We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Christian Chico a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Christian thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. One of our favorite things to hear about is stories around the nicest thing someone has done for someone else – what’s the nicest thing someone has ever done for you?

One of the kindest things someone has done for me was giving me a chance. And this occurs almost everyday – giving me the opportunity and chance to prove myself in the film industry. May this be a chance from my boss, peers, or my family: I am grateful to continuously gain support from a lot of people in my life.

One of the greatest chances that I can remember was when I was key gripping for one of my first times and my friend, Joewi Verhoeven, was the cinematographer and he wanted the camera on a 12ft. ladderpod. We secured the camera atop of the ladder, but then we had to truck the ladder to adjust the frame. At that time I was a bit timid as key grip and was looking towards Joewi on whether or not the ladder was safe to move. However, Joewi looked at me and asked “Chico, is it safe to move the camera while it’s secured to the top of the ladder? You let me know.” Being given that respect and responsibility helped me grow as a key grip and made me realize the importance of being confident as a department head. Huge thank you and shoutout to Joewi for giving me a chance!

There are so many more chances that I can recall such as when my friend Raphaël Van Oostrum gave me the task of setting up an Aerojib and a car hood mount – both things I have not done on my own for the first time! There was a time when my friend Laky Wijesekara gave me a chance to film a wedding all on my own without him – which was my first time and I was quite nervous! And there was another time when my friend Ian Cawley gave me a chance to learn with them on set where they taught me how to set up a booklight for the first time!

There are so many more moments where I was given a chance I am super grateful and thankful for them because they have given me the opportunity to learn and grow – not only as a grip, but as a human being.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Hello everyone, my name is Christian Chico, and I am a freelance grip who likes to dolly grip.

I am currently a Hollywood CPR (Cinema Production Resource) candidate – huge shoutouts and thank you to my mentors, legends: Gary Dagg, Imhotep Coleman, Laura Guichard, Kevin Considine, Kent Jorgensen, Brady Majors, Ponch Gutierrez, Marco Robles, Bill, and many more!

Also, huge shoutouts to my peers who are in and out of the program: Ethan “Mr. E” Sandman, Peter Glaros, Kevin Shum, Arian Romero, Noah Spiece, Robert Rios, Jason Muñoz, Kelly Pong, Dieyan Zawi, Aidan Feeney, Luka Osadcijs, Ana Ruiz, Jenna Drake, Tyler Miles, Brandon Wong, Richard Garcia, James Loeffler, Jesse Castro, Paul Alexandrescu, Mateo Berberich, Jose Munguia, Joseph Ocampo, Brian Schibly, Andrew Ayala, Andrew Figueroa, Julio Anthony Jr., Ryan Soto, and many more!

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

For me, the most rewarding aspect of being an artist or creative is giving people the opportunity to experience your piece and develop their own perspective on it. I really like to see what different people think about what you have put out there and see if they gel with it or not. In my opinion, human connection and sharing things with each other is very important in life.

Another thing that is dope is when artists or creatives share with one another and figure out how to tackle a project or piece. Nine times out of ten, when asking for help or working on something with someone else, that other person(s) may have a completely different or new method on how they go about things – and that is awesome because it gives an opportunity to learn new things and bounce ideas around. There are many projects and rigs where I would not have been able to do without help from other people!

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

To travel around, I used to ride a Mongoose BMX bike. It was a lot of fun and I would ride it around in circles when I had free time. I would keep my BMX outside in my apartment’s parking lot when I was not using it. Then, one day, I decided to ride my BMX and I suddenly discovered it was gone – stolen.

Fast forward to a few days later, I was walking home from school when I suddenly see a person riding what appeared to be a BMX bike that was spray painted all black. I can only speculate, but that may or may not have been my bike.

Fast forward a few years, my friend, Donovan Ramirez, told me about a documentary by TRAFIK called To Live & Ride In L.A. (2010) that mainly covered fixed-gear cyclists. From that point on, I bought and rode a standard fixed-gear bicycle (Micargi brand), in which I soon added toe clips, bullhorn bars, and a new seat.

I pivoted from riding a BMX to a fixed gear bicycle. And sadly, for the longest, I could not figure out how to skid (I would instead do the little hops with the back wheel and try to lock my legs – we were against using the bicycle brakes at the time).

Fun side note: years later, when I was doing my undergrad studies, my friend, Mr. William, got a bicycle (maybe it was from Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace) and we went to an underground parking structure where he spray painted the body by suspending it using a custom PVC pipe frame (that, to my knowledge, he built). Super awesome and fun memory!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://christianchico.wordpress.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/christian_ch1co
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@gamerchico1
• Other: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm10740339

Image Credits

Richard Garcia, Cam, Bruce Puyu Wang, Christian Chico