If you want to become a studio executive, how do you get started?
This week we talk with Noelle Green, Executive In Charge of Production at Netflix, on her journey to becoming a studio executive. In this episode Noelle shares how she became an executive, what it’s like working at Netflix, as well as their inclusion initiatives.
Noelle filmography includes The Irishman, Bird Box, and Iron Man 2.
Listen to learn how you can become an executive at a studio.
Submit your films to Netflix:
Submissions-osf@netflix.com for studio features
Submissions-oif@netflix.com for indie features
Key Points:
1:39 – How she got started
2:39 – What is her role as an executive
4:20 – What’s a typical day like
6:20 – Getting started in the industry
8:27 – Joining a union
10:20 – Accounts help producers set budget
11:36 – Working with independent filmmakers at Netflix
25:01 – Most dangerous situations
12:57 – Inclusion Outreach Network (ION) at Netflix
20:34 – Diversity programs at Netflix
21:26 – Favorite resources
24:44 – Netflix sharing performance numbers
27:06 – Global programming
28:02 – Facing challenges
30:30 – Creating a safe set
32:45 – Most challenging part of her job
Links:
Links:
Connect on Instagram
Full Transcript:
Noelle Green (00:00):
They were doing fast action sequences through rural dirt roads which are in the outskirts of India. So there’s a lot of fecal matter and God knows what else besides that dengue.
Tanya Musgrave (00:14):
Oh my stars.
Noelle Green (00:15):
And we just leaned into risk like Netflix does and shot there for three weeks, but we had to build out a really robust safety plan. And the producer of the movie was at the hospital so much checking on crew members that had dengue. They ended up setting up a little room for him.
Tanya Musgrave (00:34):
Oh my gosh.
Noelle Green (00:36):
So on my side, I was terrified that I had a show in India with crew members who are precious cargo over there getting sick. And I ended up getting on a plane and going out there myself just showing support and trying to get out of that small town as soon as we could.
Tanya Musgrave (00:54):
Welcome to The Practical Filmmaker, an educational podcast brought to you by the Filmmaker Institute and Sunscreen Film Festival, where industry professionals talk nuts and bolts and the steps they took to find their success today. On today’s show, Noelle Green takes us into our job as a director of physical production at Netflix. What that looks like and how the company is working towards inclusion in the industry. Find the full transcripts and more at thepracticalfilmmaker.com. I’m your host, Tanya Musgrave. And today we have Noelle Green, one of the directors of physical production for the series team at Netflix. You can see some of her work as executive in charge of production on films such as Extraction, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, The Irishman, Bird Box, Always Be My Maybe, and many, many, many more. Welcome to the show.
Noelle Green (01:37):
Thank you. Thank you for having me.
Tanya Musgrave (01:39):
So fill us in, how did you get where you are today? I know it’s a very loaded question.
Noelle Green (01:45):
I have been in the business for probably about 25, 30 years now. And I did 20 years of freelance before I became a studio exec. So assistant on different shows all over the United States and then I became an executive maybe about 10 years ago. So now I am switching over to series.
Tanya Musgrave (02:08):
That was a very recent thing. Yes?
Noelle Green (02:11):
Starting today.
Tanya Musgrave (02:14):
So, okay, for right now. I’m familiar with the production side of things. Definitely more on the indie side, but I’m getting to the point where I’m in more of the producing and managerial side in that role. However, the majority of us are unfamiliar with the executive side and what that actually looks like. So what pieces of the machine do you connect together? Like what wouldn’t work if your job didn’t exist?
Noelle Green (02:42):
We do the budgeting and boarding process. We do the oversight of that with the producers, and then we oversee the whole production period. So they would still make the movie without me, but the studio side that would be the missing beat as an exec overseeing the actual making of the production from a schedule and budget point of view.
Tanya Musgrave (03:04):
So when you said that you were on the series team, does that look like all of you on one project? Does that look like one of you on your own projects? Are you all kind of facing in your own corners or is there like a whole team of you working on one project?
Noelle Green (03:19):
There is about 50 people on the series team and there’s about 10 of me and we all get our own slew of shows. I’ve just started on the team, so I don’t know exactly how many I’ll have, but I’m guessing it’ll be five to eight shows in the new year.
