Nicole Huesman: [00:00:00] Well, Sharissa, it is so wonderful to have you on She Lights the Way.

Sharissa Holopainen: I'm happy to be here.

Nicole Huesman: So Sharissa, when we talked earlier, you had described what you're doing now as production management as a, a big puzzle, and I love that analogy.

Sharissa Holopainen: So, a big puzzle is correct and basically a film production is the production end, is the business end essentially, of getting films made. So, we do everything from pre-production when you're putting together the team and hiring the people that are gonna come in and be the creatives as well as making sure that everyone's contracts are correct and you are aware of all the union guidelines, all the way through into, of course, shooting, which is essentially when we make sure that there's no fires that need to be put out, or if we're running behind on schedule, making sure we know what that's gonna cost, if we need to put more time in or days in on the backend or do a longer day today. And [00:01:00] then post-production. So, getting the thing edited and marketed and put out.

So it's a really big team typically depending on the budget of the production, but you're, you're working in a team and then also with other teams that make up the entire production. So, it's a lot of communication and personalities and things that you're harmoniously trying to make work together. It changes every day and every production is different, and that's what I love about it because it's never stagnant and you're always figuring out new solutions and having new problems.

Nicole Huesman: And figuring out how to fit all of this together. I'm, I'm absolutely fascinated. How did you find your way into what you do now as, as production manager?

Sharissa Holopainen: When I was younger, I was always interested in being an [00:02:00] actor, right? Like, that's a little kid's dream, or an actor, or a pop star, or at least when I was little, that was the thing. And so. I did plays here and there and then that kind of fizzled out in high school and growing up. I grew up in, in the Bay Area in Palo Alto. And so that's really like an incubator for technology and, and business and, and that, so that was kind of the path that everyone else was taking. And when you're 16, 17 trying to figure out, you know, what to do, it was easier to kind of see what everybody else was doing and, and that was what was talked about so much. So I did go to college to study business, but I got there on Thursday and by Saturday night, I was home back with my parents in my own bed in my room and had dropped out of, of college to study business and that program in general.

And I dropped out because I had had this aha moment of, you know, this just doesn't feel right. Like I've always had this [00:03:00] dream of doing something in the arts and I'm doing something that's so not that. That, you know, I, I just had this visceral reaction of, okay, I need to try this now or I'm never gonna do it. And I came up with a plan and I said, Hey, look, okay, I'm gonna go to community college. I'm not gonna miss a beat. Education wise, that's important to me, but I'm also gonna get a job and I'm gonna apply for an acting program as well.

And then I did I ended up getting into the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco and I was like, okay, great. Like this is the path. This is gonna be great. But then I got into those first acting classes and turns out I'm a horrible actor. I can't do it. I, yeah, I was just so bad at it, like. Un indescribably bad. Anyway, I was nervous and, and just in my head and it, it just wasn't for me.

So I had, I followed through with the program because I was now in it. But we had [00:04:00] a like a special session or like a, a winter session where it was just a few weeks and the. We were given a project where we had to make a short film, and so I went out and collected my friends that were not in school, like were not actors. And I wrote and directed and shot and, and edited this glorified music video at actually the San Francisco International Airport and, and put it together and, and presented it in class. And that was. Like the first time that I was like, oh, wow. First of all, there's other things in the industry than acting and directing. And this was really fun. I really liked this. And being in control of the story that I was telling and putting it all together and, and, and figuring out how to make it happen. Like, where are we gonna go shoot this? Who am I gonna get to perform this thing? You know? And so then, then I was like, okay, I think there's something here.

[00:05:00] And then I started applying for four year colleges to finish out my degree. And I ended up at uc, Irvine in their film media program. And that is just in those classes, it clicked for me that okay, acting definitely not the thing. But production and writing and, and putting together the pieces that then other people, I. Will perform and make is what really interests me.

And then I graduated straight into the pandemic. And so there was no work in Hollywood. And I had a friend that I had made the summer before who worked in production. She, I had met her as a production assistant on a little children's film in Finland. The summer prior to graduating. And she we were talking and she was like, Hey, we actually, we, we need help on a movie this summer. Would you wanna come? And I was like, well, sure there's nothing here. [00:06:00] And and, and just pandemic, like Wise Finland was in a much better state than the US or California. And so I went and I originally went for eight weeks to shoot this movie and I ended up staying for five years. And just there working up my way through production. So, you know, starting out as a production assistant, being a production coordinator, going into production managing.

And, with the pandemic also came a lot of productions, American productions and just international productions that came into Europe and specifically the Nordics. And so then I also had this interesting space where I kind of became the resident American Finnish person who understood both production cultures.

