ABOUT KIRSKO

Kirstin Feddersen BSc is the director of Kirsko Film Animals Pty Ltd. Kirstin spent five years at Sydney University studying Animal Behaviour and then five years in the veterinary industry learning how to care properly for animals. In the year 2000 she won a Churchill Fellowship which allowed her to spend ten weeks in America working with some of the most talented Film Animal Trainers in the world.  Since then, she regularly returns there to further her knowledge of training film animals and to increase her contact network of exotic animals available for film work.

Kirsko Film Animals are all trained in a positive way. They are rewarded for performing wanted behaviours, unwanted behaviours are ignored. Depending on the individual animal, rewards can be food, play, affection, or a mixture.  Every animal is fed the best possible diet and housed in the most suitable enclosure. We believe that if the animal enjoys its work, the performance and finished product will be a better one. Kirsko Film Animals glow with health, happiness, and confidence.

At Kirsko Film Animals we train all types of animals to do any behaviour that is physically possible for that animal. We love a challenge! 

We are blessed to have the most amazing group of trainers who all bring their unique experience and expertise together resulting in successful shoot days achieved in a minimum of time.

We take pride in our own herd of film trained horses either bred or purchased specifically for the film industry. Each horse is conditioned both mentally and physically to meet the various challenges that film work can offer a horse. Young horses are taught the baby steps needed for that horse to excel in front of the camera when it is old enough to perform various behaviours.  We pay particular attention to having them all nicely liberty trained so they can work naked (without halters and bridles etc) on-set to the director’s wishes. When our horses are not working, they are out playing in their 25 acre paddock or running free on the trails of nearby forests where they kick up their heels and enjoy life!

We also take a great deal of pride in our team of Australian Ravens (crows).  We have had many years experience keeping these birds happily in captivity and working them in front of the camera which is a challenge few take on as they are notoriously difficult to keep in captivity and are so intelligent they can be quite difficult to train. They are beautiful birds and look stunning on screen.

As there are no wolves in Australia, we have the wonderful Zar who looks very wolf-like. Kirstin trains white wolves in the US so she spent two years studying and searching the various lines of the White Swiss Shepherd. Along came Zar who looks just like a white wolf and being white, we can dye him any colour your production requires if you don’t want a white wolf. The bonus of working with Zar is that he is much safer to work around cast and crew unlike real wolves that are less reliable.  When Zar isn’t working on set, he enjoys his life running and swimming around the farm and playing with his best mate, Zac.

Kirsko Film Animals has worked for a huge range of clients including:

Lexus, Land Rover, VW, Nissan, Toyota, Holden, Mercedes Benz, Hyundai, Dulux, Harley Davidson, Qantas, Cathay Pacific,

Air New Zealand, Australian Tourism, TAB, Crown Bet, Optus, Telstra, Nokia, Levis, King Gee, BP, Commonwealth Bank,

Rams, QVB, David Jones, Woolworths, Myer, Budget Direct, AAMI, NRMA, GIO, Coca Cola, Tooheys, Boag, Heineken,

Cougar Bourbon, Bundaberg Rum, Dairy Farmers, Jalna, Yoplait, RSPCA (charity work), Kleenex, Olympus, Foxtel, ABC,

Chevron, My Dog, Purina, Friskies, Advance, Science Diet, Pedigree, Pioneer, UPS, and Fedex.

Feature films include:

Rams, Peter Rabbit, Pacific Rim, Fury Road, Wolverine, Tracks, The Great Gatsby, Australia, Stealth,

The Quiet American, and Babe II - Pig in the City.

Television series such as:

Home and Away, Lambs of God, Rain Shadow, and Out There.

Live events such as:

True Blue the arena spectacular at the Royal Easter Show.

With all of our people, experience, facilities, equipment and extensive local and worldwide contacts, we can find, train, transport and care for any animal that you need for your production, shooting in Australia or internationally.

With our amazing team of animals and humans, anything is possible!