Tanya Musgrave (03:36):
Oh my gosh.
Noelle Green (03:38):
Yeah. Lots of content. Lots of people in Netflix.
Tanya Musgrave (03:40):
Yeah. Yeah. I know it was only your first day, and so I don’t know how much of a comparison you’d be able to pull, but what kind of changes do you see on the horizon from doing films to series?
Noelle Green (03:53):
The pace is very different. So when you get on a film, you’re just making one show and it’s an hour and a half long and it can take six months to a year or longer. Series is coming in and you may be making six or 10 mini movies back to back to back. So one is done, it goes into posts and starts rolling and you need to pick up the second one. So there’s a higher turnover in a much faster pace in television.
Tanya Musgrave (04:20):
What is your specific role now then? What’s kind of like your typical day? Are you talking with more agents? Are you talking more with the talent or the directors and the above the line and all of that fun stuff? Are you’re putting the team together or are you talking more with other producers rather than production? I don’t know.
Noelle Green (04:44):
I’m mostly talking with the producer of the movie and finding out each day to day, how is the pace going? Are you hiring crew? Who are you bringing on for your department heads? Are you building sets? Are you looking for practical locations? And how’s that looking for your scheduling and budgeting plan? Because they come up with a schedule in the budget in the very beginning and then they try to stick within those parameters throughout the prep and shoot period.
Tanya Musgrave (05:11):
How much veto power do you have?
Noelle Green (05:17):
I have some veto power. If they’re doing something that is not safe on set, maybe it’s an [inaudible 00:05:24] glance that has a couple beats that are outside of the true safety parameters, we push back. We have a lot of COVID protocols now, as you can imagine. They’re not popular on set, but we need them in order to keep our shows running. So pushing back on people trying to change the rules. We have some veto power, but the truth is we like to give our partners a lot of creative freedom. I think there’s a lot of joy in the Netflix partnership through that. We have veto power, but I would say we don’t use it as much as we could or we don’t want to.
Tanya Musgrave (06:00):
I’m actually really interested in your journey because at least from the IMDb stocking that I did, your first listed productions were like Shooter and Indiana Jones. So like even under your… Like the additional cruise section where like people put their throwaway roles like, oh, back in the ’90s. There was still like almost famous in The X Files. So like all big names. Can you take us back to the beginning?
Noelle Green (06:26):
So it’s all about getting your foot in the door for the first time and then proving yourself and showing who you are. So I started out as an assistant. My first movie was Heart and Souls. And it probably ’94, ’95. It was a long, long time ago. And I did dry cleaning runs, I took care of my boss’s dogs. I did all kinds of things in the assistant role. And what I really did though was in any downtime was I studied the set and I studied the departments on the set and I was watching the department heads all with the purpose of I wonder what I’ll be good at. I wonder what will be appealing to me, but also making sure I understand how the wheel spins. So I was an assistant on several movies. I also did Higher Learning, which was great. We were on a college campus a lot for that movie and just learned about like all the sets and moving around and everything that goes into just your day to day work. Your prop department prepping, your costume department prepping.
Noelle Green (07:31):
I fell in love with the overall process and I knew I wanted to become a producer myself, not the creative kind who goes out and finds the script and the director, but the production kind, the line producer who you hire to budget and schedule and oversee your production period. So after several movies as an assistant, I moved into the production office. And once I was in the production office, that department I called grand central station. You take care of all the different departments on the show. And through that process, I knew more and more. I wanted to continue to be part of the overall eyes on the show. And I’ve just moved up since then. And on X Files and Memoirs of a Geisha, some of my movies from the ’90s, I was a product coordinator. I was in the office. I was reporting to the producers and I just slowly moved my way up.
Tanya Musgrave (08:26):
Does that include joining a union? Were you part of that?
Noelle Green (08:30):
I was part of a union. My particular position in the office wasn’t a union position in the beginning of my career, but it became one and I did join the union and was part of that until I joined the studio system.
Tanya Musgrave (08:43):
Is it possible to get to a managerial side of things without joining a union? Is that even possible?
