Meet Bobbie Green | Producer & Writer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Bobbie Green and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Bobbie, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
After graduate school, I started talking to two producing partners, Trey Sutton and Sayali Upadhye about the benefits of starting our own production company. We’re excellent collaborators who care about the impact and culture of our productions. We decided that as great as it was working with others, we could never quite feel that same euphoria as what we felt working together as producers. That’s why we started Ten Twenty Productions.

Ten Twenty Productions is our new production company that aims to empower underrepresented voices in our industry. While working in school, we saw the potential of young and new filmmakers and want to uplift those voices by supporting their projects creatively and financially. We have several projects on our slate now that we’re very excited to get the ball rolling on.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I’m a producer and writer.

Recently, I had the fortune of seeing a film I produced at a film festival called New Filmmakers Los Angeles. There was a Q&A afterwards and the interviewer got emotional about our film. He said after he saw our film he was so touched by it that he sent it to his sister and that she called him crying due to the impact the film had on her. The conversation had me choked up.

In high school I had helped a friend make a short film around suicide awareness for a class, and a classmate I never spoke to approached me after watching it, her eyes were a little red and puffy and she thanked me for the work. The pride you feel after someone is touched by your work is indescribable. That’s the feeling I chase when I produce or write a film. Stories are meant to make you feel something and if I can successfully make an impression on just one person, I’ve been successful.

I don’t think I have to tell you that filmmaking is effing hard, and living in LA while being a filmmaker is something only insane people do.

I’ve gotten a lot of good advice over the years, the one that I’ll never forget is “never say no.” My current day job is as a VFX Production Assistant for Alien: Romulus, the next installment in the Alien franchise. It’s been an incredible experience, while it strays from producing, I have learned countless things about the post production process for a blockbuster film. That’s not to say that I’m not doing incredibly menial tasks every day, but it doesn’t matter. I’m lucky enough to be working in the industry I’ve always wanted to work in. It’s not forever, and I still have lots to learn, but it’s keeping a roof over my head and my belly full and sustains a constant desire to learn and explore filmmaking.

I feel prepared, now more than ever, to embark on my own filmmaking journey with Ten Twenty Productions. Sometimes it’s about convincing yourself that it’s okay to put yourself and your work out there. As a filmmaker, building confidence in your work is so important, let yourself be your biggest advocate. I’ve been working on that and I’m excited to bring that energy into Ten Twenty Productions and my own screenwriting.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
If I’m looking to get some writing done, I’m partial to Harvey Easton Cafe. I love that coffee shop and belong to the gym above it. Fantastic vibes.

When friends visit I’ll take them to the obvious Griffith Observatory and pick up some In N’ Out along the way. I love walking through the Venice Canals, or taking my dog to All Season Brewery for a nice beer (the beer is for me, he gets water and a lot of treats and pets). For a nice cocktail or late night tea I love SteepLA.

I’ve lived in LA for over three years now, and as a New Yorker, I’ve really come around to it. I still get these moments when I’m driving and the sun shines through my windshield, palm trees whiz by and the mountains across the valley etch themselves across the sky like I’m on a joyride in “Clueless” and I think, “wow, I can’t believe I’m here. Doing this.” Although, I miss the NY bagels and pizza and public transportation.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I was really lucky to be exposed to a lot of different art as a kid. I first learned about storytelling through theater. Growing up mostly in NY, my grandparents worked on Broadway, and I saw shows that high school theater kids dreamt of seeing. Musicals that I grew up with have completely influenced the way I tell stories and the types of stories I want to tell.

When I was a kid, I went to this after school program where we would take a bus to a local theater called Jacob Burns Film Center and we’d sit and watch a coming of age movie and talk about the films afterwards. They weren’t just Hollywood films, but it’s where I was first exposed to French New Wave classics like “The 400 Blows”, and films I had never heard of like “The Rabbit-Proof Fence,” and “Les Choristes,” those film really stuck with me. I ended up working a the Jacob Burns for a little while after college, it sustained my appreciation for film and the moviegoing experience.

Thank you to my teachers, professors, and bosses, who somehow believed in a weird, kind of awkward kid and let me make mistakes, and helped me fall gracefully so I could get back up again.

And my family, of course. Always.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bobbiegreen_/

Other: IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm10536641/

Image Credits
Sayali Upadhye