Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jose ‘Chipi’ Estrada. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Jose ‘Chipi’, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Do you wish you had waited to pursue your creative career or do you wish you had started sooner?
I guess I wouldn’t have minded to start a year or two years earlier, not much before that tho, I think being a little older allowed me to see more clearly how things are, maybe if I were much younger I would be disappointed or frustrated on the industry. But at the end I feel everything matched well for me, the people I met, the state of the industry at this time and the opportunities I’ve found. Maybe I would be further ahead if I started earlier, or maybe I would’ve already quit, who knows but I think my time was right.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I always loved film, it was never conscious, but looking back, watching films are some of the best memories I have. I also loved music, but for some reason film and tv has stayed with me longer and imprinted harder. I started playing instruments at a young age at school, but at 16 years old, I picked up my brother’s guitar and I started playing music I really liked and that I was just discovering at that time (metal) and it started becoming a passion to me. Because of growing up always thinking that music was just a hobby and not something you go after professionally and the general mentality of a town and country (Quetzaltenango, Guatemala) without an actual profitable entertainment industry I never considered it a career, it was more like a utopic “dream”. In college I studied media communications, and got into filming and creating media, which transformed the way I heard music and started seeing music as well. Over time I started to lear about the industry and started considering the opportunities in the industry as I worked as audio engineer at La Rockolita studio, doing music and advertising, and driven by years of thinking about it I choose to move to Los Angeles to study composition for film in 2017 when I was 28 years old. Not knowing anyone in the city, I started my career from nothin, of course I had already years of experience dealing with work, media schedules and people, but not specifically in this field. I worked as hard as I could to network and get my foot into the industry and it was easier for me going in as audio engineer, doing post production audio for film, and eventually I managed to also include my music, and after 6 years at it I’m still here and it’s looking good. I started with short films, slowly going into indie features, eventually getting network television and finally major studios content like Netflix, A24 and NBC.
Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?
Maybe the biggest one is to deal with constant rejection. As a composer for film and sound engineer I’m always to the service of the film, and most times to the vision of the director and producers. That means constant rejections, revisions of your work and changes of concept that become very frustrating and tiresome if not handled properly. Learning how to detach emotionally from your art is really hard and understanding that at the end all this notes will produce a better product even if you thought that your idea was better. It helps when you hear the biggest in the industry like Hans Zimmer and Mark Mangini explaining how many revisions their directors made them do also, it’s just part of the job, don’t take it personally. But is easier said than done.
Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?
I was never an entrepreneurial thinker or saw myself as a business man or a risk taker, I was just not brought up like that, and that’s something you don’t just change in a second. I was two years a participant of FIE (acronym in spanish for International Entrepreneurship Forum) by Junior Achievement Guatemala when I was 19 and 20. After that I was a volunteer on this event for the next 10 years. 12 years of constantly surrounding myself with exciting people and hearing master classes from successful entrepreneurs, business owners, athletes and artists drilled into my head that maybe I could actually do it, I might actually be able to succeed in Hollywood, the mecca of entertainment. That convinced me to actually do it, and I will be forever grateful for that.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.chipistickman.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chipistickman
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chipistickman
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/chipistickman
- Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/chipistickman
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/chipistickman
- Other: https://www.imdb.me/chipistickman