Noelle Green (08:52):
Absolutely. To become a studio exec, you don’t need to be in the union. You just need to get your foot in the door at the studio and then start to work your way up. The unions just cover many of the positions on a movie set, but nothing outside of that when it comes to the studios.
Tanya Musgrave (09:13):
So for those who would love to kind of follow in these footsteps for a more managerial side on a studio side, kind of like being able to oversee more, where could you see some potential entry points for those people?
Noelle Green (09:27):
There are a million assistant and PA jobs out there and that’s the foot at the door for everybody. Don’t turn any PA job or assistant down because both of those positions, you’re reporting to people who are overseeing the show and you get that purview of all those different departments. And when you become a PA or an assistant, you can either do it on a set and learn the mechanics of how a set runs the day in and day out, or you can go to a production company or a studio and be part of the team that oversees the process, the money.
Tanya Musgrave (10:00):
I can’t say that many people who get into film are that excited about like the accounting side of things necessarily. Man, I’ve been trying to think of other roles that we could have on this show too and I’m just like, all right, who do we not hear from? It’s like the accountants and that kind of thing. What other jobs are there that really have nothing to do with like knowing what gaff tape is or like that kind of thing?
Noelle Green (10:26):
The accounting department is another part of grand central station. Every single department has a role on the show and you can’t make a movie without one of the departments, but the money and accounting is the absolute hub of where everything happens. And the accountant works closely with the producer. So when the producer sits down, they schedule the movie, but then they have to flush out a budget and figure how much it is to make it. And they do that in partnership with an accountant. And the closer they work together, the producer starts focusing more on the overall crap of the movie where the accountant is number crunching and putting in there’s 30 departments on a show. Every department hands in a budget. Putting in those numbers, they have a whole team of people who has to help put in that information and then pay the bills. Accounting is like the quiet hero in the background. You don’t see their work, you don’t hear their work, but it’s splashed all over screen because we couldn’t afford anything without them.
Tanya Musgrave (11:24):
So I know that you are more on the side of the Netflix originals. Do you guys ever work with indie filmmakers or is that something more along the lines of acquisitions?
Noelle Green (11:37):
We do it all at Netflix and there’s a million different divisions that cover all of that. So there is an indie film division and they do… Right now, they’re doing movies that are $50 million and below, but there’s a part of the team that really focuses on the true indies that are like $5 million to $15 million. And then within that indie team, some of the execs handle acquisitions. So while some are overseeing $15 million originals, there’s others that are going out to film festivals and meeting with agents and looking for indie work that needs a distribution deal. And then you’ve got the studio films and those are $50 million into $300 million and it goes on.
Tanya Musgrave (12:14):
I actually have a question, a listener question that piggybacks on that. So a listener question from our Instagram @practicalfilmmaker, they wanted to know what is the department to approach to get a show or a movie on Netflix?
Noelle Green (12:29):
There is a submission email because Netflix gets so many submissions.
Tanya Musgrave (12:34):
Got it.
Noelle Green (12:35):
I don’t know that, but I can get you that information.
Tanya Musgrave (12:37):
Okay. All right. Yeah. And we can link that in the show notes as well. I don’t know, it just kind of seems like this elusive unicorn to get a show on Netflix.
Noelle Green (12:47):
There is so many submissions that they do require you either submit through an agent or this email that I need to give you.
Tanya Musgrave (12:56):
Tell me about ION.
Noelle Green (12:57):
Oh, this is the best. My favorite thing about Netflix is that it’s so different from all the studios that if you see a hole in the business and there’s a way you can build support to make that hole full, they encourage it. So there was a group of us that wanted to do more inclusion work, and they said, okay, what do you want to do? And we formed a group called ION, which stood for Inclusion Outreach Network. And we did a lot of incredible events and partnerships for several years. We were so successful that the company decided to hire someone. We’re all employees with full-time jobs that are doing this on the side. They took it so seriously. They ended up hiring a woman named Tiffany Burrell-Lewis, who is now running an inclusion program for the below the line portion of the company. So all the productions.
