Jeff Corbin, Ventura Police Officer
After realizing that he was an actual police officer auditioning for the role of a cop, casting director Ellen Lewis responded, "You know the scene, do what a cop would do in real life". "Stand back and let me show you how it's done!" Jeff Corbin recalls responding to Lewis. It was drawing from his experiences as a police officer where Jeff's realism and credibility helped land him a featured role in Martin Scorsese's feature film, Casino.
Since that first experience working in the entertainment industry, Jeff has continued to work as a police officer, as well as an actor and police and military technical advisor on features, television and industrial projects such as CSI: NY, House, M.D., Saving Grace, Dark Blue, and Race To Witch Mountain to name a few.
As a kid, Jeff grew up in an LAPD home regularly watching television shows and films written by former LAPD Sergeant Joseph Wambaugh such as Police Story, The New Centurions, The Onion Field, and The Blue Knight. "I was fascinated with Wambaugh's works and consider myself following in his footsteps", Jeff admits.
It was inevitable that Jeff would write and produced a new television series called Medal of Valor. Medal of Valor is an anthology, docu-drama series that re-creates the real life actions of law enforcement officers that earned them law enforcement's highest award, the Medal of Valor.
The Medal of Valor is an award presented for bravery that is given for extraordinary acts of heroism exhibited in the performance of their duties at extreme, life-threatening personal risk. The series, Medal of Valor, combines the best of reality, drama, suspense and horror.
"I wanted to showcase these heroic stories of the men and women in blue who's actions above and beyond the call of duty all too many times go unnoticed or are taken for granted", Jeff told LA's The Place Magazine.
"I think that viewers will not only be entertained and on the edge of their seats, but will be amazed...and come to the realization that these police officers are members of society not unlike themselves - PTA members, their son's little league coaches and next-door neighbors. The only difference is that they put their lives on the line every day they go to work."
In May, 2010 Jeff teamed up with director and co-producer, Faz Brahimi, to produce a pilot for Medal of Valor. "I was more than amazed with Faz's creativity", Jeff explained. "Faz would run something by me as the writer in regards to various shots. The first few times I wasn't exactly following him so I responded with a 'Show me'. After seeing what he was coming up with I knew that between his talents and the realism that I had to offer, that Medal of Valor would be a success!"
Traditionally, law enforcement television series have been successful, as viewers are intrigued with police work. Dragnet, Adam 12,Hill Street Blues, COPS, the CSI series and Bones are just a few of the police television series that have achieved great success.
Jeff is impressed and credits the writers of these series as being brilliant, "There are so many talented writers out there generating great stuff! As a writer and technical advisor, I like to incorporate some of the finer points, both tactical and interpersonal, that lend to authenticity and that are not as noticeable at first glance but would only be known to someone who has been in some of those hair-raising situations."
Jeff gives one example of those subtleties such as being unable to stop your hand from shaking due to the adrenaline rush after a foot pursuit and fight. "There's been many times, as any experienced police officer can attest to, where you need to write something down after experiencing a close call and you can't because your hand is shaking so much. As a police officer you have to shake it off and not allow suspects or the public see that so that you're not looked upon as weak or vulnerable".
As a police officer, Jeff has worked in patrol, as a motor officer, a member of a violent criminal offender task force, and in Narcotics, working undercover where he has participated in the service of over 200 high-risk search warrants. Jeff has also worked as both a patrol and traffic supervisor and is currently a supervisor in his department's Command Center. Jeff is also the recipient of his department's highest award for valor.
After 19 years as a police officer in both Las Vegas and Southern California, Jeff is quickly approaching the end of his law enforcement career. "As I near the end of my career I would like to utilize my skills in the entertainment industry and my passion for writing, coupled with my real-life law enforcement experiences to create credibility through authenticity in film and television productions".
It doesn't get any better than that.
You can watch the trailer for Medal Of Valor here.
Jeff can be contacted through his website at www.jeffcorbinadvisor.com.
