@SXSW2021
@SXSW2021 · 2:19

SXSW Speaker Kip Kroeger: Producer - Ted Lasso

article image placeholderKip & Ted
I'm in conversation today with somebody who was in the belly of the beast when Ted Lasso was created. Kip Kroger was supervising producer of Apple TV hit, and all of us hoped that it got a second season. By the way, I don't know if it did, but the first season was amazing on Apple TV. Kip is an award winning producer who began his career as a PA, which is a great place to start working on Scrubs

Supervising producer of Apple TV hit hit series Ted Lasso, Kip is here to tell us how decisions were made in the creation of this epic success

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@KipK
Kip Kroeger
@KipK · 1:35
Thanks so much, Deborah. It's so cool to get to do this with you. Yeah. Tedlass has been a crazy experience from the time we first started working on it. You know, as with a lot of these things, you don't know what it's like until it's released out into the world. And this show had, you know, from the first time we really started getting into it, the depth was something that we all kind of clocked as special about it
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@SXSW2021
@SXSW2021 · 1:10

Hitting the tone right

Hey, Kip, thanks so much. It's great to hear your voice, you know, talking about career and the trajectory forward and then sort of landing something like this, which is so robust and full of so much potential because of its of its legacy, legacy. And Jason's legacy. I want to ask you, as a supervising producer, which some of us don't know what that actually means. I want to talk with you about tone
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@KipK
Kip Kroeger
@KipK · 2:12

What do we do?

And when you partner somebody like him with someone like Bill, who is a wizard at editing and storytelling, especially for television, you're able to kind to get the best of both worlds. And I think that Ted Lasso really got to exemplify that. So it's a tribute to all of them, that it comes out the way it does
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@DBPardes
Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 1:45

Mentors along the way

You've been part of many teams, and it must feel amazing to go into a project and know you're there for a while. And of course, there's that devastating reality that all good things must come to an end. And people pop from project to project for you to have continuity in your career. Are there certain mentors that have carried you through this experience that you would always love to work with?
@Swell
Swell Team
@Swell · 0:15

Welcome to Swell!

@KipK
Kip Kroeger
@KipK · 3:00

Super mentors

The continuity thing that you talk about is really a tough thing to do in a freelance world, but I've been lucky that actually Bill Lawrence, who is the showrunner with Jason on this has been one of the most sort of regular influences in my career since the very beginning
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@DBPardes
Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 2:30

The journey...

And I have to say how wonderfully surprised I was at the quality of people I've met over the years in terms of the depth of their talents, but also their ability to really share of themselves when things are doing well in their careers. How I've seen that generosity and people helping others kind of move forward. It's just a nice spirit, and I could feel from you that you feel that with your career and that's just so amazing
@KipK
Kip Kroeger
@KipK · 2:44

Career "path"?

We get a little bit more involved in the production process when they're very post heavy, and there's a lot of moving pieces and tight schedules because we have to anticipate things more and help production think ahead for what we need, and we need to be working with them at earlier stages to make sure that by the time they shoot stuff, it comes to us in a sort of way that isn't going to need another round or isn't going to need us going back to them with questions because we didn't think of them ahead of time
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@DBPardes
Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 0:48

The pipeline

But I know knowing your audience is important, but now do you have to know your audience? And do you have to know your distribution channel? How much do you have to know in terms of where it's going to ultimately play outdoor as you create and ultimately pitch your product
@KipK
Kip Kroeger
@KipK · 1:23

Distribution audiences

I think you're keying on something that is the you know, it's a wonderful problem to have you're right about knowing your audience. I think and as these as all of these distribution channels try very hard to differentiate themselves from one another
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@DBPardes
Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 0:59

🙏🙏🍿🍿

That's so true. And it's such a golden age for content right now. I mean, I don't know how I could have gotten through COVID without such amazing shows emerging every time I looked at my screen and the browser, it was just incredible. It was incredible. And Ted Lasso was definitely one of them
@KipK
Kip Kroeger
@KipK · 0:44

🤟🙏🎉🥳

Thanks so much for having me on Deborah, this is a really cool platform, and I feel like it's a neat way to have conversations in our sort of on demand world these days, to have things sort of at your convenience. So I really appreciate it. I look forward to speaking with you again and connecting with more people on the platform. This is super cool. We have our panel, I guess Wednesday morning with one south by Southwest
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