Meet Kirstin Lorin, Evan Washington, Ryan Hull, Kiana Garner and Oduduwa Olatunji

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
There is no such thing as a smooth road. There were struggles with writers’ block, cast schedules, TIME, MONEY, dealing with the numerous personalities on set and behind the scenes. Luckily, our team is resilient and resourceful so we were able to overcome any challenges we faced along the way.

For instance, the morning of our first shoot day our AD’s grandmother passed. So of course we made sure he tended to his family. However, that left us with a gaping hole in our crew. One of our producers, Oduduwa stepped up and we didn’t miss a beat. Many of our core team wore multiple hats during this process. When Evan wasn’t in a scene he handled a lot of lighting cues with the DP. One of the writers on staff, Kiana showed up every production day and did script supervision work and our co-creator, Ryan Hull was handling crafty, releases and DIT simultaneously. Then in post our director Kirstin Lorin brought a whole new life to the story through his edit and special effects after collaborating with our other post-production team.

It was a diverse group of talent, but once we all were on the same page with a common goal, the work was the easy part.

So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Smart not Hard Productions story. Tell us more about the business.
We are Smart not Hard Productions, a full-service production house. We specialize in telling stories that are reflective of our personal Angeleno experiences and the collective experiences of current culture.

Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
Luck is a combination of preparation and timing. Being prepared to meet the opportune timing is key. For us, patience, persistence, and being great collaborators have been the most important factors in our success.