It’s been an iconic part of Nashville to see musicians on the sidewalks. These artists put everything they have into their craft, hoping to one day realize their dreams. And now a new kind of artist is looking to capture the magic of downtown, only this time through a camera.

This shouldn’t come as a surprise, but Nashville is quickly gaining momentum as a hub for video, motion picture and television production, adding to the music coming out of Music City, from country artists such as Kenny Chesney and Trace Adkins to rock ‘n’ roll acts like The Black Keys and Jack White.

It would stand to reason that all of these producers of media would have a need for video content. Businesses need commercials, nonprofits need PSAs, television stations need news packages and websites need video content. Churches are a major client too, with Tennessee being a notch of the “Bible Belt.” But Nashville’s biggest need for cameras would be for creating content to accompany music.

“Commercials are mixed in, as well as narrative work. Most often, music videos are the product of choice,” jokes cinematographer Matt Satterfield. “Being in Nashville, music is the backbone of the film industry. I would say that close to 50 percent of my work are music videos or another form of advertising for an artist. The spectrum is vast as well, from small independent artists with a $5,000 budget to a major label with $100,000 allocated.”

Satterfield, an MTSU graduate who started his own business in 2008, has quickly made himself a mainstay of the film community. His website, matthewsatterfield.com, offers an eclectic spectrum of images of his demo reel, ranging from quirky to haunting. Satterfield also notes that production work has increased, thanks to a certain TV show about a certain city.

A shot by Matt Satterfield from Miracles on Honeybee Hill

Following this progression, it would seem that the next logical step in the equation would be the production of motion pictures.

So, just where does this love for cinema in the Volunteer State begin? Some might point to the influence schools are having on local filmmakers. Quite a few high schools in the region offer classes and resources in video production, and started encouraging students to make their own movies. These endeavors got so popular that the high schools partnered with the College of Mass Communications at MTSU to create a festival for young media producers, the Blue Spark Awards, encouraging these young students to pursue their passion of media production into college, where they can further their interests and education. Watkins College and the Nashville Film Institute have both offered film schools.

Lesser known, however, are the video production projects of other schools. Vanderbilt offers both a program in “film studies” as well as the Vanderbilt Film Society. Murfreesboro’s own MTSU offers numerous classes to learn the art of motion picture production, as well as its own club: The MTSU Film Guild, a student organization which allocates thousands of dollars to opportunities for student films. MTSU professor Bob Pondillo has produced several award-winning shorts with the help of his students, including The Miracles on Honey Bee Hill. The latest player in this game is Belmont University, who will actually be teaming up with Watkins College for their own program in motion pictures. The program is being chaired by Will Akers, filmmaker, screenwriter, and author of Your Screenplay Sucks!: 100 Ways to Make it Great, an acclaimed book on the screenwriting process.

Together, these schools create a support system for those looking to further their education in the art of motion picture production, so that they can one day be a member of the production community.

Nashville’s love affair with movies stretches way outside the halls of academia, occurring on levels both micro and macro. The community seems to have increased its collective interest in the moving image, with video production companies popping up all over the city. Adding to this, meetup.com has quite a few hobbyist groups created for varying parts of the movie-making process.

Groups of a much bigger scale are showing their support too. The Nashville Screenwriter’s Conference is entering its 14th year, bringing the movers and shakers of the film industries in New York and L.A. to Nashville so that they may share their insight. On the production end, Nashville also hosts “Film-Com,” an annual packaging, financing and distribution market which directly connects filmmakers and their new projects to domestic and foreign distribution companies, offering workshops, symposiums and greater exposure for locally-made movies and offering networking external to the state. Internally, however, other groups are working hard to foster a sense of community. The Nashville Film and Media club offers monthly networking meetings for anyone wanting to be involved. NFAM’s founder Joe Rohaley was actually a grip who lived in Louisiana and wanted to start his own union for film workers in Tennessee. The club, which is only a few months old, presently has more than 600 members and plans to further the increase in available production work.

“I want to see everybody working,” Joe tells the Pulse. “Nashville’s a great city, and I think it’s time that we brought everybody together so we can make some great movies. A lot of very talented people are here.”

Indeed, Nashville does have some very talented people working behind the camera. One person  is Chris Hollo, a veteran photographer of 25 years. As owner of Hollo Photographic, Chris is the official photographer/videographer for Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry. He’s also the creator of Legacy, an online web series that lets people vote on the outcome of the episode (which can be found at legacywebseries.com). This series was only made possible by digital filmmaking equipment, which reduces the costs of production. In the last decade, technology has made it possible for small production companies to create exceptional work. And, like Legacy, it can be seen in many different ways as people are able to produce, market and distribute their work more easily than ever.

