FWM: How do you bridge the gap between storytelling, performance, and Chi Energy?
My two highest purposes are to be a director-producer who intentionally creates ripples of positivity and personal growth in my industry. And also a storyteller who consciously crafts stories which narrative aim to inspire and transform audiences worldwide, for a better world.
Motivated by the desire to serve, I have created a method involving Chi Energy that implements higher consciousness awareness right at the beginning of the filmmaking process. I believe that when artists intentionally co-create with their energy centers (chakras), the laws of nature, the six senses, and, most importantly, with a clear positive purpose, the results are always more significant.
Hence, my methodology integrates mindful practices such as meditation, visualization, body awareness exercises, and self-actualization techniques. I teach to anyone working in a production, from writers to directors, cinematographers to production designers, editors to music composers… and of course to actors. Even producers, financiers, entrepreneurs, and sales agents have found this approach beneficial for their profession. Once you integrate these tools into your routine and make them a habit, you become unbounded. It’s part of the mindset of Chi Energy.
At the beginning of my career, I wasn’t even aware that I was already using energy. It was a natural thing for me to do. It’s only after I made a short film called Ceramic Tango that I realized that my creative process wasn’t the norm.
While rehearsing with the actors of that film, a behind-the-scenes camera was documenting my directing style. At the Ceramic Tango premiere, we screened the making-of documentary called Let it Out! (which you can watch on my Vimeo.com/PatriciaChica channel). After the presentation, some audience members asked me if I practiced Reiki. I had no idea what Reiki was at the time so the following day, I googled the word “reiki”. Astonished, I discovered that it was something I’ve had been doing already to help actors with their energetic blockages. All of that time, I was using energy instinctively without even knowing it.
In the past decade, I’ve embarked on a journey to educate myself more profoundly about Chi Energy and metaphysics in general. I have invested ten of thousands of dollars and an equal number of hours in acquiring this knowledge. I have studied every discipline possible, such as Reiki, meditation, kundalini yoga, feng shui, shamanism, Buddhism, spirituality, indigenous cultures, clairvoyance, body expression, role-play, and mindset psychology, just to name a few.
Today, I have tested hundreds of energy techniques on myself and trained even more people from the entertainment industry. After countless trials and errors, experimentations, and implementations of Chi Energy in my own work and life, I have been able to create a simple methodology that connects the dots between all of these modalities, and that is useful to creative people. The techniques are straightforward. You can apply them to filmmaking, storytelling, management, and performance to elevate your potential to the highest level.
Imagine if every production was using conscious practices, on set, and in their narratives? It would uplift the whole industry, and also have a ripple effect on how we communicate meaningful messages with our diverse audiences worldwide.
This model truly serves as a springboard for storytelling, as well as a blueprint for expanding actors’ performances and imagination. Even though Chi Energy may appear to be a complex system, it’s actually very easy to decode. I make it super accessible and fun, so I don’t alienate my students and colleagues.
In my latest short film Morning After, all the heads of departments and actors used energy techniques to come together with a cohesive storytelling style that transcends the screen in a visceral way.
Since I’ve started implementing these laws into my own work and showing my collaborators how to use them, I have observed increased enthusiasm among the team, more grounded and authentic performances from the actors, a higher level of productivity and cooperation as well as a significant augmentation of everyone’s creative potential and growth.
I’m proud to say that my productions have become even more harmonious than ever before thanks to this zen mentality. In today’s competitive market, to attract and keep the best collaborators, it’s imperative to make the work environment an enjoyable place where everyone can feel included, inspired, empowered, and able to grow and contribute.
FWM: Share with us your incredible new initiative created to help the film, TV, and entertainment industry professionals elevate their mindset, mindfulness, and creativity.
Since the #MeToo movement and now the Coronavirus pandemic, there has been a surge of curiosity for mindfulness and personal development in society.
People in our industry are becoming even more awakened about Consciousness and the connection to their inner selves.
I’ve been present in Montreal, Los Angeles, and in the film festival circuit for over a decade. As the interest for my work keeps growing, my grassroots efforts are now able to reach a wider audience thanks to Stage 32, the world’s largest online platform for connecting and educating film, TV and new media professionals. I’m very grateful for this opportunity given to me by CEO Richard ‘RB’ Botto and managing director Amanda Toney.
At our live Chi Energy webinars, we have participants from all over the world so it goes to show that there’s really a demand for this type of information on a global scale.
You too can now learn Chi Energy on Stage32.com.
FWM: How do you champion your team members through coaching, self-development, and continuous growth opportunities?
I’d like my Actors and team members to walk away from any of my productions feeling expanded, and that they were able to contribute to something larger than themselves.
Therefore, to build a positive team spirit among my Cast and Crew, I host a 4-hour compulsory Chi Energy workshop before any new project. These tools are not taught in film schools or prevalent in the showbiz. Yet, they provoke the best bonding experience before we go to work on set together. It allows us to realize how our mindset, vibration, and mood affects our productivity and the whole group’s energy.
Through simple techniques, mindset strategies and exercises, I teach how to balance our chakras; set a strong intention for our work; find a higher purpose for our contribution to the project and/or the story; detach ourselves from our ego; raise our mental, emotional and physical state; manage our own frequency and appropriately respond to the vibes of others; activate inspiration on command; how to find grounding, balance and flow; make decisions quickly with our intuition, not our reason; as well as how to be better communicators and leaders in general… to name a few examples.
It’s incredible how these 4 hours of playfulness really sets the tone for the next 4 days or 4 weeks we will be working together.