Noelle Green (13:51):
ION’s main purpose was to help get underrepresented people their foot in the door. So whether it was going to schools and talking to young children about opportunities or going to colleges and setting up recruiting or what I was really focusing was freelance crew members on our sets. And we have worldwide sets. So there’s thousands and thousands of people on our sets every day. Let’s help create more opportunity for underrepresented to get that opportunity and break up that historical Joe’s brothers, cousin, sister is going to get the break and give everybody that open door and that opportunity. So training programs, workshops, seminars, [inaudible 00:14:36] group search looking for people, everything we can do to help find talent and help build them a bridge to the bigger side of the business.
Tanya Musgrave (14:46):
Is that also casting?
Noelle Green (14:48):
Casting too. I focus primarily on crew because I’m production and I’m below the line, but a lot of the creative executives that focus on story and characters are working on getting more inclusivity as well.
Tanya Musgrave (15:01):
Okay, I know not everybody is going to be able to actually see your face when you’re saying this, but you positively lit up when you started talking about ION for sure. That’s great to be so passionate about something that’s so needed because I would have to say personally, and I don’t think about it too too much because I was fortunate to have a mother in leadership. So being a leader was not ever anything foreign to me. And just a little background. I don’t know, I was adopted into a Caucasian family.
Noelle Green (15:40):
Me too.
Tanya Musgrave (15:40):
Wait, what? Stop. And so, I don’t know if you had this kind of experience, but I wasn’t taught to look for anything. So I never let anything really bother me when it came to getting the jobs that I wanted to get. It was just like, all right, this needs to happen. So I’m going to go after it. And I guess like people just didn’t really question, right? And I don’t even remember. Like the first time I kind of even saw something on screen that half way even represented a story kind of like mine was. It was a summer Netflix thing. It was To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before.
Tanya Musgrave (16:19):
Lana Condor, I remember looking her up because she was an Asian lead and it wasn’t even really a thing. It wasn’t made into a thing. It wasn’t like, oh, she’s an Asian actress. But then I looked it up and she too was adopted into a Caucasian family. I’m just like, “This is the first time that I’ve ever seen anybody that was like me. And I didn’t really even think about it because… I don’t know. I’m curious what your experience was, especially because I know this now. And that’s crazy.
Noelle Green (16:53):
Isn’t that incredible? I have so many things to say, but one thing you said was you were talking about leadership and how you were raised with a mother that’s a leader. Me too. And there’s so many kids out there that don’t have that that I see that as my role to be that woman speaking up for them and saying, you can… You are smart enough. You are bright enough. The color of your skin doesn’t matter. We want your brain. We just want the best brains, the best possible people for the job. And I was raised with more of that sprinkled in, but not everybody is. And so there’s so much work that has to be done to get everybody in the same bowl and working together. But I think also just being a person of color adopted into a white family, you see more possibilities and inclusion because you grew up in it as long as your parents did it right.
Tanya Musgrave (17:47):
It’s a very interesting thing because a lot of the discussions that have been happening the last few years, I’ve almost not known where to insert myself. Because you know and understand that side of things, you know so much more of the culture behind it. Every single culture has its pitfalls. We’re one big family that… And family can be like the most confounding thing on earth. You’re just like, you don’t understand necessarily why it is the way you are, but you kind of stick through it and you’re just like, oh wait, like that’s kind of the importance of the family is you communicate and you stick together and like you’re all surviving it. And not only surviving it, you’re thriving together because of your differences.
Tanya Musgrave (18:35):
And a lot of the conversations regarding inclusion and stuff like that I was just like, I’m so thankful for it because I’ve had more people now even… The latest one that I think of is a professor I was talking with. We were putting something together. It was a documentary panel and he was a documentarian. And so I was just like, “Hey, do you mind moderating this panel?” And he’s white male. He’s the one that told me. He’s just like, “Hey, I just wanted to bring it to your attention that there are no females on this panel. And they’re also all white. And I wanted to just let you know that it’s something that I noticed and I think that we can figure something out. And I don’t necessarily think of myself as the end all be all, so if you want somebody else to moderate this.” And I was just like, “Oh my gosh, you’re so right.”
Tanya Musgrave (19:31):
Because I wasn’t… Like in some ways I feel like it’s a good thing that I’m just like, oh, I wasn’t even thinking about it because it was just documentary. You’re a documentarian, be a documentarian, but 100%. Oh my gosh, as soon as I saw the lineup, I’m just like, this is a problem. This is a major problem. So, yes, the amount of conversation that you can spark through initiatives like ION is fantastic. So are you still involved with that?
