As Big Slate Media celebrates 10 years, the company is expanding its capabilities to help brands and groups better tell their story. Co-owner Jonathan Halley recently gave me a tour of their facility off Broadway, next to the Sanitary Laundry Building which is currently under renovation. We discussed a new partnership that will expand both Big Slate’s in-house capabilities and Knoxville’s media industry.
Now functioning as both branding agency and media production company, Big Slate has earned multiple awards including an Emmy nomination. Already offering services like graphic design, web development, social media marketing and in-studio or on-site filming, a new visual effects division will enable them to complete post-production in-house. “What has set us apart,” Halley said, “is that we’re fully both.” With this expansion, Big Slate can now deliver comprehensive production services—from pre-production and location scouting to editing and visual effects—all under one roof.
Clients include national brands like HGTV, Mike’s Hard Lemonade, White Claw and Raising Cane’s. Locally, they’ve produced content across multiple platforms for Clayton Homes, the University of Tennessee and Visit Knoxville, among many others.
Big Slate Expansion into Visual Effects
Big Slate’s big expansion comes through a recently launched visual effects (VFX) division, which Halley noted is “really unlocking creativity for us.” Alan Collins, a freelance visual effects artist who worked on projects for clients like Sesame Street, Dish Network and concert effects for R&B singer Ciara, approached Halley about a partnership. Big Slate Media had been receiving requests for VFX and, Collins said, “it made sense for us to form this division to not only benefit Big Slate but to benefit specific client requests.” Before this partnership, Big Slate Media would outsource many of the post-production services.
The most common association for visual effects is CGI in movies. “Think of Jurassic Park or Marvel movies or something like that, right? So that’s one component of VFX. It can be 3D modeling, particles …,” Halley explained. VFX work can also include comping (removing or changing specific elements in a filmed scene like changing a cloudy sky to a clear one), keying a green or blue screen to allow backgrounds to be inserted or adding special effects to a scene. Local clients most often ask for text to be added over video.
Collins said that most of his business as a freelancer came from outside Knoxville and that becoming a partner in Big Slate was to “have this direct connection now to our clients [so that] we can communicate these VFX services.”
Another expansion has been Big Slate’s move to their downtown North facility after outgrowing their Abilene Place location, which they still use. The Broadway headquarters are frankly beautiful. Halley said that landlord Rodney Napier built Broadway Electric Service out of the building.
When Big Slate first looked at the facility, years of neglect had made it “scary” to walk into. Napier renovated the 8,500-square-foot building to Big Slate’s needs. Halley said that, with a younger staff, they wanted to be somewhere that offered walkability to fun activities after work. Staff will often walk to restaurants and breweries in the area, and he noted that downtown’s cultural offerings are important for the creativity of his staff.
To better capture what Big Slate’s new VFX division can achieve for clients, take a look at the reel below.
‘Content that Doesn’t Suck’
Big Slate’s goal and tagline is to create “content that doesn’t suck.” Big Slate produces short to long-form content. Short-form video focuses heavily on a run-and-gun team often producing social media content. “These are folks on our team that sleep, eat, breathe TikTok, Instagram reels, YouTube shorts. On a monthly basis, they are creating content for brands,” Halley explained.
Long-form video is roughly 25- to 45-minute in length. Big Slate recently produced a three season long-form PBS show called Pass the Mic with the Tennessee Theatre, netting them their first Emmy nomination (for Best Cultural Documentary). Halley explained that they “not only got to do our craft and be creative, but we also got to really be a part of a good mission. The purpose of that series was to just give opportunity for artists of all different minorities and backgrounds to have a moment to play the Tennessee Theatre stage and share some thoughts of what it’s like to be them as an artist.”
Other documentary clients have included UT Medical Center and UT College of Nursing’s Nurse Navigator Program. Collins added that other forms the VFX division produces can be animated or 2D explainer videos, forms that became very popular during the COVID period. Explainer videos became a critical lifeline to understanding new processes.
Born and raised in Knoxville, Halley also wants to give back to the community. He learned a term new to him while recently working with the Tremont Institute: a carbon handprint. He defined it as “your carbon handprint is your positive impact.” Social media content can quickly evoke anger for likes and responses. To counter that impulse, Big Slate does pro bono work for organizations like Young-Williams Animal Center and the Little River Watershed Association.