With the actors, I will spend more time and go deeper into the training, sometimes from a few days to several weeks before the filming starts.
A funny anecdote: on one of my latest productions, everyone had attended the recommended Chi Energy workshop, except two key crew members who were a bit resistant about this process… Coincidently, it was the two absentees who got into a heated altercation on set.
I am confident enough to say that this type of behavior could have been avoided if everyone had known these simple techniques or at least had become self-aware. The tools definitely help us manage our state of being, especially when pressure, stress, and fatigue arise on set.
Because of this, I make it my responsibility to always champion my team and my actors, at every stage. I consciously choose to transform judgment into curiosity, criticism into advice, doubt into trust, competition into collaboration, and so forth, for an even more positive and inclusive culture.
FWM: Where do you derive your inspiration from?
My inspiration emanates from various sources, especially from my travels, human encounters, and life experiences.
I have discovered a meditation technique that immediately triggers inspiration through the activation of the third eye and the opening of the crown chakra. Ideas, concepts, strategies, and solutions have been coming to me, with more ease and flow, since I’ve started using Chi Energy as a creativity device. I have been writing my latest scripts using this technique, and it is incredible how easily and quickly I’m able to download information, almost like mentally channeling the story ideas, visual concepts, and characters’ archetypes.
This technique is extremely beneficial for screenwriters and actors to help them achieve the state of flow.
When you get into the zone through meditation, visualization, and automatic writing or improvisation, your whole creative process expands. There is no more resistance caused by fear, doubts or limiting beliefs. You’ll never suffer from the writer’s block or physical restraint again when you integrate Chi Energy to your craft.
I’ll be delighted to coach anyone interested to learn this material. Just contact me via my website PatriciaChica.com.
FWM: Who is the best storyteller of all time?
I believe that all the great storytellers find in Life the human experiences that inspire them. When a story is not anchored in humanity or emotions, it’s not compelling enough, in my opinion, because no one would be able to relate or connect with it.
I recently heard Vedic astrologer Joni Patry say that what is at the intersection of Science and Spirituality is “Nature.” That totally resonated with me. Nature has seen it all and created it all. Nature has overcome all obstacles and the most unfathomable challenges to always finish being triumphant. That’s quite a compelling narrative there.
I would add that the “Universe” is also a great storyteller. From my perspective, the “Universe” or the “Unified Field,” if you will already contain all the stories ever told, being told, and to be created in its unlimited and infinite repertoire.
If you really want me to identify someone human as the best storyteller of all time, then two names come to mind. In my opinion, Leonardo DaVinci and Albert Einstein are one of the best storytellers there is. Besides their remarkable scientific and artistic innovations, both of these geniuses knew what supreme storytelling is all about. They connected the dots of the universal laws as a way to understand our human existence and make us transcend beyond our current reality. I can’t think of a smarter way to tell our Story.
FWM: Tell us about your exciting feature film, Montréal Girls which has been funded by Telefilm, Sodec, and the Harold Greenberg Fund and is slated for 2021.
Montréal Girls is my debut dramatic feature film and a very personal project for me. I have been working on this story with my dear friend Kamal John Iskander, since 2011. The production is ready to film this year after the Coronavirus lockdown is lifted.
What’s innovative about Montréal Girls is that it will be the first feature movie ever made with the Chi Energy method, as it’s an integral part of my creative process.
Independently of the film production, I have taught the method to the actors and crew members who have shown interest in learning it. And it has allowed them to better grasp their inner potential and contribute to the artistic process along the way. Chi Energy is a very empowering and collaborative approach that enables greater insight of the subtext and meaning of a story. It’s about being self-aware of our body, mind, and life source, our three creative brains.
Moreover, Montréal Girls portrays semi-autobiographical scenes from my life as a girl from Montréal myself. For the sake of authenticity, I plan to include prominent real, local characters, actors, collaborators, and artists that I personally know and who are part of the city’s underground scene. This is a world I have documented and explored extensively throughout my filmography.
Besides, as a Director, I choose to give voice to strong female characters, with nuances and complexities. I like that my Montréal girls are independent, assertive, and diverse. They are far from being perfect or stereotyped, though. I want them to have quirks, contradictions, and vulnerabilities that profoundly flesh them out and make them compelling or even displeasing at times.
Montréal Girls will bend genres and be shot like a stylized documentary, with the cameras following and floating around the fictional characters. The latter will be interacting with real-life characters, included within the ‘mise-en-scène’. It will have a very real and authentic feel to it, like the audience member is part of the journey.
FWM: What is your advice for people in this turbulent time?
The long pause that the Coronavirus has brought on to the planet is something that we should view as an incredibly transformative time in our lives and phenomenal opportunity for growth.
This is a moment to reflect on what we can do to come out of this situation as better citizens, more refined creators, and more compassionate human beings.
Let’s stop focusing on the turbulence and set-backs, but on getting ready to come back even more potent and enlightened than before.
You’re invited to contact me directly here:
Official Website: www.PatriciaChica.com
Book Website: www.EmpathyIsBullshit.com
Facebook: www.Facebook.com/PatriciaChica
Instagram: www.Instagram.com/Chicatronica
Twitter: www.Twitter.com/PatriciaChica
Chi Energy Coaching: www.facebook.com/ChiEnergyWorkshop
Chi Energy Webinars: www.stage32.com/webinars/How-Creatives-Can-Use-CHI-Energy-to-Rise-Above-the-COVID-19-Pandemic
#PatriciaChica #ChiEnergy
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