Today we’d like to introduce you to Aaron Hawkins.
Aaron, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
It all started when I was in Junior High School. I was in art class and we had to create a paper mache mask of our own faces and paint them. My mask had a blue face and a clock on it representing time standing still when I create art. When I was in high school I was quiet and excelled in an architecture class, designing and building a scale model of the house I drew. Said design if built today would be in excess of 30 million dollars to build.
Shortly after graduation (1993 Batavia HS Grad), I joined the United States Navy because I really was motivated and driven to be a part of something bigger than myself. Fast forward to the year 2001, I attended college for Graphic Design and Multimedia and achieved an Associates degree and started a design business with my wife. Then, my wife got the itch to join the military so we moved to Washington State where we were stationed. All the while, I felt I was missing something, something much bigger and more dynamic then design work.
Another fast forward, I moved back to Illinois a single man looking for the bigger things in life and I found that very thing by attending Black Box Acting School in Chicago. There, I learned soo much about being an actor and how to be completely fearless in acting and in life in general. From there I worked doing various jobs and just was not fulfilled in any of them. A friend of mine got me in contact with another actor in the area and from there I was invited to be in a movie titled Secret Lover as what I thought was an extra/background role. When I arrived on set, I was told I have a speaking role and we are filming in 20 minutes, no pressure, hahaha. I made my first speaking role and a secondary role in the same movie that had its premiere in October 2016 at Hollywood Palms in Naperville. From there, I went onto doing many extra roles on all of the TV shows filmed in Chicago.
I thought to myself, man, this is a LOT of fun and I want even MORE! I have always been the type to stop doing something when I feel I mastered it because I get bored but being an actor is far from that! I met a lot of great people on all of these sets and learned how a product works just by observing and listening. One day, I was TRIPLE booked for a TV show, the filming of the movie Death Wish and a Mercedes-Benz commercial, the casting company called me and said pick one, so I did! I chose the Mercedes-Benz commercial since it was airing during the Cubs playoffs (the same year they won), the Blackhawks games as well as the Bears games.
I also have been in numerous short films, a promotional spot for Edwards Hospital in Naperville as well as being on a local radio show and local talk show (aired locally in the Chicagoland area) I obtained an agent to get more acting gigs and landed a clickhole spot that is up to 136k views online currently.
Throughout all of this, I was creating a film company and thinking about a name, so I came up with the name Crazy Rock Films. The meaning of the name is this: Crazy means I like to do crazy things and never apologize for it and be fearless in acting. The Rock represents I am a rock for all my friends to come to even if it is to chat.
I also have 2 awesome mentors in California that have guided me, taught me so much about the industry that I am forever grateful to these two guys for being there for me.
Currently, we are on summer hiatus from filming. With that being said we will never turn down the opportunity to film for others and create short films. We also offer resume building, demo reels, casting, video editing as well as logo designs geared towards the professional filmmaker and indie alike. Right now, I am currently writing a short horror film and entered my feature film script into a worldwide script competition this year. For more information please check out my Facebook pages as this is the best way to contact us!
https://www.facebook.com/CrazyRockFilms (Film Company)
https://www.facebook.com/CrazyRockFilmsCasting (Casting Page for Crazy Rock Films and other clients)
https://www.facebook.com/AaronHawkinsOfficial (My Professional Actor Page)
Has it been a smooth road?
It most definitely has not been a smooth road with having been married twice, lol. I lost someone close to me in 1999 and felt lost. My Grandpa taught me so much about so many things that it is hard to quantify it really. It was then I found solace in tattoos to which I have many and all of them have meaning.
I had so many people tell me not to pursue acting and filmmaking and all these people had the same attitude that I would fail. I kept going, not to prove them wrong but to prove to myself and show everyone with determination and drive you can chase your dreams and achieve a lot.
I lost out on relationships along the way, some I regret and some I do not regret losing really. Some may think that is part of the biz, to which I would agree to an extent. I try to find humor in everything even if it is something bad happening to me. For example, we were filming and we had some issues with getting talent to set and we started to film B roll for the film and doing some improv with the actors on set. It was a good time but even with that I still had to deal with the actors that didn’t show up.
Through it, all, I and my Director of Photography kept it light and fun. I truly believe in having fun on set and that is one major thing I carry with me to each and every set I film on and with every actor, I film with!
We’d love to hear more about your business.
Crazy Rock Films is a film company based out of the Chicago suburbs (Batavia, IL). We specialize in filmmaking, writing films, demo reels, actors resumes, cover image creation for your professional Facebook page as well. We are proud of being able to give the starting actor a chance to have speaking roles in our independent films.
What sets us apart from others is the fact that all talent on set has access to the writer(s), directors on set on the filming days scheduled. All talent also has access to myself, anytime, 24/7.
Whenever we film we draw an audience and we (actors, directors, and crew) are approachable and love to chat with the locals wherever we are filming.
Is our city a good place to do what you do?
Most definitely! Chicago and the surrounding suburbs are an awesome place to pursue a career in acting and filmmaking as it is rich with history and a lot of architecture that is second to none in this country.
If you have never been an actor before and wish to pursue it as a career I would suggest reaching out to some Indie filmmakers such as myself and any of them would be happy to talk to you about the business in general and who knows, you might even get asked to be in an upcoming project!
Although I do love new actors, I would also suggest being an extra/background actor first, that way you can see how things work on larger sets since there is, at times, some downtime on larger sets vs smaller sets.
Finally, I would also find a good acting school to attend. I will be attending more acting classes very soon to keep fresh with my acting abilities and meet more actors!
Pricing:
- Video Editing $1,000.00 a day
- Demo Reel Creation $300.00
- Actors Resume Package #1 $200.00 (Includes unlimited revisions, resume in PDF format for one year)
- Actors Resume Package #2 $100.00 (Includes professionally created resume in PDF format with no revisions included)
- Professional Actors Package $500.00 (Includes a professionally created resume with unlimited revisions in PDF format, Demo Reel creation with up to 10 revisions for FREE! We also throw in a FREE custom Facebook cover picture.
Contact Info:
- Phone: 331-771-1129
- Email: Crazyrockfilmsinfo@gmail.com
- Instagram: the_love_4_acting
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CrazyRockFilms
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/aaronlh88
- Other: https://www.facebook.com/CrazyRockFilmsCasting
Image Credit:
Aaron Hawkins, Scott Langford
Getting in touch: VoyageChicago is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