He added, “What was cool was seeing the impact on our team … the creativity and the opportunities that they got to tell stories that they cared about. They got to play with dogs for a day.” He further posited, “What happens if a ton of organizations in Knoxville start focusing on the carbon handprint? What happens to our community if that is celebrated alongside profits?”
Both Halley and Collins emphasized the opportunities that shifting technologies represent for local and national businesses. Big Slate is working to leverage these changes to bring high quality production values to organizations that formerly could not afford them.
Halley cited an example of aerial footage being exclusively shot by helicopters, an expensive process, just 10 years ago. Now, drones capture the same or better quality video. Collins added that Big Slate can scan an environment during a drone shoot to produce a 3D map that allows them to animate cameras in post-production, eliminating the need to reshoot.
Big Slate offers even more innovative, cost-saving processes for clients. Big Slate can provide an on-site VFX director. The director coordinates planned video shoots and inserted effects. On-screen actors are guided to follow inserted visual effects, like a text flyover. This process prevents expensive reshoots or digitally changing the actors to match the inserted effects.
Big Slate continues to offer specific segments of marketing and production. Collins said that the VFX team was hired to produce animated signage for an LED wall in a business hallway, for example. This flexibility offers a larger set of project opportunities. Another recent project was to produce 3D visualization of a final project for a marketing proposal. This allowed potential investors to see what a finalized project would look like to attract funding.
Collins and Halley both mentioned the use of artificial intelligence as a tool. Halley said, “I liken the AI revolution right now to the shift from film to digital. There were plenty of people that were like, no, that’s not art. It’s not film. And, look where we are now. They’re probably out of a job.” Halley acknowledged that people are worried about AI, but added AI could allow them to “be able to be more creative and use our powers for good.”
Time for another Big Slate Media production reel.
Knoxville as Production Hub
With recent shifts in media production, including the reduction of Scripps’ presence, Knoxville’s star as a production hub has diminished. Halley noted that several shows are still produced here, including true crime, house flipping and more, but the market has become smaller. Big Slate hopes to change that. They recently soft-launched a satellite office in Birmingham, Ala., and are competing for larger jobs outside of Knoxville. Big Slate is also working to attract businesses here by supporting local economic development agencies.
Additionally, Big Slate is setting its sights on attracting both short- and long-form films that lean on visual effects to have post-production in Knoxville. Productions shot in Knoxville previously could not have visual effects produced here as well. Collins noted that “different film crews come into town from L.A. or wherever to film here … but I don’t feel like there are many productions coming into the area needing VFX services out of East Tennessee.” Big Slate is working to attract that work to the Knoxville area.
One of the ways they are developing the industry is through the Knox Media group. Big Slate often hosts meetings for the group to gather, discuss ideas and network. The group also allows Big Slate to meet freelancers with whom they can work. I attended a recent meeting with over 200 professionals in attendance.
Kelsey Hoggard, whose Voyage Production Company freelances with Big Slate Media (and does production on its own), is one of a handful of animators, visual effects artists and producers in Knoxville. Attending the Knox Media event, she told me that she came to Knoxville from Birmingham, Ala., and has been working here for three years. She said the events give her an opportunity to connect with others who are building this industry locally.
Collins would like to establish Knoxville as a first option for visual effects artists like Hoggard. He noted that ETSU now has a VFX program. He wants those students to know “there’s a studio here for them. They don’t have to fly all the way out to L.A. or New York or wherever. We want them to come here.”
All of these efforts are producing results. Big Slate was hiring for three new positions at the time of this interview, including a paid strategist, digital content creator and a DP photographer editor. Big Slate may be adding more space to house its employees but does not want to leave its current facility.
Collins finished our conversation by saying, “I hope that this grows the film community, and I hope that it draws more people who are animators, visual effects artists, 3D designer, motion designers in the VFX realm. I hope it brings others to want to learn visual effects and more awareness of VFX within the community. But I also hope that this gives all of our clients at Big Slate Media the opportunity and the means to create a vision that seems unattainable through 3D and through animation. And I really hope that we don’t have these limitations anymore of ‘we can’t do this thing because it seems way out of scope.’”
The work that Big Slate Media is doing and the community that it is building is opening possibilities that have the potential to open a new economic sector in Knoxville as well as expanding creative options for local brands to tell their story on a much larger slate.