The Inclusive Filmmaking Toolkit
launched by
Bus Stop Films and Taste Creative.
SYDNEY, Australia, Friday, 17th July – Capturing more than 20 years combined inclusive filmmaking experience, Bus Stop Films and Taste Creative have pooled their knowledge to develop “The Inclusive Filmmaking Toolkit”. The Toolkit is a free resource for the screen industry, outlining best practice principles to provide support and achieve greater and more meaningful inclusion of people living with disability on both sides of the camera.
Funded with the support of Screen NSW, the Toolkit will better enable filmmakers, production companies and creatives at all levels of the industry to ensure their filmmaking practice is inclusive and that people with disability are better represented in stories about them. With 20% of Australians identifying as living with disability, and as the largest minority group in the world, this is a huge part of the community that could, and should, be better represented in the industry.
The Inclusive Filmmaking Toolkit was developed by Bus Stop’s co-founder, award winning director Genevieve Clay-Smith, together with a team of 15 creatives, 9 of whom live with disability. The Toolkit features case studies, information and advice on how to ensure all aspects of a project are more inclusive and consider the lived experience, contribution and employment opportunities of people living with disability.
Genevieve states “Inclusive filmmaking is a method I have applied to every film I have made throughout my career, and gained many personal and creative rewards from it. Creative collaboration is mutually beneficial and I hope by sharing our methods through the Toolkit, more opportunities for people with disability will open up, and our films and our community will be better for it.”
Partner company Taste Creative works in the commercial arena but follows a similar ethos, Executive Creative Director & Co-Founder Henry Smith notes “Our community is so diverse, and this should be reflected in our content. In pre-production, on set and in the editing suite there are so many opportunities to involve, employ and collaborate with people with disability and Taste is thrilled to give back to the industry with this free resource”
A free digital resource, The Inclusive Filmmaking Toolkit can be found at https://inclusivetoolkit.com/ and includes introductions by Bus Stop Films’ Ambassador Joni Campbell, who says “As someone who lives with disability, inclusive filmmaking has allowed me to be creative, to work in the screen industry and to make films. While I think it’s important to look at the ability of a person rather than the disability, I hope that more companies will use this Toolkit to employ more people like me.”
Bus Stop Films’ CEO Tracey Corbin-Matchett states “The Toolkit supports allyship at all levels and shows how the industry can open up pathways for creative collaboration with and for people with disability. I live with disability, as do many of my family and friends and I hope with this resource now freely available to the industry, more inclusively made projects will premiere on our screens. There’s no excuse not to now.”
The Toolkit launches as Bus Stop Films shoots its first post COVID-19 production, an inclusively made short film “See Me” (working title) that will premiere in 2021. The project is based on a story written by Audrey O’Connor, a filmmaker who lives with Down syndrome and was produced by Audrey and her classmates through Bus Stop’s Accessible Film Studies Program at AFTRS.
The project includes a diverse cast and crew, with over 60% of those on screen identifying as living with disability. With funding from a City of Sydney Cultural Resilience Grant, and investment from Cushman and Wakefield. Excitingly, Animal Logic one of the world’s leading independent creative digital studios, has provided VFX guidance and expertise to Bus Stop Films on the project. The film was shot on location at The McDonald College and Actors Centre Australia. “See Me” is certainly inclusive filmmaking in action!
Bus Stop Films welcomes interviews.
Media Contact
Alina Golovachenko
Marketing & Administration Coordinator
0427 773 599
alina@busstopfilms.com.au