Noelle Green (20:02):
We decided to dissolve ION but not the work. So we didn’t need ION anymore because now Tiffany Burrell-Lewis has a team and she’s got full-time staffers that their job is to come up with initiatives and programs for more inclusion on our productions globally. There are teams globally working on it. So I think it will be highly elevated in the next year or two. We have real opportunity to step up, I think, and lead the way that Netflix likes to and is good at.
Tanya Musgrave (20:37):
If you are a person of color or a minority, what is a good way to kind of tap into those resources that Netflix is providing?
Noelle Green (20:50):
We’re coming up with all these programs, we’re going out and we’re looking for people, but where can they come if they’re looking for us? Who can they reach out to? Tiffany’s building out her structure. So over time, I’m sure there will be a place they can come to Netflix. So I’m underrepresented, I’m looking for opportunities or training, where do I go? But for now we’re outward facing looking for people.
Tanya Musgrave (21:16):
One of the parts of the show is where we ask about tools of your trade and gearing gadget says like old reliables and stuff like that, but I’m also really curious about your favorite resources. Like what you use in your job and what resources you pull from.
Noelle Green (21:34):
It’s interesting Netflix likes to build a lot of internal tools and collect data. So I was at another company before that didn’t do that. And you would be on IMDb searching for crew. You’d be just doing out of search through external search engines. At Netflix, they have an app called Origin story, and you can look up any movie, any TV show that was ever made at Netflix and look up all the information about the show.
Tanya Musgrave (22:01):
Oh my gosh, this sounds fascinating.
Noelle Green (22:04):
So my favorite resource is internal, but I also use IMDb quite a bit when we’re looking for people. I read Deadline every day to make sure I’m caught up on industry news. I read Variety, I read a Hollywood Reporter. Are you talking about general resources or inclusive resources, everything?
Tanya Musgrave (22:20):
Anything that you thought of. There was some people that was like, oh, this social media account is like actually really good for this. Or so sometimes there’s software and then people are just like, “Hey, yeah, this app is actually really, really useful.” The main things that I usually ask are gearing gadgets. Like what’s your old reliable and then what’s your new reliable, your new favorite one that revolutionizes how you work?
Noelle Green (22:45):
It’s interesting for me Origin Story isn’t in any of the other studios. So I’ve been at Netflix for five years, but that’s my favorite tool. They now have another tool, and this is internal again, but it ingests our wrap report every day. So how many hours did you shoot? How many pages did you shoot? And we can look at all our projects and average out what our days are looking like. And that’s helpful information to just see how we’re doing overall as a company.
Tanya Musgrave (23:17):
And then maybe this is a developer question, but what is the closest thing that you can think of that would be available for filmmakers wanting a similar tool that’s not available? Origin Story, man, that sounds like an incredible thing just to just like… I’d be so fascinated to read any of those. That’s awesome.
Noelle Green (23:40):
They’re all internal tools. So I’m sorry to say Netflix likes to get data and to keep data.
Tanya Musgrave (23:47):
Yes. Yes.
Noelle Green (23:49):
And of course, share it externally as we learn over time.
Tanya Musgrave (23:51):
How much do you think that that’s going to stick around? Not the apps and the internal tools and stuff like that, but I’m part of a Facebook group for distributors and it’s for indie filmmakers who are looking for distributors and aggregators and all that fun stuff. And to talk about, hey, are they a good distributor or like no, stay away. People just looking out for each other. And it’s no secret that Netflix likes secrets, right? And I’m just curious how long, or if you think that that is going to be a sustainable thing for filmmakers who might just get frustrated at the fact that like they won’t let me see any of my stats like how well it’s performing or how much it could earn or like how many views I got. So there’s streaming services that are coming out, the Wowza. Everybody’s got them up to their eyeballs. So how sustainable do you feel like that is?
