GROWING up in Balingup, Sophia Armstrong never thought a career in film would be for her - she didn't know anyone working in the industry, even the idea would have seemed like a far-off dream.
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But having made a short film as part of her years 11 and 12 studies at Manea Senior College, and forging a serendipitous connection with Busselton's Cinefest Oz film festival through its short film competition in 2014, the screen industry has opened up to her.
Ms Armstrong won the competition with her five-minute piece Kinetic Happiness, and was invited back the following year as an intern.
"That was in my gap year,'' Ms Armstrong said.
"I just fell in love with the festival and meeting people in the industry.
"And it reaffirmed my idea that it was possible to work in the film industry, because up until that point I had never met anyone who worked in it."
With a degree in film studies from Curtin University and a masters from the WA Screen Academy, a portfolio of products and a bunch of new contacts, those doors truly opened this year.
In 2022, the 25-year-old produced her first series, Out of Here, and she recieved funding towards two more projects she hopes to begin shooting next year.
Her web and TikTok-based series may run to the opposite end of the financial and marketing spectrum to big budget releases such as Blueback, but she is nevertheless building a career her way - one that could ultimately be continued from the country and is increasingly opening up to other young country people coming after her.
"This year, stuff really kicked off for me producing-wise,'' Ms Armstrong said.
"We got funding in 2021 to make Out of Here, which we shot at the start of this year.
"It was really incredible to do something of my own and produce that.
"It was quite hard but we got that done and it has turned out really well.
"And I have won funding for some development for two other projects which we hope to begin next year, which will be really exciting."
Out of Here, made under her company Blackwood River Films, is a web series of four six-minute episodes that tells the story of a young, gay woman living with Down Syndrome, who goes to the gay Pride festival to 'find her people' and ends up having a big adventure.
She received Screenwest funding this year for the project, which began development in March 2021.
Ms Armstrong also received Screenwest funding this year to start developing Amy the Pirate and the Quest for the Crystal Cave, an absurdist, comedy TikTok series set in the 1800s, with Amy on the run after narrowly escaping execution for impersonating a man.
Ms Armstrong is developing the project so it is ready for production next year.
I'd Rather Eat Cake is a six 10-minute episode web series about Cobie and her journey to self-acceptance, which received Screenwest development funding, which she aims to start producing early next year.
"It takes a long time it's - maybe 1.5 years or more since we got the development funding for Out of Here,'' she said.
"It has been a long journey.''
"We are going to be doing an online release, we are hoping we can get it into a few festivals as well to raise our profile."
Ms Armstrong's first big breakthrough into the industry came while she was finishing her masters degree in 2019, when the WA Screen Academy was contacted by WA actor, writer and film-maker Bec Bignell, who was working on a web-series Homespun, based at her family farm at Kojonup.
Ms Bignell had a list of different roles she needed filled and asked if any of the students would jump on board to help her make her modern take on a country story.
"I emailed and said 'I'm from the country, I love this idea','' Ms Armstrong said.
"So I jumped on it and ended up working in a few different roles with Bec, it was so much fun coming straight out of uni and working on a project immediately."
The project meant the then 22-year-old was able to build some connections with WA film industry people and the east coast actors and crew Ms Bignell already had on board.
She also continued on with the team for all the post-production work.
"It's all about meeting the right people at the right times, it is all about connections in this industry,'' Ms Armstrong said.
"After Homespun I jumped on a few different projects in a few different roles, I was a production assistant for TV commercials and feature films."
Her next big break came last year when she worked as an assistant co-ordinator on ABC's TV's Mystery Road: Origins series, which put her on the road in Kalgoorlie for four months.
"That was really fun,'' she said.
Producing is a busy job, which involves looking at budgets, releasing plans, audience strategies, and a lot of contacting people.
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"I'm always reaching out to different creatives to see if they want to jump on board, filling out funding applications and there's a lot of editing,'' she said.
"It is your role to make sure people are having the conversations they need to have and it is hard to keep the ball rolling, especially on small projects."
At the moment, Ms Armstrong is based in Perth as it gives her the ability to join projects at a day's notice, which would be much more difficult to manage if she was still living regionally.
"But I think there are more and more people who are creating those opportunities and possibilities to live and work in the country,' she said.
"It is so much more accessible to film stuff and it is getting easier to create content from homes in the country.
"It is definitely possible to live in the country, you could definitely do it."
Balingup, with its thriving arts community, is a brilliant breeding ground for someone, such as herself, with a creative bent, but she said for now it lacks the film infrastructure she would need to base herself there.
But Ms Armstrong said she hoped to be able to work in the town in the future.
"I love the idea of being able to set up a film in Balingup one day, even if it was a documentary because there are just so many quirky people in town,'' she said.
"It is a bit of a mecca.
"And there are a lot of people who haven't really told their story yet."
The scenery, its sweeping pastures and forests, would be an amazing backdrop.
"No one has done anything in this part of the South West specifically,'' she said.
"It would be really cool to be one of the first to do that.
"It's about finding the right story.
" I have some in my head, but it's about finding the time to sit down and do it."
