Rex Sikes' Movie Beat

Danielle Eskinazi casting director (PT 2) has been casting for twenty years. We will continue to discuss what she looks for in an actor for a role in a film or TV versus in a commercial. When actors audition for what makes them stand out and how much preperation do they need for a part? What do directors look for? How important is a slate?Should they continually take classes does she accept postcards from actors? What do you look for in their 8x10'sand how important is the picture? How should they be in callbacks and more! She started as a casting assistant for Reesa Bramon and Billy Hopkins (At Close Range), Vickie Thomas (Syd and Nancy), and Amanda Mackey (A League of Their Own). She was later offered a film of her own called Night Train to Kathmandu, during which she discovered Milla Jovovich, who was 13 years old at the time. After that, she cast a film called Cool Blue, starring Woody Harrelson and giving Hank Azaria his first break. When HKM Productions, a commercial production company, wanted a film casting director to cast their commercials, she was excited to have a change of pace. She cast commercials for the next fifteen years and never looked back. She has cast commercials such as Master Card, Visa, Capital One, JCPenney, McDonald's, Burger King and so on. She currently has an office on Sunset Boulevard and still loves what she does. 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

Director Terry Green PT 2 has 25 years experience in the entertainment industry, with 13 years managing a successful motion picture production company. He is an Award-winning writer & director with access to the highest levels of talent, production staff & project financing. In 1997 he founded an independent company Strata Productions, Inc. that has financed $20 million in private equity for the production of 3 feature films, amassing over 750 financial partners over the past 13 years. Garnered awards from some of the nation’s most prestigious film festivals. Worked with Academy Award caliber talent, including David Strathairn, Timothy Hutton, Virginia Madson & Lindsay Crouse, among others. Strata Productions, Inc. is in Chicago, where it was instrumentally involved in advancing local film education and awareness, offering internships to local high schools and universities. The principals of the company have worked directly with state and local film offices, including the offices of the Honorable Mayor Richard M. Daley, Governor of the State of Illinois Pat Quinn and Alderman Edward M. Burke. In 2007, the company relocated its headquarters to Los Angeles, California, where it has operated successfully for the last three years. The company is currently producing a feature film about the Palmer Raids of 1919 with Tom DeSanto, producer of Transformers, X-Men and X-2, three of the top ten grossing films in motion picture history. Mr. Green founded in 2010, Windstorm Entertainment, an affiliate of Strata Productions, Inc. and is a finance company that specializes in gap financing for independent motion pictures. He is an award winning screenwriter/director of two feature films "Almost Salinas" & "Heavens Fall". No God, No Master (2010) Screenwriter/Director, Currently in post-production. 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

Patrick Giraudi 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

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.

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

Rocky Lang has been involved in the motion picture and television business all his life. Recently he Executive Produced, “Racing For Time” for Lifetime Television starring Charles Dutton, which received a Best Picture nomination for The Image Awards. He has had 4 books published. Growing up as the son of veteran producer and Universal Studios executive, Jennings Lang ("Earthquake" "Play Misty For Me" among others), Rocky knew early on that he wanted to write/produce and direct. Lang set himself on a track that has seen him produce and direct five documentary films including the award-winning "The Making of Tootsie", assignments directing the long-running hit show "Remington Steele" and then on to direct three features, “Nervous Ticks”, (Columbia Tri-Star) “Race For Glory”, (New Century Vista) “All’s Fair”, (Moviestore).

His produced "White Squall” for Disney/Hollywood Pictures starring Jeff Bridges and directed by Ridley Scott. He also produced the Emmy-Award winning “Titanic", a 4-hour mini-series for CBS.

Besides his directing career, Lang has had deals as a producer and director with Warner Bros., Universal, New World, CBS, NBC, ABC, Twentieth Century Fox, Cinecom, MGM and United Artists.

Lang is also an award winning screenwriter, having written several screenplays and has received a dramatic writing award from the Houston Film Festival for his original screenplay, The Low Post. His screenplay, Crossing Memphis, was optioned by Quincy Jones and Columbia Pictures. Mr. Lang’s most recent script, The Babe That Struck out Ruth sold to ‘bel Films.

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

Michael Matzdorff (writer/director/producer/editor) FEED THE FISH Michael wrote the original screenplay for “Feed the Fish” in 2006 and with the help of his fellow producers brought it into production in late 2008. Feed The Fish stars Tony Shalhoub, BArry Corbin, Ross Partridge Katie Aselton, Michael Chernus, Vanessa Branch and Carlos Kotkin.

His other accomplishments include:

As an editor his credits include Feature film and Television Editing: “Code Name: The Cleaner” for NewLine Cinema

Also, Michael worked in the editing room of another dozen Hollywood films with directors David Fincher (Fight Club), Amy Heckerling (Fast times at Ridgemont High) and Martin Brest (Meet Joe Black) to name a few.

Michael composed the score for the award winning independent feature film Pure Killjoy. He has a background in photography, music and filmmaking.

Michael lives in Los Angeles, California but is a Wisconsin native and visits frequently, he is currently writing the screenplay “Viv”.

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