And now I'm in a place where I'm really interested in working on a lot of co-productions and kind of being a, the person [00:07:00] to go to, to be able to facilitate bridging that communication gap and bringing, you know, people from different countries collaboratively together in a harmonious way because it's, it's something that I've discovered that I'm passionate about because I think you gain so much from having different cultures working together. I think it's important and it lends so much, but there are communication barriers that, that can, can break down if, if you're not careful. So that's something that I, as a production manager really like to focus on and dive into.

Nicole Huesman: Let's go back to the, to the point at which you chose to go to uc, Irvine. And what I thought was really interesting about that, and we talked about, you know, you chose U.C. Irvine over USC.

Sharissa Holopainen: When I went to tour USC, I was convinced I was going there, like, how would you not 'cause of the name and, and what comes [00:08:00] with it. And I toured and it was so unbelievably competitive. It just felt really competitive and not collaborative, which then when I went to visit UCI, was just such a world of a difference for me where it was just the emphasis on collaboration was so strong, and I knew already that you, you can't, you can't make movies alone. And that's why I ended up at UCI because that just made sense to me. That's how you get films made in my book.

Nicole Huesman: There's an African proverb that goes a little like, if you wanna go fast, go alone. If you wanna go far, go together. And I'm so reminded of that as you talk about your decision to go to UCI over USC. And as you point out, you know, we all need to work [00:09:00] together and that's how you really get, get things done.

The other thing that I thought was really interesting was, when you made the decision to go to Finland, I think you kind of fought against that, 'cause it maybe was a little bit of a swerve, you know, on your, on, on, on your path, but it also, you've got so much out of it.

Sharissa Holopainen: Having grown up between the two countries, I, I grew up in a, in a Finnish household. I was born there, but I did move to California when I was really young. And so for a lot of the time when you're young, you know, it's kind of weird to be different. And so I really resented being different and having a different language spoken at home and different foods that I brought for, for lunch at school. And so then there was a long time where I really like pushed it away.

And then once I became a teenager and made my own friends on my own [00:10:00] terms in Finland, my kind of perception started to shift a little bit. So there was a little bit more positive and I wasn't being forced to spend summers there. I wanted to go spend time with my friends and see them and stuff like that. And so that was a big change as well.

But then also once I went to school and, and was on this career path, so many different people from Finland to here were suggesting like, why don't you go there, there there's a, there's a film scene there, and, and why wouldn't you go work there? And I just, I rejected it for so long being like, oh, no one's gonna know what Finland like, nobody ever knows where Finland is. No one's ever heard of Finland. Like it's such a random place. Like it's not gonna be real to, you know, like Hollywood is where you make movies and America is where you like, you know?

So I rejected it for a really long time and I, and then when I finally went and realized the scope of what we do there and how quickly the industry has grown and how well it's [00:11:00] regarded. Emma Thompson just had an article come out again about how much she loves Finland. They shot The Fisher Woman there last year, which it'll come out later, but like you have big name stars who come and we just shot a movie with Glenn Close. And like we have, like Finland is really highly regarded when people get a chance to go there.

And so now my perception of it has shifted to let's get more people to understand the beauty and the culture and what making films in the Nordics is like, versus being against it and not really recognizing the beauty that is doing things a different way or doing things somewhere else.

We have brilliant tax incentives to the point where most indie films, I'm like, Hey. And that's another thing that excites me about being in LA right now of like seeing if I can convince or [00:12:00] work together with producers here to convince them that, hey, you can shoot this thing that would take $10 million to make here, if you can even get the permitting for it in L.A., and we can make it for a million in Finland. So for, you know, mid-tier and lower budget movies, it's a no brainer.

Nicole Huesman: One of the things that I think is so beautiful about what you've done is to take something that was your difference, meaning that made you different, and you really have turned it around into something that makes you unique and you have a real niche in …

Sharissa Holopainen: Mm-hmm.

Nicole Huesman: … in your industry. Can you talk a little bit about what that has done for you?

Sharissa Holopainen: I think, embracing my niche and, and realizing that that's where my strength is in understanding different cultures or specifically the [00:13:00] American and, and Finnish model. I'll, I'll broaden it to the Nordic model, but I worked on a project where we had an American director and heads of department from the whole breadth of Nordic countries. And we had crew from Iceland and, and heads of department from Norway and Sweden, Denmark. And then of course we had Finnish heads of department as well.

And so when you combine all of that into a room, while everyone is incredible at what they do, they do it in very different ways. And so there's a really big part in understanding, Okay, in the American model, everything goes through the director. So, if everything is not being communicated through the director, they're gonna think something's wrong and gonna maybe not trust the heads of department as much versus in, in the Nordic model, when you say something like to a Finnish person of, Hey, I want this done, they will go off and they will do it and they will do it incredibly, but there's not that like check-in phase of what [00:14:00] would be construed is maybe pointless to them because they're a professional and they know what they're doing versus just being in, in, in the American model, it's courteous to kind of check in and, and give progress reports. But in the Finnish person's eyes, that's superfluous. Like it doesn't, there's no point. Like they're gonna get it done and it's gonna be good. And then if there's issues we'll fix them. But, you know, when instructions are clear, there's no issues, you know? And so then it's something that happens without you realizing, and then you have this kind of weird distrust or miscommunication.

