Born in Scotland, Kaiya moved to Australia at the age of 8 and at the age of 10, decided herself that she wanted to become and actor. Having worked on TV series The Saddle Club and Neighbours, she was constantly surrounded by enthusiastic filmmakers. She made multiple short films for fun but with help from Julian Costanzo and other incredibly talented individuals, completed what is now a Tropfest Australia finalist film.
Directed by Kaiya Jones
Produced by Julian Costanzo
Written by Kaiya Jones (director):
The filming of Coping included animals, kids, cramming 20 cast and crew into a holiday home and swimming in the ocean in the middle of winter. I can definitely say I was quite adventurous with my first short film. I had a blast every single minute and have never slept so well after anything in my life.
Being my debut behind the camera it was essential to have someone committed and passionate in the role of Producer and I couldn’t have picked anyone more fitting. Julian Costanzo took me under his wing and guided my vision from paper to screen. That man never stops working and continues to produce incredibly moving, hilarious and beautiful films.
The entire team amazing. We all moved down to Phillip Island for three days to shoot and even through times where I had the cinematographer, focus puller and two members of cast in wetsuits fighting against the abnormally harsh sea conditions they still managed to keep their spirits up and push forward.
From the perspective of someone who has always been in front of the camera this experience gave me a whole new level of respect for the crew behind the scenes. For something just seven minutes in duration it took nearly a whole year from first script draft through to screening at Tropfest 22! It’s a lot of time and effort but it’s also an incredibly fun and exciting journey to get to be apart of the first time a large audience views it. Even though I’ve seen it about 100 times something still lives within that formulates a proud smile.
Cinema Australia 