Christina Xing creates dreamy and colorful worlds where songs can come to life, inclusive commercials for companies such as Tinder and Snapchat, and intimate short films that encapsulate what it means to be an outsider looking in.
The Alabama native graduated high school from the Interlochen Arts Academy for Motion Picture Arts and most recently earned a B.F.A. in Directing and Film Production from the Art Center College of Design. In short, film has always been a prominent part of her life, even though school wasn’t necessarily her specialty growing up.
“(My parents) first sent me to a private school, where I had all F’s—they almost wanted me to repeat the fifth grade. Then they sent me to public school, and I just got eaten alive. Because public school is, well, you know, public school. I think a lot of my work is about people who are outsiders and fish out of water because so much of my experiences growing up were (like) that.”
Eventually, Christina Xing learned to use her love for the camera and film to make friends. Being a self-described “nerdy weird kid,” Christina took advantage of the connections one can make through holding up a camera and pressing play. “I figured that when you have a camera, everybody wants to be in front of (it), they want to talk to you, and then you can learn all their stories and find a way to relate to people.”
As a child, Christina and her grandparents would borrow classics like The Wizard of Oz and An American in Paris from the library. It’s no wonder that the color, music, and fantasy inspired her first musical featurette titled “How the Moon Fell From the Sky and No One Even Noticed.”
After attending her first film festival in New York, Christina knew filmmaking was what she wanted to pursue. “In my town in Alabama, I was the only person that made films. So in my mind, it was like, ‘I’m the best at this,’ because I was the only person who did it. And then when I went there, my mind was blown. I saw all these amazing filmmakers who are older than me and younger than me making incredible movies. I was kind of like, ‘Holy shit, people can do this. I don’t have an excuse not to do this.’ At that point I told my mom, ‘This is the thing I want to do for the rest of my life.’”
Was your family supportive of your decision?
CHRISTINA XING: I was always on the computer—I was a child of the internet, you know? And I think at first, my parents were kind of like, ‘She doesn’t do sports, she’s not good at school—what the fuck is she doing?’ And then as I got older, they started to realize, ‘Oh, she’s making movies.’ They started to watch stuff I was making and they became more supportive. But being Chinese American, some of my extended Chinese family doesn’t really understand what I do, or they’re constantly worried that I’m not going to make money from what I do, which is obviously very valid. It’s the immigrant experience.
Out of all her creative ventures, music videos are at the top of Christina’s favorite medium to direct. “You get to work with really cool savvy artists who are open to play and make little videos to music, and that’s just the coolest thing in the whole world.”
And Christina has made plenty. Claud, 4RIF, and Catie Turner are among the artists she’s directed for—and all during 2020, a tumultuous year (to say the least). Some of her influences and favorite music video directors include The Daniels, Tim Hendrix, Jack Begert, Jason Lester, and Kyle Cogan.
Do you have a creative process you usually follow when directing music videos?
CHRISTINA XING: I’ll listen to the song first, just to get the vibe of it. And then I’ll listen to it again for the lyrics. And then a third time, and I’ll just let myself imagine stuff; and when I imagine stuff, I’ll write down what I’m seeing. And then I’ll listen to it a fourth time and look at what I wrote down originally and I’ll write it down again. If I see a consistent pattern of stuff that I’m feeling and seeing, then I interpret that into a story. When I’m in production, it’s so dependent on what the notes are because sometimes (the label or artist) has notes about changing what you originally pitched. So much of what I do, too, is attaching the DP and the producer really early on, because we talk about what’s even plausible. We don’t want to set up expectations that are going to fail. A big part of my production process involves bringing out a producer and DP as soon as I get the OK to shoot it.
Do you have a project of yours that you’re most proud of?
CHRISTINA XING: Yeah, I would say it’s the project I haven’t released yet. It’s a short film called “Have You Eaten Yet?”, coming this year and I’m really, really proud of that one. I think the storytelling incorporates my experience in commercials and music videos, along with narratives. And I’m excited to show people where I’m at with narrative stuff.
Christina Xing compares her love for film to the love a parent has for their child. Obviously, a parent loves everything about their kid with their entire heart, even on bad days when they cry over vegetables or refuse to have their hair brushed.
“That’s kind of how I feel about directing. Because God, I love everything. I love getting to imagine stuff and getting to literally play for a living. In what other jobs do you get to make imaginary situations real and work with super amazingly talented people to make it happen? The best part, too, is just working with actors, and actors are so fucking smart. They bring this stuff to life… But in the same vein, the things I hate about it is how it makes me feel. Imposter syndrome, not feeling good enough, constantly thinking that the stuff I make is bad, not being able to see it the way other people see it, and viewing myself and my values based on what I love to do. That is the worst part of it. So I see directing like my kid, you know?”
On the other hand, the film industry does not invoke such feelings of love; it is more like high school—clique-y, popularity-based, and isolating. Once at a film festival, a young Christina tried to network with filmmakers at a mixer who wouldn’t give her the time of day because she wasn’t yet a ‘somebody’ in the industry.
“But as soon as I won an award there, all of a sudden, when I went to the next mixer people were lining up to talk to me, my team, and all the people that I worked with. They were treating us like we were special or different, and they were shooing away other people trying to talk to them… Those are the aspects that I hate about the industry because it’s so clout-driven. You never know what’s a real friendship and what people want from you.”
Christina has two pieces of advice for young aspiring directors. First: stop scrolling and stop comparing.
“I think there’s a tendency in young filmmakers to go on social media and look at a lot of other young successful directors and be like, ‘Why am I not doing as well as they are? Why am I not good enough?’ And then they feel kind of jealous or hurt because it comes from insecurity… My biggest advice would be if you feel that in yourself—let it go, because you’re on your own journey and path. There are directors, like Barry Jenkins—who is so brilliant—that started later and are still super young. There’s no time limit for when you are to succeed. Just focus on what you want to make.”
Second: watch as many movies as you can. “Especially old movies, because if you don’t learn from the masters, you’ll never be a master. And I fully believe that people who don’t watch good movies, can’t make good movies.”
Check out Christina’s work here, and stay connected for upcoming projects on Instagram.