But when you know that this is the psychology behind where the, these work ethics are coming from and the expectations of communication are coming from, then it's easier to sit everybody down in a room or speak with people individually, preferably before the production even starts, really open the lines of communication and set expectations and see, ideally, who's comfortable with what working model, and then just set [00:15:00] that, cause it's much easier to know where you stand when you're given the rules beforehand, right? Like most people can adapt to anything. They just need to know what they're adapting to. And I think that that holds true for, for most situations, right?

Nicole Huesman: So what's a project that you've worked on that deeply resonated with you on a personal level?

Sharissa Holopainen: I worked on a show that had a different name while we were shooting it, but when it came out, it's called Code Name Onika. And that was really impactful for me because it was the first time that I had a fairly big role. I was in charge of a really big budget and this was my first also international co-production that we did with, at the time, HBO Nordic. And we shot in Sweden for a couple of weeks and we were shooting in Finland and we had actors from France and, and Sweden and Finland and crew from every walk in between. This was the first time [00:16:00] I met and worked with one of my mentors and now good friends and where our collaboration started and like working together. That entire production team, from our writer to our delegate producer, to our line producer, to our production managers, to my department. 'cause I was the head of my department, so me and my colleague and, and like everybody in that production office was actually women. So that was really cool.

And then that, that line producer actually and I discussed a project for the following summer and she asked me to come back and work on a film called The Summer Book, which just premiered last year here in LA at AFI and a little bit earlier in the year in, in London. And that was a really big project for me and that really locked in my love for the production side.

Our unit production manager on [00:17:00] that project became like one of my best friends and she's someone that I look up to immensely. That project just in general was just like the wildest summer camp experience I could imagine. We shot in the middle of the Baltic Sea for five weeks on an island that was an hour off of the coast of Finland. And. Yeah, it was an hour by boat each way every day on top of a 10 hour shooting day of like, ugh. And the weather was horrible most of the time. And you know, does not care if you're shooting a movie. And, but when it was beautiful, it was so beautiful and so quiet and just, you know, if you have 60 people on an island together working towards the same goal, you kind of. I mean, it's cheesy and, and most of the time people are like, you kind of become a family, but you, and most of the time it's a very dysfunctional family, but like in the best way. [00:18:00] But this was just the next level of that. And it was so fun. It was hard, but it was so fun.

That was definitely very impactful on my career and just seeing so clearly of how the magic of co-productions and when you bring all these countries together, but also the the need for clear communication and just understanding of where everybody is coming from from the get go. And then just that love of like putting puzzle pieces together. Like, you have to figure out, okay, if we can't shoot these scenes today, and we have three people, actors that need to be on an island, but we have time restraints on the child because they can't work for more than next hours a day, but we only have three boats and they need to go at these times, and each boat has a different amount of time that it takes to get to the island. It's like real life math problems that you get in math class that don't make any sense. Like, but [00:19:00] it is your job. Or like, you know, if the, someone forgot a, a piece of equipment in Helsinki. Okay. Like if I put it in a taxi cab to come to meet me in the harbor, it can be at the island in three hours. You know? And like, okay, what do we need to push to make that fit? And like, then you have to obviously collaborate amongst different teams like your AD team and your camera team or your, like whoever, and your actors and like, it's just you're putting so many things together and solving problems and it, yeah, it's just so fun.

Nicole Huesman: And your passion absolutely comes through. What do you think has been the most valuable lesson you've learned thus far in, in what you're doing?

Sharissa Holopainen: I think career-wise, the most valuable thing I've learned is that there's no right path or right way of doing things. You have to find your own path or niche, and [00:20:00] it, it really is true as, as frustrating as it is, but then it also maybe takes the pressure off in a way because if you just think about what's important to you and what you specifically are good at, because I think that everybody does, everybody absolutely does have something in them that makes them different. And so finding what that is and using that to your full advantage and make it your entire personality, like whatever, you know, but, but use, use, what makes you different is, is I think one of my biggest takeaways thus far.

Nicole Huesman: Oh, wonderful. And as we wrap up today, I'd love to know in your perspective what does She Lights the Way mean to you?

Sharissa Holopainen: To me, She Lights the Way means uplifting everybody that you can along the way and highlighting strengths in people. And [00:21:00] for me as now a boss of people, that's something that I always try to do. When I meet new coordinators or production assistants of seeing, what is your strength, what is your passion, what makes you unique? And then finding projects within our team that they can focus on and that give them a sense of purpose.

Nicole Huesman: Sharissa, I can't tell you what a joy it has been to talk to you today. Thank you so much for spending your time with us.

Sharissa Holopainen: Thank you, Nicole. It's been a pleasure.