Kirsty Stark — Reverse Engineer Your Way to Success

In this conversation we track Kirsty’s journey from university, through her time in the camera department on film sets, to her realisation that she could have more influence on the stories that were being told on film by taking on the role of producer. 

Just some of those stories include a post apocalyptic adventure series, a comedy series about an uber driver on the autism spectrum who’s looking for love and a transgender student’s first day at high school.

Kirsty describes how she has reverse engineered her way through what may have otherwise been insurmountable obstacles to get her projects made and why she chooses to keep her company in South Australia when others might move to Australia’s eastern states or even further afield.

In this episode:

• My Neighbor Totoro - trailer and wikipedia entry
• The Babysitter’s Club
• Epic Films
• Wastelander Panda - ABC iview Australia | Watch on YouTube
• Ella Macintyre joined the Wastelander Panda team as Social Media and Impact Producer to help leverage the initial attention the prologue was receiving on YouTube.
• Studio Time Ep 06 Liz Bojanic — Superpop and the Band Invented By Its Fans
• Pozible - Crowdfunding for Creative, Community and Passion Projects
• Kirsty describes the strategy Epic Films used to increase the goal amount they sought through crowdfunding while minimising any risk that they’d miss their target and end up with nothing 
• The Wastelander Panda team devised their first three episodes to achieve specific goals (crowd pleaser, showcase of director’s skills and painting a picture of the greater WP story world) designed as answers to the questions they knew they’d be asked before other partners would come on board to make future episodes
• Kirsty’s Tips for First Time SXSW Attendees
• Kirsty explains how she will ‘reverse engineer’ a process, by starting at a desired end point and then working her way backwards, asking questions about what will happen at each stage of the process
• Madman Production Company
• Mentors: Sophie Hyde and Rebecca Summerton from Closer Productions
• the power of thinking about why people might say no and countering their objections ahead of time…actually transforming the objection into the compass that shows us what we need to do to move towards our goal
• ask what is behind the criteria you are being asked to meet, and look how you can address this with the resources you have (or have access to)
• Goober - ABC iview Australia
• Studio Time Ep 04 Jen Waldman — Discovering My WHY Changed Everything
• Jen Waldman & Peter Shephen discuss Content Dictates Form on their podcast The Long and the Short Of It
• Goober’s writer Ben Crisp
• Creating the story world and bible for Wastelander Panda
• First Day - ABC iview Australia, watch this wonderful interview with actress Evie MacDonald
• Julie Kalceff - First Day’s writer and director
• Prix Jeunesse - Internation Children’s Television Festival
• Adventures in the Screen Trade by William Goldman
• Why I (Kirsty) Still Live and Work in Adelaide
• Matchbox Pictures

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Epic Films

Email Studio Time: matthew@studiotimepodcast.com