Meet Christina Holleran

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Christina Holleran. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Christina below.

Christina, we’re thrilled to have you sharing your thoughts and lessons with our community. So, for folks who are at a stage in their life or career where they are trying to be more resilient, can you share where you get your resilience from?

There’s this pretty crazy energy I have inside of me that is naturally resilient and doesn’t give up. It’s gotten me through a lot over the years and keeps me on the path. Where did that come from? I really have no idea. It’s just there. If I had to take a guess, it might be because of my mom. She never cared what my sister and I wanted to be when we grew up so long as we were happy doing it. Maybe I felt a sense of duty to that pursuit of happiness at a very young age, and I knew that if I gave up, that I’d give up on that really pretty dream my parents allowed me have without judgment. And not everyone gets to have that dream without judgment, so there’s a gift in there somewhere, too.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

I’m currently 1st ADing (Assistant Directing) on a Western TV series as well as working on a new wave of writing and directing short films. I also am an avid learner of the stock market and daytrade in the early mornings. I have my freelance business, Holleran 4 Film, Inc., which is also my Instagram username.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

1. Finding the strengths in my skillset (which was organizing/scheduling/budgeting as well as being a people person) and applying what I’m good at to the film industry (which is how I became a successful 1st AD and producer) to help me get to where I want to go (every time I’m on a set, I get to work under many different directors who have helped me understand my own directing style and how to develop and hone it)
2. Learning how to tap into discipline and develop a routine that will generate repeatable success (this is a hard one to pull off and something I’m still learning how to do, though without what I have figured out, I’d be a lot less ahead)
3. Taking the chance and moving out here to LA right after college

Biggest advice: Always be learning. Never stop reading books about film, watching movies, studying those who have succeeded in your field. Find out anything and everything you can and then just do your endeavor. Don’t wait for money or anyone else wanting you to be a part of their project. Take the reins and do it yourself, or gather a group who have varying strengths that are different from yours and work together.

There are so many things that will be out of your control, so control what you can (which could be your commitment to your art). When you do rise to those next levels, it will feel like luck and not how you planned it would happen, but it’s probably the universe’s response to your dedication. So, don’t worry about when it will come. Worry about how you’re going to deserve it for when it does. And then don’t worry about it and just enjoy the journey. It won’t be worth it without being grateful for it.

Thanks so much for sharing all these insights with us today. Before we go, is there a book that’s played in important role in your development?

1984 by George Orwell. I read this book when I was a teenager, and I immediately understood how much I love dystopian literature and how much I want to create this kind of art. When Orwell wrote it in 1949, there was an emotional dissociation from the post-World War II era with the return of the soldiers and the horrors of PTSD which resonated with artists during this time (especially for Orwell considering he was one). My favorite theatre movement – Theatre of the Absurd (Waiting for Godot being the most popular of these works) – was a result of that time as well. It was a time where we stripped the glossy appeal of happy reality and stared at the root of our fears. The things we tell ourselves to resist are sometimes the things that get us, anyway, which proves itself in Orwell’s classic. This book started my obsession into films such as Jacob’s Ladder, The Descent, and Requiem for a Dream, just to name a few. Requiem for a Dream followed by Black Swan cemented Darren Aronofsky as one of my favorite directors. I look out for and love this niche of filmmaking and will be forever grateful to 1984 for bringing this dystopian observation of the world into my purview.

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Image Credits

Bryan Bernart

Andres Moret

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