Noelle Green (24:46):
I feel like it’ll be forced out and we’ll have our Box Office Report once… I don’t know if it’ll be Netflix or another company that starts to report their numbers first, but Netflix has been sharing information with filmmakers. I would say maybe it’s not public, so it’s not trickling out to Variety or Hollywood Reporter, but the filmmakers themselves, they’re hearing performance reports. But again, I would say that Netflix is keeping it on the quieter side, but like we just had our biggest opener ever in the film side, Red Notice. So I know they’re sharing their big wins and their successes. And like Squid Game this year, they shared the high level of success of that. And the most exciting thing about that show to me is global viewership and the appreciation for global content. And that’s, to me, the biggest magic of Netflix is they are literally bringing the world together through content. And it’s all through subbing and dubbing. We can watch any content from anywhere and appreciate it at the same level.
Tanya Musgrave (25:54):
Because there’s really so much. I remember talking to any of my friends that might have been from Australia or Europe or… It usually starts off as something like, oh, how can you imitate the American accent so well? I can’t even try. And they’re just like, oh, because you guys have media everywhere and like you guys are the ones that have all the TV shows and all the movies. And so we grew up watching your stuff. But I’ve always been curious. There are so many markets outside of ours. There’s actually one of your, I guess, colleague, but in a completely other department who had talked about the Latinx community being the biggest untapped-
Noelle Green (26:35):
Content.
Tanya Musgrave (26:35):
Yeah. Content, but also audience. Yeah, the biggest untapped audience that nobody has successfully really tapped into. And what can be done about that because you need, I mean, again, like through the Tiffany, is it? Through the efforts of Tiffany and stuff like ION, that’s how you do it. Like you tap into it by getting those people in those positions that can say, actually, this is the right way that you do this.
Noelle Green (27:10):
La casa de papel is Spanish language content. And it’s one of our biggest shows at Netflix. And that’s been a Latin explosion. There needs to be many, many more, but we also have a creative executive named Paco that went from the Spanish office to Mexico. And I know there’s a lot brewing down there. So I think there’s a lot to come.
Tanya Musgrave (27:33):
Yeah, that’s incredible.
Noelle Green (27:34):
And just the way they made La casa globally popular and there’s a show out of Germany called Dark that went globally popular and now Squid Game out of Korea, I think we’ll see some incredible Latin content continue to expand.
Tanya Musgrave (27:48):
I’ve been loving seeing the diversity that is on there in your cast and from what it sounds like now all the way up to the top where it needs to be as well. So, okay, this is another question. Tell me a story of when something went wrong and what you did to fix it or grow from it.
Noelle Green (28:10):
I will say more of a challenge than something that went wrong. And in it being a challenge, stuff went wrong. We shot part of extraction in India. And very few foreigners have ever gone to India and said we’re going to do like a 50, 60 day shoot. It’s usually you get in, you get the exteriors you need and you get back out again. That’s because there’s not a huge structure on the ground. We went into India, we were in Mumbai and that was one thing. Then we went further away to a town called Ahmedabad. It’s the dengue capital of India.
Tanya Musgrave (28:46):
Oh no.
Noelle Green (28:48):
So that’s where it gets a little crazy and maybe that’s where we went wrong. We took a crew into the dengue capital of India and had people on the crew getting dengue. And they were doing fast action sequences through rural dirt roads, which are in the outskirts of India. So there’s a lot of fecal matter and God knows what else besides that dengue.
Tanya Musgrave (29:15):
Oh my stars.
Noelle Green (29:17):
And we just leaned into risk like Netflix does and shot there for three weeks, but we had to build out a really robust safety plan. And the producer of the movie was at the hospital so much checking on crew members that had dengue they ended up setting up a little room for him.
Tanya Musgrave (29:35):
Oh my gosh.
Noelle Green (29:36):
So on my side, I was terrified that I had a show in India with crew members who are precious cargo over there getting sick. And I ended up getting on a plane and going out there myself and just showing support and trying to get out of that small town as soon as we could.
Tanya Musgrave (29:56):
Are there waivers for that? Like what do you have the crew do?
Noelle Green (30:01):
No, there’s not waivers for that. When you’re there, you’re just there. You’re in the environment and you’re leaning into risk fully. And it’s the company’s responsibility and the producer’s to make sure everyone’s being as safe as possible. How do you give the director everything he wants, it was a he, but make sure your crew is safe and happy? So it was nail biting. People at Netflix remember me telling stories in meetings, but I finally did get on a plane and go out there and show studio support.
