Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Courtney Birk & Ashleigh Coffelt. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Alright, Courtney & Ashleigh thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.
One of the biggest risks we’ve taken was making our short film First You, Then I. It was a time when Everything Everywhere All At Once had just come out and we were so inspired by the film. It was also a time when we hadn’t been on set in a long time because of Covid restrictions, and the film strikes. We had been feeling down on ourselves, our creative process, and if this industry had a place in it for two girls from Maryland who just love telling weird stories. While EEAAO had ignited that spark enough to make the film, we also had a very honest conversation about this being the end of our film journey. We said that we would go into this film and have the most fun we could have, because this very well may be our last one. That was a huge risk for us because it’s coming face-to-face with a reality you never dreamed of. We had spent our entire friendship and working relationship working towards our film goal. Knowing that we may have had to shift our entire lives was really challenging.
Two years later, we’ve celebrated 10+ festival acceptances and numerous awards for First You, Then I. We’ve found long-term film collaborators, such as our amazing Costume Designer, Claire Mildred. We learned so much about ourselves and the lengths we are and aren’t willing to go to make films moving forward in our careers.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Hi! We’re Courtney Birk & Ashleigh Coffelt. We are best friends, filmmakers, musicians and artists. We’re originally from Maryland and met in 2012 serving tables at a Ruby Tuesday. Courtney overhead me (Ashleigh) talking about making 13 films in 2013, and the rest is history. Between 2013 – 2016, we created about 40 short films and started performing music when we weren’t serving tables to pay for our films. We moved to Los Angelos in 2017, and worked hard to find our footing.
In 2018, we started live broadcasting music, film and art on Twitch as CA in LA, Courtney and Ashleigh in Los Angeles. Through our Twitch career, we’ve created original music, played on stages around the world, and been able to create films through funding we’ve raised on stream. We’ve been able to use our Twitch streams to showcase our films & creative skills, enabling us to grow as artists and creatives.
Elevating women and marginalized communities is something deeply important to us. In 2021 & 2022, we independently created and produced original programming for Filipino American History Month on Twitch, which included a film festival, virtual concert, mental health conversation, Filipino women in film panel, and more, reaching over 1 million people around the world. We’ve also produced several live shows, including an annual Christmas concert & several curated showcases of Twitch musicians.
While music is a passion for us, film is our main love. Since 2012, we’ve independently created 150+ films spanning genres, time lengths, and budget. Through our production company, Miss Ash Productions, we aim to tell stories that explore the human condition. Our approach to filmmaking is very collaborative, encouraging play and communication. We love being prepared with as many potential solutions to problems before filming to make the collaborative process enjoyable. Being on set should be fun!
Courtney and I are committed to education, building community, uplifting, supporting, and hiring women, BIPOC, and marginalized creatives. On our last film, Mommy Issues, we’re proud to have had women, BIPOC, queer, and neurodivergent representation with our cast and crew. Women in Media has been instrumental to helping us identify and hire great crew, especially with their database and networking events to get to know fellow members.
If you’re looking for a women-owned and operated production company, fantastic collaborators, fun visuals, and well-run sets (we send you home with warm food at wrap!), we’re your team. With 200+ projects under our belt, we know how to stretch budgets, while keeping our cast and crews safe, nurtured, and creative. We’re also available to be your camera & edit team, with several different camera packages and great relationships with rental houses.
We’re passionate about telling stories, and we’d love to bring yours to life! From music videos, to live productions to commercials, social media videos / campaigns, documentaries, and especially narrative films, let us help you find your voice.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
A big lesson we have had to learn was how much of ourselves we were willing to give up for the sake of film. In any art form, you are passionate about, there must be some level of sacrifice. But balancing the art form and our mental health has been our biggest struggle. There wasn’t any particular moment that we learned that lesson, rather many years of different struggles and fighting our way through it. Finally, it got to a point where the love was lost, and we had to go back to our roots and remember why we loved to do this. We think the most important thing anyone can do is know their “why.” Not only know it, but you also understand that your “why” can always change. And that is completely okay. If it does change, listen to it, and adjust how you continue moving forward.
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
In 2018, one of our good friends, Chris Zash, recommended we stream on Twitch, the largest interactive and live broadcasting platform. As neither of us identified as being gamers, we weren’t sure if we’d be able to find our place on Twitch. We started out playing N64 & GameCube games like Mario Kart, ultimately adding a cover of a song every hour. Our community encouraged us to make the leap to playing music full-time on our streams, which was the best thing that could have happened to us.
Our Twitch presence has been crucial to growing our following across other platforms. Over the last 6 years, our Twitch community, The Ohana, has empowered, supported, and uplifted us to achieve goals we never thought were possible. We’ve used our streams to showcase our 100+ films, develop our public speaking skills, and grow as artists, storytellers, and human beings. Even though our growth tends to be slower than most of our peers, The Ohana is a powerhouse who never lets us fail.
Our advice for growing your social media presence is figure out the type of art you’d like to share with the world, stop waiting to be perfect and simply, put that art into the world. Put stuff out there, experiment with artforms, don’t be married to trends. By being ourselves and constantly creating, we’ve been able to find our community of likeminded humans from around the world, who we’re fortunate to have their continued support across platforms and art forms.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.missashproductions.com
- Instagram: @ca_in_la / @missashproductions / @iscoatknee / @ashtagswaggg
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/cainlatwitch
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/cainla
- Other: twitch.tv/ca_in_la, cainla.com, https://open.spotify.com/artist/7HckUvLxPdORUIil84awhT
Image Credits
Main Photo (Bill Nash)
Additional Photos
Standing with Lights- Bill Nash
On Stage – Aphoticphoton
Photo w/ Camera – Robert Angelito
Standing with award – Caitlyn Smith
Selfie – N/A
Selfie – N/A
Writing – Robert Angelito
Set Crew Photo – N/A
Selfie – N/A