
Big Slate Media makes a big splash in Knoxville’s production scene
What started inside a little house on 6th Avenue has expanded into a production powerhouse inside a newly renovated headquarters off-Broadway.
Big Slate Media is no longer the small Knoxville-based production company it once was. Today, it’s a regional powerhouse, delivering everything from high-quality, 30-second television advertisements to Emmy-nominated documentaries and social media reels.
It’s a growth trajectory that Founder Jonathan Halley could hardly have imagined when he started his solo venture in 2017.

The Beginnings of Big Slate Media
The idea for Big Slate Media began about nine years ago, during Halley’s time at 245 Tech, where he worked as a marketing professional primarily focused on website development. When DJI released its first pro-sumer drone, Halley saw an opportunity and used his own money to invest in the technology, kickstarting a side hustle.
“One winter, I shot a drone video of Neyland Stadium covered in snow, and it went viral—within a couple of hours, it aired on NBC News. From then on, I was known as ‘The Drone Guy,’” Halley recalled.
He pitched the idea of starting a new company focused on this growing industry. At the time, Halley was one of the area’s few creative, commercial-use creative drone pilots.
“Once I started shooting drone videos, clients would naturally ask if I could also shoot ground video,” he said. “So, I turned to YouTube and taught myself.”
Eventually, the demand for his drone and video work outgrew his web development duties. Halley took the leap and decided to pursue production full-time, buying out his partners and officially starting Big Slate Media. He rented a house off 6th Avenue in Knoxville, transforming his two-bedroom home into an office space.
“Work-life balance was definitely interesting,” Halley joked. “I had no excuse to ever be late.”
A lot has changed since those early days. Halley recently moved his team of about 20 people into a newly renovated building at 629 N. Broadway in Knoxville. He is also six months into a soft launch of a new office in Birmingham, Alabama.

“Our new headquarters is an example of our rapid growth in Knoxville,” he said. “Regionally, our biggest barrier has been proximity, so opening a new location removes some of those roadblocks.”
But how did Big Slate Media grow so exponentially, especially in an industry where others have struggled?
Adapting to Change
In 2022, Warner Bros Discovery announced plans to sell its Knoxville headquarters and downsize operations. As a result, several local production companies lost contract work, freelance opportunities, and partnerships.
“We never had a lot of eggs in that basket,” Halley explained. “Our projects were always spread across a variety of clients, from corporations to organizations. For the longest time, Big Slate was built on the backs of Chamber networking events.”
Halley’s foresight in following market trends and offering new services helped the company grow.
For instance, Big Slate introduced a wildly popular service line called “RAG-Tag,” where companies can hire content creators to produce short-form videos for social media.
“We’ve shifted from an era where companies would spend their entire marketing budget on a single 30-second ad,” Halley said. “Now, that budget is spread across short-form video platforms, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and more. The content needs to be fresh because videos often have just a 12-hour shelf life after being posted.”
The recognition of this trend has contributed to Big Slate’s services growing to include traditional agency services as they’re able to create and provide fresh content and manage the placement of that whether it be on organic social media outlets or paid digital or broadcast campaigns.

As Big Slate Media continued to grow, Halley recognized a common problem: clients would return months after a shoot requesting specific footage that hadn’t made the final cut. Managing and storing large volumes of unused footage became a time-consuming and costly issue.
That’s where B-Roll Bank comes in.
teknovation.biz readers may recall B-Roll Bank from the Knoxville Entrepreneur Center’s “What’s The Big Idea” Competition in 2023. It’s an AI-powered digital asset management software aimed at helping production companies store and retrieve footage more efficiently. Big Slate will launch the second version of B-Roll Bank in February 2025.
“Clients can subscribe to the B Roll Bank and gain access to a searchable library of all the footage we’ve ever shot for them,” he said.
But that’s not all, In 2024, Big Slate also launched a VFX studio, making it one of the first production companies in Knoxville to offer full-service visual effects. Halley partnered on this new entity with Knoxville’s leading VFX artist, Alan Collins, who has worked with brands like Sesame Street, Dish Network, and Komoto creating 3D animations, Hollywood-level effects, and more. The pair is calling it BS VFX.
Big Slate Becoming a Knoxville Staple
With high-profile clients like Red Bull, Raising Cane’s, Mike’s Hard Lemonade, UT Medical Center, KaTom, and Clayton Homes, Big Slate Media is no longer a start-up. But, Halley’s passion for supporting Knoxville’s entrepreneurial ecosystem remains strong.
“You can’t forget where you come from,” he said. “The start-up community has given me so much, from mentorship and friendships to actual resources.”
Big Slate Media’s community involvement in 2024 included working with the Knoxville Entrepreneur Center to cover “The Works” cohort and create highlight videos for the Techstars Industries of the Future Accelerator program. They are also working with Brandon Bruce to promote the new 121 Tech Hub.
“It’s important to my team and me that we leave a positive carbon handprint on this community,” Halley said, referencing their desire to make a positive impact.
Their contributions extend beyond start-up support. Big Slate Media partnered with the Tennessee Theatre and The Black Opry to produce a documentary called “Pass the Mic: Creating A Stage for Change” series which aired on PBS and highlights minority artists, their stories and conversations around race, gender and challenges for minority artists.. The series was recently nominated for an Emmy for Best Cultural Documentary.
2024 has been a banner year for Big Slate Media. From a new headquarters and expansion into Birmingham to launching VFX services, developing B-Roll Bank, and earning an Emmy nomination, the company’s growth shows no signs of slowing.
“I’m proud of my team and our growth, which I believe is a testimony to what God is doing. I’m truly thankful,” Halley said.
Read more about Big Slate Media.
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