Meet Sergio Serrano Castillo

We recently connected with Sergio Serrano Castillo and have shared our conversation below.

Sergio, appreciate you making time for us and sharing your wisdom with the community. So many of us go through similar pain points throughout our journeys and so hearing about how others overcame obstacles can be helpful. One of those struggles is keeping creativity alive despite all the stresses, challenges and problems we might be dealing with. How do you keep your creativity alive?
Creativity is my strongest skill. I always try to implement it in every piece of work. For me, it’s kind of a natural, inherent skill but it always has to be “fed.” That’s why I love reading books that allow me to explore unknown, interesting worlds. I also stay up to date with news and articles and, finally, watching movies, documentaries, or TV gives me a profound exploration of narratives and ways to tell a story. But, personally, traveling, meeting new people and different cultures, and listening to others’ stories are a huge source of inspiration. At the end of the day, you need a wide background not only of knowledge but experiences that inspire you and keep that creativity alive.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
I’m from Spain. I graduated in Advertising and Public Relations and I worked in advertising agencies and TV.

Since a very young age, I became interested in stories to the point of wanting to dedicate myself to telling them and considering myself a “collector of stories.” I always followed my passion and kept writing every kind of text, from small ones to play scripts. In 2022, I published my first novel (‘Sonrisas maquilladas’), which is the beginning of a trilogy. That encouraged me to jump to the next level and merge my creative writing with my other passions: Film and TV.

I came to Los Angeles to study “Entertainment Studies” at UCLA Extension and improve my skills. I enjoyed it a lot and gained knowledge and self-motivation to follow up on my career. During the process, I met a lot of interesting people who became my friends here.

Finally, through networking, hardworking and perseverance, I shot two short films in 2023 as a writer/director. The first one, titled ‘The Last Moment’, has won several awards within the Film Festival Circuit. The second one, titled ‘How Can I Help You?’, is still in Post-Production.

Now, I’m working on two feature films that I have ahead as a writer/director.

My communicative vocation, and my predilection for cinema, television, theater, and literature have formed an ideal cocktail to impregnate my stories with palpable realism, unmistakable sensitivity, and my charisma.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
The three most important qualities that define me are passion, confidence, and sensitivity.

I’m always passionate when doing every kind of work or activity. This keeps my thrill up and helps me to share what I am with others. Being 100% involved and passionate in something not only gives me a meaning of what I’m doing but it’s also positively contagious to everyone around.

Confidence in myself and my work is the most powerful tool. If you don’t believe in your capacities, who else does it? This is not about being perfect, it’s about being self-conscious of who you are, what you are capable of, and how to overcome obstacles and improve yourself to be better.

Finally, sensitivity is a double-edged sword that I always carry with me. On one hand, I have felt hurtful impacts intensely but, on the other hand, this makes me a detail-oriented person and empathize with others. I absorb every corner of others’ feelings and try to help when I’m able to. As a director, this helps me to connect with my team and communicate with them, especially with actors. From my experience, they are very sensitive people and the way you make them feel or translate a message about their work or performance is crucial.

We’ve all got limited resources, time, energy, focus etc – so if you had to choose between going all in on your strengths or working on areas where you aren’t as strong, what would you choose?
I believe focusing only on our strengths is a mistake. Of course, we have to take advantage of them but, at the same time, putting ourselves out of our “comfort zone” will benefit us in several aspects. Trying to learn something new will awaken qualities that we may not know, keep us active in other areas outside of our expertise, and improve our background. This makes us a more “rounded” person who has some experience in several fields.

Pushing our strengths to make us better at a specific task is as important as exploring new areas that will open our minds and dexterity. For example, during this last year in Los Angeles, I tried to learn and become more skillful in fields that I didn’t get used to too much or I didn’t have any experience. Doing this, I discovered that I also like to work on areas outside my main specialties. In addition, I’m planning to learn new specific things, gain abilities, and implement them in my current skills.

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