and stumbled into a “Framers Market” being set up! (It was 8:00 am)
Made a few “friends” and bought a few gifts.
The hard part was the 12-hour flight. I wore compression stockings and walked and exercised often. I had no problem. Even the food on Lufthansa was okay!
The German barking orders over the PA were a tad disconcerting! He sounded like a character from a war film!
The cast was super and will hopefully see a few of then in LA.
The first 3 gorgeous Swedish girls I saw (cast) turned out to be from LA!
Photos of buildings are not my thing. Sure I took a few. I find people more interesting.
What they do and how they live is fascinating to me.
Diana, Jerry, Traci Odom, and Mike Faverman. All are LA actors. A fun group! The director said we gave the production great energy!
A wonderful country! Yes a week or so does not make one an expert, but what I saw and the people I met were indeed wonderful!
The production company “Acne” was superb. We were treated royally. We, being eight American actors who were flown there just for this gig. We were fed on Salmon.
Shish kabob and other foods too numerous to mention.
The filming went well. I was last as always. Yes a few takes. On one the Director said “You cannot do it better than that!”
Everyone spoke English including the man on the street. Our hotel was the
“Scandic Anglia.” If not a 5 star hotel it had to be close. It cost close to $300.00 per night. All paid for by Acne. I extended my stay and they were glad to pay the tab.
I did not stay as long as planned. Sightseeing alone is not fun. Next time I will twist my wife’s arm to make sure she goes.
The people are blonde and tanned, why the tans I don’t know. Blondes in California would burn!
There are hundreds of Islands around Stockholm. Many boats ply the waters. I since learned it is called
"The Swedish Archipeligo"
I visited a few Islands and stumbled into a “Framers Market” being set up! (It was 8:00 am)
Made a few “friends” and bought a few gifts.
The hard part was the 12-hour flight. I wore compression stockings and walked and exercised often. I had no problem. Even the food on Lufthansa was okay!
The German barking orders over the PA were a tad disconcerting! He sounded like a character from a war film!
The cast was super and will hopefully see a few of then in LA.
The first 3 gorgeous Swedish girls I saw (cast) turned out to be from LA!
Photos of buildings are not my thing. Sure I took a few. I find people more interesting.
What they do and how they live is fascinating to me.
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