Today we’d like to introduce you to Jamie Jean And Elliott Davis.
Hi Jamie Jean and Elliott Davis, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
Jamie: Elliott and I were both aspiring musicians when we met and became roommates while attending the University of Alabama. I got my BA & MA in education, got married & we moved to Nashville for my wife Amy to attend Physician Assistant grad school at Trevecca. We had a loose plan to move to New York when she finished school but Nashville kinda drew us in. With her in healthcare and such a creative scene here, we ended up buying a house in Donelson. I learned pretty quick that teaching wasn’t the fulfilling career that I thought it would be. I bought my first camera in college and used it a lot in the teacher education program and in my job as a student pastor. I knew non-linear editing from using early versions of ProTools when I was playing music so the transition to editing video wasn’t a hard one. I was moonlighting shooting sets for musician friends around town and doing documentary pieces for a homeless outreach nonprofit org, Lambscroft. When my wife finished PA school she encouraged me to try to make a go of doing video full time. I started my first video production business in 2010, mostly doing work with nonprofit organizations. That wasn’t sexy work to most filmmakers in town, but I fell in love with it. There are SO many people here who had these crazy successful careers but their heart wasn’t in it, so they followed their passions and founded organizations giving back. I sent emails to every one of them that I thought was doing meaningful work & there were so many opportunities. We still work with some of those organizations today.
Jamie: Word of mouth brought more opportunities in corporate and in the music industry. That served as a base to help keep the bills paid so we could chase the occasional passion project. One of those would become our first feature-length documentary “Wind and Water Balloons” about a halloween tradition in my hometown of Cordova, AL. In 2017, I was making the 3+ hour drive back and forth to shoot interviews down there. One of my best friends here, Brandon Dragan, worked with me part time but he was starting law school. I was desperately needing some help with what was becoming a massive project. Elliott and his wife had moved to Florida after graduation & he and I had always kept in touch. One night after a long day of shooting I asked him if he’d be willing to help if I flew him up to Nashville. He agreed & that began about a year of him flying up to shoot for a few days at a time. We found we worked well together, so that turned into him flying up to do client jobs with me.
Elliott: Around this time, I was recovering from cancer treatments and was looking for freelance graphic and web design instead of getting back into the corporate world. In college, video production jobs paid the rent and I jumped at the chance to get back into video when Jamie called.
Jamie: It was great to reconnect and collaborate again. I’m not sure if I was great at convincing or if they were ready for a change of scenery but something convinced Elliott and his wife to move to Nashville in 2019. We converted my 25×25 detached garage into studio space and officially launched Blackfip Creative in January of 2020. We are a full service video production company providing all aspects of production including filming, editing, studio rental and podcasting.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Elliott: I wouldn’t say that it has been super smooth. We formally started a business in January of 2020 that focuses on people and their stories. Our business was split pretty evenly between live events where there were a lot of people and work with nonprofits to capture and share their stories. Then covid happened. That pretty much ended the live event side of things for a while. On the nonprofit side we didn’t really notice it so much at the time, but a lot of our nonprofit clients saw a decrease in funding and that affected their ability to promote themselves.
Jamie: We DID pick up some virtual work when everything went to Zoom. I think another constant struggle is just doing creative work in this particular digital age. Neither of us have the attention span nor the stomach to be constantly self-promoting. It’s quite evident when you look at our social media. lol. Word of mouth has essentially been our marketing plan. There’s also the fact that our business model is to create content for other people. We aren’t releasing a weekly instructional video or podcast to a dedicated audience. We absolutely do those things, but they aren’t always something we can showcase when the client is a globally recognized nonprofit, or an African missionary who depends on his anonymity to survive.
What would you say have been one of the most important lessons you’ve learned?
Elliott: I wouldn’t say that it has been super smooth. We formally started a business in January of 2020 that focuses on people and their stories. Our business was split pretty evenly between live events where there were a lot of people and work with nonprofits to capture and share their stories. Then covid happened. That pretty much ended the live event side of things for a while. On the nonprofit side we didn’t really notice it so much at the time, but a lot of our nonprofit clients saw a decrease in funding and that affected their ability to promote themselves.
Jamie: We DID pick up some virtual work when everything went to Zoom. I think another constant struggle is just doing creative work in this particular digital age. Neither of us have the attention span nor the stomach to be constantly self-promoting. It’s quite evident when you look at our social media. lol. Word of mouth has essentially been our marketing plan. There’s also the fact that our business model is to create content for other people. We aren’t releasing a weekly instructional video or podcast to a dedicated audience. We absolutely do those things, but they aren’t always something we can showcase when the client is a globally recognized nonprofit, or an African missionary who depends on his anonymity to survive.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.blackfipcreative.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blackfipcreative/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/blackfipcreative
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@BlackfipCreative
