Amy Street is the story of ‘lifestylers’ who live in refurbished miners cottages within the community, given the opportunity to live independent lives. Living alone or with others, the homes give residents the chance to be a part of a society full of love, patience and support.
Kirsty Griffin and Viv Kernick established Bella Pacific Media in 2011, and have continued to turn the spotlight on the people living at the Supported Hauraki Life Style Trust, instead of the label.
Amy Street is made up of eight films focusing on the colourful lives of residents and their larger than life personalities – exploring their hopes, dreams, challenges and relationships.
How did you first meet the residence of Amy Street?
In 2013 we were asked to make a 20 year celebration film for the Supported Hauraki Life Style Trust, the home of our Amy Street stars, and 60 other adults with intellectual disabilities. After 6 months of filming we had developed a great connection with the self called Life Stylers and their support staff. They are a great bunch of people to work with we wanted to continue working alongside the Life Stylers so we applied for funding to make a series of short documentaries confident we could find 8 good people to tell their own stories.
How did you fund your series?
We received funding from New Zealand on Air’s Digital Media Fund . Which covered most of our expenses for shooting and post production. Personally we both had a pretty lean year. But one to remember!
What did you want to achieve in creating this series?
Our main aim was to give the Life Stylers a voice, we wanted them to be more a part of the small town they live in and be valued and respected . By making these short vignettes of their lives we showed their hopes and dreams and that they can achieve them, like all of us with a bit of help and understanding .
What was your experience with web series before creating your own?
Our first short film ‘Wayne”(who is also part of the Amy Street enclave) was part of a series of 10 short form documentaries made for the internet as part of Loading Docs an initiative supported by the NZ Film Commission with NZ on Air. Up until then we’d both only ever watched a few episodes of one NZ web series – “The High Road”.
What was your release strategy?
We had a cinema premiere for the Life Stylers, their family and the community of Thames NZ , they were so popular we had to have another 4 screenings , we handed out information on how to send the links off to friends and family to watch. We hired a publicist who managed to get us on National radio on the day of release , and 2 TV channels interviewed us and came to film and interview some of the starts of Amy Street. Then it was via social media all they way from there.
TVNZ has it on demand, and this month the Sunday Programme (current affairs) played “Celeste” as it is the 25th anniversary of our own Soap Opera ‘Shortland Street’ they called her NZ’s biggest Shortland Street fan, it was the highest rating article on their show that night.
Film Festivals are also a good way to get the stories out there.
What have you learned while working with people with disability?
We have learned how ordinary so called normal people are compared to the Life Stylers. We learned about the struggles the families have all been through to get their child to this point, where they can become their own person in their own exceptional way. It’s the same old story, we all have some reason to get up in the morning and the Amy Street gang are no exception.
What did you learn from making this series?
How important it is to have a good release strategy, making the films is one thing but getting people to see them is quite a different thing.
What would you do differently?
We would give more planning into getting the films out there. We’d start the social media profile right at the beginning while they are being made, generate more of a buzz.
Who was your target audience and how did you build a relationship with them?
Thames the home of Amy St has a population of 7000 so initially it was important to connect with them for many reasons, mainly as they are the community that rub shoulders with the Life Stylers, and they are the community that most need to have understanding. The stars of Amy Street have enjoyed more than their 15 minutes of fame around town. Online festivals and screen film festivals is where we have had the most success with reaching an audience we were unable to connect with via our social networks.
We have realised our target audience is more the generation who aren’t so savvy with online content – it is changing, but slowly. So to reach them we have had some TV airtime and showing at film festivals.
What advice would you give to emerging creators?
Get a well paid job so you can finance your film making dreams. Or get a team of talent to work along side so you can do as much as you can yourselves.
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