Jeremy Kelly-Bakker
Director & VFX Supervisor

Jeremy is a filmmaker, visual effects artist and director at We Made a Thing studios. His visual effects work has contributed to several major studio franchises, including Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, Prometheus, Iron Man 3 and Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

As a director, Jeremy has a number of short films under his belt, including The Way, which premiered at the Adelaide Film Festival in 2018. Previous to that, he directed 3 foreign-language short films in China, winning Best Director at the Wenzhou Micro-Film Festival. Jeremy also co-created and directed the series Lucy & DiC which received over 4 million views.

Jeremy gets a buzz out of teaching engaged and talented young visual effects artists. He regularly lectures for the University of South Australia and the education arm of Rising Sun Pictures.

We Made a Thing Studios recently moved into virtual production with short film Coffee and Quasars utilizing this new technology. This piece was shot entirely on cutting edge LED wall technology using UnReal Engine.

Aaron Schuppan
Director & Cinematographer

Aaron is an award-winning cinematographer and a writer/director graduate of the Australian Film Television and Radio School (AFTRS).

The first stories Aaron remembers hearing are nursery rhymes sung to him in German by his Oma. At age 8 he saw a poster for Back to the Future Part II and decided then and there that movies were what he wanted to do with his life. This was cemented by a youth growing up throughout rural Australia where his one consistent friend was the video store.

Alongside his work with We Made a Thing Studios, Aaron has also worked extensively in independent cinema, and in the commercial space for major brands. He’s also written and directed countless music videos for Australian and international acts.

Aaron is currently focusing on long-form narrative as a director, with his feature Heavy Red currently in development.

Ashleigh Knott
Producer

Ashleigh Knott is a creative Producer. Her short films as sole Producer include award-winning thriller The Recordist (2020, funded by Adelaide Film Festival Fund, Helpmann, Carclew Arts) and drama A Stone’s Throw (2018, funded by Adelaide Film Festival Fund, Media Resource Centre) which screened in competition at the Manchester Film Festival and Festival des Antipodes (Saint-Tropez).

While in film school in 2016, Ashleigh was scouted as an emerging producer by the award-winning Closer Productions. Since then she’s worked extensively with Closer across their slate of work including Aftertaste (Assistant Production Coordinator, 2020), Animals (Delivery Supervisor, 2019), and The Hunting (Production Secretary, 2019). Ashleigh’s other production credits include Stateless (Production Secretary, 2020), Gold (Assistant Production Coordinator, 2020), Wolf Creek Series Two (Producer’s Attachment, 2017), and as Associate Producer with Triptych Pictures (2017-2018).

Recently, Ashleigh produced We Made a Thing Studio’s latest short The Normals (2020, funded by Rising Sun Pictures and University of South Australia) and is currently developing the feature Heavy Red.

Tom Phillips
Writer & Development Producer

Tom is an award winning writer and producer. In 2017 he wrote and produced Lucy and DiC, a proof of concept short film that reached 1.5 million views online. Following this success and with the support of Screen Australia, South Australian Film Corporation (SAFC) and the Adelaide Film Festival, Tom wrote and produced Lucy and DiC Season 1. The series released online and has surpassed 4 million views. Nominated for Best Online Series at the 2019 SPA Awards, Tom won Best Screenplay and Best Web Series at the 2019 SASAs with Lucy and DiC.

In December 2017 Tom wrote and produced The Way, a proof of concept short that was funded through the SAFC and premiered at the 2018 Adelaide Film Festival. He game/narrative designed Box Knight a video game funded by the SAFC, and most recently, finished Coffee & Quasars - a sci-fi first of it's kind virtual production utilising the Unreal Engine.

Tom was announced as one of the Screen Producers Australia Ones to Watch in 2018, and is currently developing a slate of projects under the We Made a Thing Studios banner.

Krystle Penhall
Post Production Supervisor

Krystle has a decade’s experience in film and television editorial and VFX. She lives to create and support diverse teams, and gets a kick out of using the latest technology to tell bold, colourful stories.

In 2018, Krystle edited the award-winning and well-loved web series Lucy & DiC, which has surpassed 4 million views online. That same year, she was also post-production coordinator on Pine Gap, one of Australia’s first Netflix original series. Since then, Krystle has worked in VFX editorial on several studio features including Cats (2019), Dora and the Lost City of Gold (2019), Love & Monsters (2020), and Mortal Kombat (2021).

Krystle volunteered for the Australian Screen Editors Guild, and is working with global non-profit Blue Collar Post Collective to make post inclusive. She also presented her paper Where are the Women? The importance of visibility in achieving inclusivity at the 2018 Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers technical conference in Los Angeles.

A sharp technologist, Krystle maintains up-to-date knowledge of emerging technologies. At We Made a Thing Studios, she builds post workflows, teams, efficiency and fun.