Industry Players: Green Pastures Studio - 405 Magazine

Industry Players: Green Pastures Studio

Green Pastures Studio, a 12-acre film studio campus with 5,500 square-foot soundstage and 20,000-square feet of standing sets, opened during the pandemic to serve as a place for film makers but also as a place to train crew for the increasing need for qualified film crew in Oklahoma.

Green Pastures Studio, a 12-acre film studio campus with 5,500 square-foot soundstage and 20,000-square feet of standing sets, opened during the pandemic to serve as a place for film makers but also as a place to train crew for the increasing need for qualified film crew in Oklahoma. i

The studio offers its Oklahoma Film and Television Academy, a four-day intensive course to prepare anyone to work on a film set. The studio is in east Oklahoma City, in a more rural area.

“Just before our first class, we were walking out the door one evening, and right in front of the doors, there were three guys on horses out for a ride,” said Melodie Garneau, Green Studios founder and president. “It was a wonderful man and his grown sons. And he had just lost a job because the downturn in the oil business and we said, ‘Well, you know what, we’re going to give you a scholarship. Why don’t you come to the class?’ And he did. And by the time the four days were over, he had a job on a set. And he has been at work at it ever since.”

In two years, 600 students have completed the ‘set ready’ course. The Green Pastures team also finished its first feature film this past summer and have submitted the film to both South by Southwest and Cannes Film Festival for consideration. In addition, groups have used the studios to film a pilot, another feature film and commercials and music videos.

“The people that filmed the pilot came here and then moved here,” she said. “They came to film it, and they thought this is a great spot. And they ended up moving here buying houses.”

Garneau, along with the Cherokee Nation Film Office and other like-minded businesses, formed the Oklahoma Motion Picture Alliance in 2021 to serve the film industry in Oklahoma.

“I think in 10 years, we could have a very good sustainable business model for the whole state where we have a couple of big films and a whole bunch of small ones,” she said.