What is your name and what is your position at TTF?
Ashlin Green, Line Producer
How long have you been with TTF?
6 months
What does your role look like day to day?
Being an LP is a many-splendored thing! Take your pick! For me, the best part of my day is the team catch-ups from my different shows. There’s such a variety of personalities and talents, and some brilliant as well as truly awful jokes / puns. I thoroughly enjoy them! Depending on the day, I’ll either be bidding for new work or scheduling / crewing existing work, catching-up with supervisors about creative briefs, going through our work during editorial reviews, participating in client calls, where we get to share our work and receive briefs from our clients, updating reports, spending time with my coordinators, and on a lucky lucky day, reading scripts.
What led you to work in the visualization and entertainment industry?
An unlikely combination of bad decisions and fortunate connections! I moved from Denver to London years ago hell-bent on working in film. I fell in love with David Bowie in “Labyrinth” when I was 5. I used to watch it every weekend at my dad’s house on constant repeat. And my obsession exploded from there! But after moving to London, I didn’t have the all-important connections to make that leap, and ended up working in several jobs to pay the rent, but which didn’t really spark my joy. So I started working on-set in my spare time, for free, mostly as an actor, then moved into paid work as an Art Director. I was suffering from depression and psychologically struggling with living in a big city for what seemed like an impossible reason. It was around this time that one of my closest friends, who was working for TTF at the time, suggested I be brave and follow my dreams of working full-time in film, despite the fact that I had schedule limitations because of my young son and evening postgraduate studies. A few weeks later, I mentioned this to another good film industry friend, who would ultimately open that door for me, and he happened to be looking for a coordinator. Which was the perfect fit for me at the right time. I took the leap, quit my job, started as a coordinator, and have never looked back. I have actively pursued a career in visualization at this point in my career, because I have such love for anything to do with Art Department and photography, and visualization encompasses both of these things.
What is your favorite part about working for TTF?
100% the collaboration. And the fact that despite my weirdness and randomly bursting into song, I am accepted and supported by my teams.
What advice would you give someone looking to get into this industry?
Be proactive – This industry does have its perks, but it’s ultimately about groups of crazy talented people coming together for a moment in time to create something special. Whatever your role, do it as if it were the best job on the planet, and don’t wait for opportunities to fall in your lap. Go get what you’re here for.
Be kind – Film sets / studios can get stressy, long hours, deadlines, whatever the struggle may be, and we’re all human. Kindness often can be shoved to the side, but on the flip side, it can change someone’s day for the better if they’re treated with kindness in the face of a challenge. There’s no cliche about cheering up your corner of the world however that looks. And just like that, you never know when that person you were kind to will be your next employer.
Follow your passion – OK, so you started off as a runner and didn’t love it. It’s all good, because you will have been given the gift of seeing all the different departments in action, and you might have even started honing in on where you ultimately want to end up. Make sure that wherever you go excites you, and train up however you can whether through work experience, shadowing, interning, evening courses, bootcamps, etc. etc. Life is so short. It’s easy to get distracted watching the movies (which of course, I adore doing), but even better to be a part of them and shine while you’re at it. I do believe that for a lot of people, there are seasons where you’ll be more interested in one thing than another, while others are set for life on their chosen path. Give yourself permission to explore, and while you do that, make sure to put effort into maintaining your professional relationships. The film world is really one big messy family for all its joy and pain, and it’s important to pay homage to this dynamic. You want to love what you do and do what you love, and then it follows that other people will want to be around you. A win-win.
Biggest milestone at TTF / How have you grown here?
My confidence has increased several times over since joining TTF. I can’t sing enough praises of all the people I’m working with here, they’re full of encouragement and support. I am able to confidently make decisions because my teams collaborate around me before I make them so I have their support, and if I ever misstep, they have my back anyway. TTF is a special place.
ART
What’s your favorite artform?
Music
If you hadn’t become an artist, what would you have been?
A veterinarian.
Where do you draw your inspiration from?
I’m a musician so I’m constantly inspired by music that suits my mood. I’m also visual, so I make a point of visiting galleries and museums, or taking photos at different angles, to literally look at the world in a different way. I am a nature girl too, so sitting in silence in a park, or walking through the woods or by the river gets my creative juice flowing. Most of all, though, I get so much from spending quality time with my circle of people. When they share an experience or a point-of-view about something they feel passionately about, it’s like a fire lights up inside. Good people, good energy.
What piece of media was the biggest influence on you as a kid?
I cannot reduce this to one piece of media! What I can say is that I was incredibly lucky to have artistic parents growing up, who exposed me to a whole host of different ways of expressing myself, and accessing these expressions through different artists. Big media influences for me were: “The Labyrinth”, “Home Alone”, “The Last Unicorn”, “Romancing the Stone” (when I was a little older), Enya, Annie Lennox, David Bowie, Prince, Michael Jackson, classical music, Shel Silverstein, Jane Austen, Nancy Drew, Raffi, Mikhail Baryshnikov and the Pre-Raphaelites.
FUN
You’re on the run from a hoard of zombies, what do you do?
Join them. Go incognito. Pretend like I’m one of the flesh-hungry gang… it just might work!
If not London, where?
Colorado, where my family is.
Fictional character you’d share a pint with?
Ace Ventura
Describe what you were like as a 10 year old?
Soooooooooo nerdy! Ha ha! I loved to read, draw and write poems, I was in ballet, tap and jazz, I played the classical piano and flute, was obsessed with horses, and curated a very sizable stuffed animal collection. I was definitely a teacher’s pet.
If Hollywood made a movie about your life, who would you like to see cast as you?
Maya Rudolph, my spirit animal.
People would be surprised if they knew…
…that one of my great-grandfathers was Rutherford B. Hayes, 19th President of the United States of America.
TV Show/Film you’re ashamed to admit you love!?
I’m absolutely NOT ASHAMED to say how much I love “Schitt’s Creek”. Daniel and Eugene Levy’s writing is brilliant, and Catherine O’Hara is one of the greatest actors of all time.
I’m also really into “What We Do In The Shadows”. I slip into Nadja’s accent frequently in my daily life, much to everyone’s bemusement. I actually think I’m getting pretty good. That’s my dream show to work on!
Go-to karaoke song?
“Hemorrhage (In My Hands)” by Fuel
