Netflix may not have revealed any new cast members in its Heartbreak High season three production announcement last week, but it has already welcomed a new face behind the scenes from Bus Stop Films.
Jack Kennedy will serve as a production attachment for the series, spending 6-8 weeks on set and benefitting from one-on-one mentoring. He is the first of two attachments from the organisation that Netflix will support for season three, with a post-production candidate to be announced in the coming weeks.
It comes after the streamer facilitated the placement of Launceston-based Bus Stop Films participant Mia Talbot on the Hobart set of Matchbox Pictures and Tony Ayres Productions’ Jane Harper adaptation The Survivors.
Having joined the organisation’s accessible film program a year prior, Talbot was primarily aligned to the art department of the mystery series but also had the opportunity to shadow multiple other roles during her attachment, which ran from February 12 to March 8 this year.
Speaking to IF, she paid tribute to executive producer Matthew Vitins for showing her around to the different departments, which allowed for a “greater appreciation and understanding for what each of them did” and how she might be able to communicate with them in her own work.
“I’m mostly interested in writing and directing and I was really lucky to meet the two directors that worked on that,” she said.
“But it certainly showed me that even if I was going to be a director, I would need to be interacting with all the departments, and they are all so important. I was really interested in every part, and I like physically being on a film set.”
The feeling of being on larger film set is something Bus Stop Films is hoping to provide for more of its students through its partnership with Netflix, according to the organisation’s chief operating officer Dianna LaGrassa.
The streamer announced the collaboration at the end of last year, pledging its support of Bus Stop Films 2023 Showcase, as well as the upcoming placement.
LaGrassa said Netflix had since committed to ensuring that the production companies involved in each placement complete the organisation’s inclusion and action training program prior to its commencement.
“We have our accessible filmmaking program which we deliver around the country, and we have over 200 individuals who have intellectual disability or are neurodiverse in our cohort,” she said.
“The next step for them is really about that pathway into the industry and getting that hands-on experience
“When people hear Netflix, they get pretty excited, but they actually were amazing in how they supported Mia on The Survivors, and I think that continued the relationship because, to be honest, it was one of the best internships we have seen.”
The Heartbreak High attachment coincides with Bus Stop Films inaugural Driving Change summit at Sydney’s Bondi Pavillion next week, featuring speakers such as renowned disability advocate Keely Cat-Wells, Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth, and journalist Leigh Sales.
It comes ahead of a milestone year for the organisation, which will celebrate its 16th anniversary with a roadshow that will incorporate 16 stops across the country.
Bus Stop Films announced last month that award-winning Accessible Film Studies Program would also add three new locations in 2025 – Cairns, Darwin and Hobart.