Robin Esterhammer
- Camera and Electrical Department
- Producer
Robin was born Rolf Gerhard Esterhammer on December 8, 1966, in Stuttgart, West Germany to Gerhard, an officer in the West German army and Erika (Braun), an industrial secretary. Shortly after his birth his family moved to Inverness, Scotland where they lived until Robin was 13 years old. It was here that he anglicized his name to Robin.
Upon their return to Germany in 1980, he started working in the local movie theater, at first putting up posters, then selling tickets and eventually becoming projectionist. Upon seeing "The Empire Strikes Back" and "Clash of the Titans" he decided to become a filmmaker. In 1984, he met local filmmaker Roland Emmerich, who premiered his second feature, "Making Contact" aka "Joey" at the theater Robin was working at. Robin's own first film "School Brothers" (1987) was shot on Super 8 in and around his hometown of Leonberg and was a huge success with the local crowd.
Supported by his parents, Robin applied to 98 film schools in the US and UK and got accepted to 6. On January 17, 1991, the day the First Gulf War started, he boarded a plane to start his studies at Columbia College in Chicago from where he transferred after one semester to Columbia College Hollywood. In 1996, he graduated with honors and a BA in Cinema.
The mid Nineties were his most prolific period, which saw him producing short films, music videos and commercials, and even working as a model maker on the Wesley Snipes movie "Money Train". In 1994, he produced Tony Bui's thesis film "Yellow Lotus", the first American non-documentary film production since the Vietnam War. The short was a huge success and launched the careers of Tony Bui and his brother Timothy Linh Bui. Having fallen in love with South-East Asia, Robin returned in 2001, to produce another short, Colin McGreal's "Apsara" in and around Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
While working in film music, his other passion, for three years as Christopher Franke's assistant at his Sonic Images Records label, Robin suffered a near fatal motorcycle accident, which forced him to give up his position at Sonic Images. In 2003, he was ready to work again and started his own label, Perseverance Records, which he incorporated in 2015, with his new business partner Silvio Barretta. So far, the label has released over 100 soundtrack albums by composers such as Jerry Goldsmith, Hans Zimmer, John Williams, Elmer Bernstein, David Newman, John Corigliano, Craig Safan, Ennio Morricone, Phillip Lambro and Don Peake.
Since 2021, he lives near Denver with his son Kai and wife of 23 years, writer Karin Esterhammer.
Upon their return to Germany in 1980, he started working in the local movie theater, at first putting up posters, then selling tickets and eventually becoming projectionist. Upon seeing "The Empire Strikes Back" and "Clash of the Titans" he decided to become a filmmaker. In 1984, he met local filmmaker Roland Emmerich, who premiered his second feature, "Making Contact" aka "Joey" at the theater Robin was working at. Robin's own first film "School Brothers" (1987) was shot on Super 8 in and around his hometown of Leonberg and was a huge success with the local crowd.
Supported by his parents, Robin applied to 98 film schools in the US and UK and got accepted to 6. On January 17, 1991, the day the First Gulf War started, he boarded a plane to start his studies at Columbia College in Chicago from where he transferred after one semester to Columbia College Hollywood. In 1996, he graduated with honors and a BA in Cinema.
The mid Nineties were his most prolific period, which saw him producing short films, music videos and commercials, and even working as a model maker on the Wesley Snipes movie "Money Train". In 1994, he produced Tony Bui's thesis film "Yellow Lotus", the first American non-documentary film production since the Vietnam War. The short was a huge success and launched the careers of Tony Bui and his brother Timothy Linh Bui. Having fallen in love with South-East Asia, Robin returned in 2001, to produce another short, Colin McGreal's "Apsara" in and around Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
While working in film music, his other passion, for three years as Christopher Franke's assistant at his Sonic Images Records label, Robin suffered a near fatal motorcycle accident, which forced him to give up his position at Sonic Images. In 2003, he was ready to work again and started his own label, Perseverance Records, which he incorporated in 2015, with his new business partner Silvio Barretta. So far, the label has released over 100 soundtrack albums by composers such as Jerry Goldsmith, Hans Zimmer, John Williams, Elmer Bernstein, David Newman, John Corigliano, Craig Safan, Ennio Morricone, Phillip Lambro and Don Peake.
Since 2021, he lives near Denver with his son Kai and wife of 23 years, writer Karin Esterhammer.
