We were lucky to catch up with Alan Collins recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alan, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Coming up with the idea is so exciting, but then comes the hard part – executing. Too often the media ignores the execution part and goes from idea to success, skipping over the nitty, gritty details of executing in the early days. We think that’s a disservice both to the entrepreneurs who built something amazing as well as the public who isn’t getting a realistic picture of what it takes to succeed. So, we’d really appreciate if you could open up about your execution story – how did you go from idea to execution?

I’ve always been drawn to creative media, sci-fi, metal, gaming, visual arts, you name it. My creative journey kicked off at 15 when I got my first drum set and started playing in bands. That eventually led to our first music video.

The band I was in at the time filmed a music video and I remember our director brought a DSLR to set. Seeing how accessible filmmaking had become was a game-changer. I bought my own camera, started shooting low-budget music videos for fellow musicians, and taught myself the basics of production.

As I dug deeper, I connected with local filmmakers and joined a team for Birmingham’s Sidewalk Scramble film challenge. We ended up winning first place, which led to freelance work with a studio in town. That opened the door to professional gigs with brands like Cooking Light and Southern Living, and it was around that time I started diving heavier into post-production and VFX. I realized I could drastically elevate production value without blowing a budget. That discovery sent me down the rabbit hole of post production using tools like Photoshop, After Effects, Cinema 4D and everything in between.

I moved to Nashville and joined the incredibly talented team at Magnetic Dreams, where I got to work on projects like Sesame Street and a music video for AJR. Surrounded by top-tier artists, I soaked up everything I could about motion design and visual effects. Those are some of the kindest people in the industry, and I owe them so much for the artist I am today.

After spending some time in Nashville I moved to Knoxville where I met my good friend Chad Cunningham who directed the short (CATACOMBS). That led to reconnecting with the freelance scene and linking up with Hidden Road Studios working on visuals for Ciara’s tour with Missy Elliott. It was a full-circle moment bringing together my lifelong love for music and visual storytelling on a big stage that hundreds of thousands of people witness.

Knoxville isn’t exactly known for visual effects, so I started building local connections which led me to work with my friend Jonathan Halley, CEO of Big Slate Media. We shared a vision for growing the visual effects industry in the region and now, we’re building that future together through Big Slate VFX.

Have you ever had to pivot?

One of the things I love most about visual effects is that you’re always learning. Every client has their own style and unique requests, so no two projects are ever the same. Sometimes the tools you know inside and out just don’t cut it and you have to adapt. It’s one of my favorite things about commercial work in the film industry is that we are constantly having to pivot.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

The industry is so competitive that it’s easy to tell yourself that you need to be perfect to make it. I’ve never been perfect, and I never will be but at one point in my life I felt like I needed to be the best at a certain software or role and that was the only way up. I have worked with many studios that would pixel peep and often deep dive into the technical issues so much that their creative falls flat. I’ve come to understand that true success lies in collaboration, the problems you solve along the way, the people you meet, and the things you learn together through it all. It’s really the opposite of perfection, it’s making mistakes along the way and learning from them, you can always do that but you will never truly be perfect.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://BigSlateMedia.com
• Instagram: _alanvfx

Image Credits

Big Slate Media