Rex Sikes' Movie Beat

Jamie Nieto, Actor, Producer and 2012 Olympic High Jumper, is no stranger to perseverance, innovation, challenges and achievement.  He made the U.S. A. Olympic Team in 2004, missed them in '08 due to a technicality and came back stronger than ever to earn a spot on the '12 Olympic High Jump Team.   At 35, Jamie is the oldest male high jumper in the history of the U.S. to make it to the team. Jamie turned his disappointment of not making the Olympic team in '08 into a victory by carefully evaluating his goals and his desires.  Through introspection, Jamie discovered his deep passion for acting and producing.  Jamie started taking acting lessons in 08 and since then has been in three films and produced a web series.  His film credits include: “Kontrast” (09), “The Encounter” (10), “Jerusalem Countdown” (2011), “Red Line” in (11) and  “Baseball’s Last Hero: The Roberto Clemente Story” (11).  He and long-time friend and colleague Von ware, Trilogy Medias, recently completed episodes for his new web series “Blood Brothers,” a show highlighting how book smarts and street smarts can collide in a very bad way when bad decisions are made for what appear to be the right reasons.  On this project, Jamie served as the Executive Producer, Casting Director and Co-creator. Jamie’s lives his personal motto:  “your only limitations are what you believe them to be”.  The next chapter of his life will encompass acting and producing.  His post-Olympics plans include launching his web series “Blood Brothers” and filming additional episodes, if the appropriate level of investing is identified and secured.  Stay tuned to Rex Sikes Movie Beat for other great archived interviews, cast and crew listings, events, festivals, premieres, and more at http://www.rexsikes.com

Sam Christensen, (PT 5) Image Expert, began his 35-year career as a concert promoter then worked as the company manager of the longest running musical of all time, THE FANTASTICKS. Later Sam served as a executive assistant to renowned playwright/screenwriter/director Arthur Laurents. CBS and MTM Productions brought Sam to Hollywood as an independent casting director. Among his many TV and feature film casting credits was the most popular small screen series of all time, MAS*H. Sam was the first person to ever be accorded front title billing on a major Hollywood release for his casting work on the MGM film, "Coma".  Pictures like "The Champ" and "The Clash Of The Titans" followed.  Sam continued to cast Broadway tours, television series and pilots and acclaimed mini-series, like the Emmy-winning "Jonestown, The Guyana Tragedy".  He retired from active casting in 1982 to become a personal manager and guided the careers of many important actors, including Rita Wilson, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Patricia Elliott and Jean-Claude Van Damme. For two decades Sam Christensen has thrived as a teacher and personal consultant, advising working actors and movie stars, community leaders and political candidates, entrepreneurs and CEOs.  His original process, developed first for artists has been expanded to the corporate market and is the subject of his upcoming book Charisma: the art of authenticity.  Stay tuned to Rex Sikes Movie Beat for other great archived interviews, cast and crew listings, events, festivals, premieres, and more at http://www.rexsikes.com

David Winning, PT 2, director ,14 features, 22 series, over 100 TV credits is mainly known for his work on Gene Roddenberry’s Andromeda, MGM’s Stargate: Atlantis, ABC’s Dinotopia and the HBO thriller Exception to The Rule, starring Kim Cattrall, Sean Young and Eric McCormack. At 27, he landed directing gigs on the Canadian-produced Friday the 13th: The Series for Paramount Pictures he received three Canadian Emmy Award nominations. M. Night Shyamalan has cited Winning’s episode of Nickelodeon’s Are You Afraid of the Dark:  The Tale of the Dream Girl, as the inspiration for The Sixth Sense.  His episodic work has received twenty-four first places at the Houston Film Festival, a Gold Hugo and two Silver Hugos in Chicago, and Four national Gemini nominations for Best Director/Dramatic Series. He has received over 60 international awards.  He has directed many international stars including: Daniel Baldwin, Patrick Duffy, Peter Strauss, William Devane, Peta Wilson, Markie Post, Lance Henriksen, Frederic Forrest, Jason Connery, Carl Weathers, Margot Kidder, Michael Sarrazin, Bruce Boxleitner, Lesley Ann Warren, Martin Mull and many more. Recently he directed Kevin Sorbo, Robert Englund and Bruce Dern in a Trilogy of monster movies for the US SYFY Channel and Hallmark Entertainment - RHI Films New York and episodes of the Vampire series Blood Ties for Lifetime TV and episodes of TODD AND THE BOOK OF PURE EVIL, for SPACE CHANNEL -- and supervised and directed the far north adventure series YUKONIC! which debuted in 2011 LOST GIRL for Showcase and the SYFY Channel and a Rob Lowe Christmas movie for HALLMARK. Stay tuned to Rex Sikes Movie Beat for other great archived interviews, cast and crew listings, events, festivals, premieres, and more at rexsikes.com

Patrick Giraudi PT 3 is a pioneer in using digital workstation in sound editing and mixing films. He is a well established Sound Supervisor/Re-recording Mixer in the film industry with over 330 film credits to his name. From music engineer to sound editor, he started to work as a freelance dialogue editor. He quickly became renowned for his professionalism and knowledge of digital technology. In 1991, a State Of The Art post production facility in Culver City hired Patrick, and from editor and became within a couple of years lead Re-recording mixer using the top digital equipment available. He was nominated and won MPSE awards for shows such as Tales From The Crypt, Xena Warrior Princess and many other. Sometime in 1994, while mixing Now and Then produced by Demi Moore, the studio was upgrated with a new digital editing system which also allowed sound mixing within a software called Protools. From that day on, the possibilities became endless and Patrick never went back to using analogue outboard gear and traditional mixing consoles. Always on the quest of improving his skills and work on newer equipment. In 1999, a unique opportunity presented itself to operate as a lead mixer at New Standard Post in Hollywood which was the very first all Protools Mixing Stage in the world. Since then, Patrick pursued a career as a Supervising Sound Editor and Re-recording Mixer which lead him to work on hundreds of independent films. Along the way, Patrick worked with David Lynch's Straight Story and Mulholland Drive in his personal home studio, Walter Salles, Robert Zemeckis, Joel SIlver, Sam Raimi, Jon Voight and major film studios in Hollywood. Stay tuned to Rex Sikes Movie Beat for other great archived interviews, cast and crew listings, events, festivals, premieres, and more at http://www.rexsikes.com

Sam Christensen, (PT 4) Image Expert, began his 35-year career as a concert promoter then worked as the company manager of the longest running musical of all time, THE FANTASTICKS. Later Sam served as a executive assistant to renowned playwright/screenwriter/director Arthur Laurents. CBS and MTM Productions brought Sam to Hollywood as an independent casting director. Among his many TV and feature film casting credits was the most popular small screen series of all time, MAS*H. Sam was the first person to ever be accorded front title billing on a major Hollywood release for his casting work on the MGM film, "Coma".  Pictures like "The Champ" and "The Clash Of The Titans" followed.  Sam continued to cast Broadway tours, television series and pilots and acclaimed mini-series, like the Emmy-winning "Jonestown, The Guyana Tragedy".  He retired from active casting in 1982 to become a personal manager and guided the careers of many important actors, including Rita Wilson, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Patricia Elliott and Jean-Claude Van Damme. For two decades Sam Christensen has thrived as a teacher and personal consultant, advising working actors and movie stars, community leaders and political candidates, entrepreneurs and CEOs.  His original process, developed first for artists has been expanded to the corporate market and is the subject of his upcoming book Charisma: the art of authenticity.  Stay tuned to Rex Sikes Movie Beat for other great archived interviews, cast and crew listings, events, festivals, premieres, and more at http://www.rexsikes.com