Tanya Musgrave (30:32):
One thing that happened in the last little bit was a bit of a side step in the industry when it came to an almost strike with crew safety and that kind of thing. And I talked with a friend who is again, more on the executive side of things. And for him, it was more a breathe a sigh of relief because they’re not going to strike. We have our workers, we can carry on with stuff. But then you have the crew members who are on the ground who are just saying like there’s nothing that’s very much different. What are your thoughts on how that would affect things?
Noelle Green (31:09):
We’re aware of all things safety, but first and foremost is the hours because the shorter more efficient day you have, people can go home and see family and be happy and get rest and come back to work rested and feeling good about their work day. We were very supportive in the change of work hours that came out of the negotiations with the AMPTP. What I noticed the most important thing is the studios stand behind it. What’s even more important than that the director and the producers on the ground executing it. So I can say, make sure your crew gets 12 hour turnaround that’s in studio stance, but we have hundreds of shows globally. We don’t have a microscope on them. We trust our partners. We need to know that they are on the ground making sure they’re implementing all of the safety rules directly themselves. They’re the ones that fought for it and wanted for it and they actually have to make sure they’re implementing it on set. And we need that strong partnership to make sure it’s happening.
Tanya Musgrave (32:14):
I’d have to speak up here and say that it’s also important to speak up. I think that talking with some of the more seasoned veterans of the industry, they are talking about like I’ve kind of noticed a shift where these kids are coming up and they’re not afraid. They’re not afraid to stand up and say, hey, you’re being ridiculous. You need to give us enough hours so we can be safe. And I love to preach boundaries on this show. So it is good to hear from somebody at Netflix that it’s something that you guys stood behind.
Noelle Green (32:47):
Very high priority.
Tanya Musgrave (32:48):
The last listener question we have from Instagram is what is the most challenging part of your job?
Noelle Green (32:54):
People managing. People managing between the producers that I work with, my staff that works for me, all the Netflix partners I have cross-functionally, it’s making sure people are informed, communicated with, heard, and managed in a way where you’re delivering good, bad information where they’re hearing you and it’s resonating and you’re figuring out a resolution. A lot of my job is putting out fires every day. So it’s going and talking to people, figuring out what the problem is and resolving it. And it’s all people management.
Noelle Green (33:34):
And it’s tough because whatever their personality is, whether they’re tough or really kind, you just have to be making sure… It’s important to me, honestly, that people are happy at work and feeling good every day. And that is an effort on my part, especially when, I keep saying this, but there’s a lot of good things happening and bad things. Or I have to say, you can’t have this or you can’t go there. The show can’t do this. We can’t give you more money. Managing those conversations. And I say it’s tough because it’s the most important part of the job. And it can be really tricky at times.
Tanya Musgrave (34:13):
On a very, very, very small, micro, micro scale of what you’re talking about, I produced a micro budget indie feature this summer and getting everybody who is wanting to go in a certain direction, in some ways it is the most joyous thing to be able to like, hey, you want to go in this direction? Well, like not only will you go in this direction, but you’re going to do it 150%. Like go be you. And it’s awesome, right? And then having those other conversations. You have to be tough as nails to be in your job, but do you also have to be empathetic to what everybody else is going through and finding that balance. What challenges do you face or do you see any challenges because…
Noelle Green (35:04):
As a woman and as a woman of color, I know that I’m seen differently, but I walk in the room like I’m not. So when I walk in the room and there’s the producers and the director, I know they’re thinking, oh, it’s a woman. Oh, it’s a woman of color. But I always say, get your foot in the door and then show them what you got. Because I walk in, like I know I’m equal and I know I know as much as you all. And I sit at the table and once I start talking, I see people kind of relax and their shoulders drop like, okay, she’s not going to be a girly girl or she’s not going to mother me or whatever was going through their minds. [crosstalk 00:35:40].
Tanya Musgrave (35:39):
You’re there to get a job done.
