Documentaries
Documentaries and EPKs were the life-line of Bobby as he has conducted will over 500 interviews in various disciplines from Rap, Jazz, moms and pops small businesses, artists, corporate CEOs, COOs to CFOs FOR EPKs. Bobby has perfected the art of the interview and follow-up questions that have proven to be useful in building the stories the count.
Bobby’s super power is gathering information and molding a compelling story from that information. The task was to do it in such a way that it is compelling to the general public. Back in 1997 when Bobby was pounding the pavement in Hollywood trying to make a way for himself, sometimes we get lost in the crowd of millions coming to Hollywood looking for the same piece of gold. To maintain a connection with his creativity and to not wait to be validated by the Hollywood bigwigs, Bobby started expressing his talents by shooting documentaries in his spare time. You could say that it was a bit of a hobby because he technically didn’t know what the hell he was doing. He didn’t know how to operate a camera, sound, and basically diddly-squat about video cameras. Although he knew about film, because he shot his project “Why Colors” but he used Stephen Blake as his DP and Stephen breast fed him through the entire process.
Bobby went out and purchase a Sony camera and was ready to shoot. He loved jazz and even played the trumpet in high-school in the wind ensemble, concert and jazz bands. His experience with music appeared to be the best subject for a doc. The only problem was that his rolodex had no jazz musicians in it so he had to literally go to jazz clubs and hang out to badger the musicians into giving him an interview. He knew that he had only thirty seconds to pitch his project. In that time they would either accept the offer or reject it and tell him to get the hell out of here. Sometimes they were just that blunt. The breakthrough was when a Patrice Rushen gave him and interview and brought Leon “N’dugu” Chancellor with her. Patrice told him to call a few other cats and the ball was rolling. Once Bobby interviewed Herbie Hancock and Wynton Marsalis, it was downhill from there in terms of project credibility. Bobby picked up George Alexander as a Co-Producer and together they were on a quest to acquire interviews. The project is called, “Passing the Torch.” The specific subject is passing the art of Jazz down from one generation to the next. Bobby has been all over the world capturing close to 150 Jazz artists and legends for this doc.
As Bobby increases his skillset of shooting and editing, he has also tacked the art of rap in the documentary, “Beats by the Bay” which stars MC Hammer, Too short and E-40 along with eighty other Bay Area rappers. He also shot, “The Independent Game” and “Black Male: An endangered Species.” The Black Male project was a more socially conscious project about young Black males dying on the streets of our inner cities by the hands of the police, as well as themselves. Its 2023 and and there seems to be no slowing down with the death of Tyre Nichols.
When Hurricane Katrina hit, Bobby looked for funding and decided to pray on it in hopes that money for the project would fall from heaven. It didn’t, but what did fall were ideas on how to fund the film. He went the old “Hollywood Shuffle” route that his friend Robert Townsend used, which was the old credit card method. God didn’t say it had to be cash! Bobby immediately charged a ticket to the Gulf Coast (Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana) and blindly went on a quest for interviews. He did not find a shortage of people who opened up to him about the angels who actually helped with the saving of lives and cleaning up process. His paster, Bishop Blake from West Angeles in Los Angeles had some uplifting words of inspiration for the project along with a number of other celebrities.
Bobby will continue to find compelling subject matters to build stories that the general public love to see. Bobby is currently shooting a doc during this Covid-19 period that will certainly resonate with the world.