Noelle Green (35:41):
Yeah. Somebody said to me when I first became a production supervisor, I was sitting at my desk and I had about 10 grown men in my office arguing about staffing for their departments, two different departments. One of them got pissed at the group and was like, “We shouldn’t all be in here getting frustrated and talking to Noelle like this.” And he walked out of the room and I finally resolved it with the guys and they left. And I went home and said to a friend that night told them the whole story and they said, “Did you realize when you were talking to this group they were all white men that they were looking at a black woman sitting on the other side of the chair?” Of course it crossed my mind, but I didn’t let it change my process or the way I acted or anything I did. And that’s just something I have to deal with probably every day being in a higher level management position.
Tanya Musgrave (36:35):
Yeah, I’ve frequently found myself sitting in a meeting. And again, it’s not something that crosses my mind that often, but then they’ll mention something about like, oh, like we’ll get the other like pieces of the team together and all that stuff. And I’ll look around at our team and I’m just like, “Oh, I’m the only female.”
Noelle Green (36:55):
And I belong here.
Tanya Musgrave (36:59):
And I belong here. Yeah. And it’s kind of weird to say that. I really appreciate what you had to say about that because I was up for a professor position and I ended up going in a different direction because it was a different time in my life. And I was talking with one of the students and I was just like, “Yeah, I’m sorry. I’m just not going to take this gig, but it would’ve been great to see you around more often,” and that kind of thing. She was like, “There aren’t really a lot of female role models that we have around the school yet and it would’ve been cool to just see from a female professor what life would be like.” And I didn’t really even think about it until then that, oh, that’s something. That’s definitely something. Like there are people who are going through this and we’re half of the industry or-
Noelle Green (37:51):
We have a long way to go.
Tanya Musgrave (37:54):
We do have a long way to go to even get to half. But yeah. Anyway, thank you so much for your thoughts on that. What questions should I have asked you?
Noelle Green (38:07):
I like that we talked about inclusion stuff and being a woman because I think that that is a hot topic that can’t go anywhere. And I think that the Me Too movement broke down walls that won’t go back up. It’s like the Berlin Wall. George Floyd’s death made an impact that should have been made a long time ago, but it’s also knocked down walls. We got to make sure those walls don’t go back up. So we have to keep talking about it, we have to keep it top of discussion in the bigger meetings, and we have to help keep getting people in the door, training, educating, and putting out that olive branch.
Noelle Green (38:46):
And it really scares me to think things could ever go back to the way they were. I don’t want these years of inclusion to be a trend. I want it to be a permanent systemic change in our society. That’s why my face lit up when you talked about inclusion because I never thought in my lifetime that I would see these kinds of changes. So I just want to help make sure they don’t go away and that your generation and the younger generations grasp onto that and just keep the doors open. They can never close again.
Tanya Musgrave (39:16):
That was a fantastic closing statement. But I must ask you this anti-climatic question. How do people find you or follow your work? Shameless plug up.
Noelle Green (39:26):
How do they find me or follow my work? I’m on Instagram @noelledg16.
Tanya Musgrave (39:32):
And then like what project are you excited about right now?
Noelle Green (39:36):
I just moved over to series. So on the film side, I was working on Extraction 2. Very excited. They’re going to elevate the action beyond belief. And there’s a project with Bradley Cooper called Maestro that is a passion project that will be at all the award shows when that one launches. It’s just beautiful. Ma Rainey is one of my favorite projects that I did. So that’s been out but near and dear to my heart. The series team that I’m going to join now, I’m part of the overall deals team and the overall deals that are part of that team are, I know the Obamas have higher ground. Regina King just signed, 21 Laps, and the Duffer brothers who made Stranger Things, Harry and Meghan. All kinds of exciting deals. So I can’t wait to get over there.
Tanya Musgrave (40:26):
It sounds incredible. We cannot wait to see what you have next. Thank you so much for being a part of this podcast. I really appreciate the things you had to say.
Noelle Green (40:35):
It was really fun talking with you. Thanks for having me.
Tanya Musgrave (40:37):
If you enjoyed this interview, follow us right here and on Instagram. Ask us questions and check out more episodes at thepracticalfilmmaker.com. Be well and God bless. We’ll see you next time on The Practical Filmmaker.