Chris Hollo at work on his Legacy series. Photo by Kayla Stewart.

Chris weighed in on the issue of Nashville as a future production hub for film: “I think Nashville, and perhaps more importantly Tennessee, has an active film and TV industry but it could be much more. You keep hearing about hot markets for film like Vancouver, New Orleans, etc., and the reason that they are hot is because of the financial benefits and packages that production companies are offered.” Hollo  added, “I think the resources are basically all there and that people just need to know that those resources exist.”

It would seem then, that resources are the primary reason why movies get produced: the “make-or-break” factor between a project receiving a proverbial green light and being stuck in a traffic jam in the middle of rush hour. Resources go beyond financial backing, entailing community passion for the project(s), scheduling, labor, and legal permissions, just to name a few additional factors. Jaz Dorsey, playwright, theater critic, actor, producer and head of the Nashville Dramaturgy Project cites a “serious paradigm shift” in the world of cinema: “There is no city better poised to capitalize on this than Nashville. Our talent pool is growing in all areas and we have strong community leaders.”

Perhaps the strongest community leader is the state government itself, as it saw to the creation of the Tennessee Film, Entertainment & Music Commission. The commission acts as an information resource center for entertainment professionals, as well as a liaison to the private sector and government agencies. The commission also offers grants for film, but is now looking to combine the artistic efforts in other creative mediums with film to cover entertainment pursuits more broadly. It was also the current commission office that revised the tax credit program, helping make better use of the one-time funding package of $10 million secured by the previous state administration. Formerly, productions were required to bring a budget of a $1 million and require the potential help of both a CPA and an attorney to utilize a potential 32% tax reimbursement through two tax programs (one being a 17% tax rebate and the other a straight cash grant of 15%). Now, combined actions of legislature and the commission office have simplified the process for film companies to benefit from shooting in-state: the tax programs have been combined into one program, the required minimum budget was lowered to $200,000, and the system for applications has become more user-friendly. The logic: By making things easier and more beneficial for production, companies would look to capitalize on the state’s native film industry, stimulating the state’s economy as well as bringing work to Tennesseans.

Clint Brewer, assistant commissioner of the communications and creative services division (of the state’s Economic & Community Development program) spoke on behalf of the Tennessee Film, Entertainment and Music Commission: “It’s a very exciting time for Tennessee right now. Nashville is a huge center for entertainment, both for music and videos. But it’s not alone, as Knoxville is becoming a production hub for television, and Memphis is growing its own film community. But, compared to other states, Tennessee’s incentive program is still very small.” Brewer also went on to explain the appeal of Music City, telling the Pulse that “Nashville has a huge branding potential. Our goal with the commission office is to help the entertainment image of Tennessee. We want to assist movies that don’t just take place in Tennessee, but tell its story.”

The cast of ABC’s Nashville

Given the popularity of Nashville currently, it would seem that there are many people looking to tell its story. ABC’s hit TV show Nashville has made tremendous headway with this, averaging 8.2 million views per episode with a combined TV/online audience. And with over 20 episodes scheduled, states would be hard-pressed to buy that kind of publicity from national-to-state relations.

From state-to-national, the avenue of publicity is the film festival. The Nashville Metropolitan area has the 48-Hour Film Festival and the newly-founded 54 Film Fest (two competition-based festivals). Nashville is also home to the Nashville Jewish Film Festival and the International Black Film Festival of Nashville.

More important in the world of film festivals is the Nashville Film Festival. Having celebrated the world of independent films for over 40 years, the Nashville Film Festival exploded around 2004 when its attendance jumped from 9,000 to roughly 27,000 people, bringing together independent cinema and people from all over the world. Screening over 250 films in an eight-day period, the festival offers an unique lineup of screenings, including an emphasis on music-based movies and this year’s three-day celebration of Kurdish film. The fest impacts the entire city, giving many local businesses a 15-20% increase in activity over the festival’s duration. NaFF even gives local residents their own red-carpet experience, as some of Hollywood’s favorite celebrities visit the Green Hills area to attend. This year’s fest was even bigger, with the “Nashville Unveiled: Take One Video Contest” (a short film competition for films that capture Nashville’s art scene) and the “Tennessee Short Filmmaker’s Final Cut” event, where attendees got to pick which entry got screened at NaFF. Offering workshops, partnerships, and celebrity on an international level, the Nashville Film Festival gives a much-needed platform to Tennessee culture, granting the proving ground movie-makers need to showcase their art.

But what of the “future of film” in Nashville? Tennessee is a state still striving to give big-budget movies a tax incentive, despite embarrassments uncovered during a recent audit of tax benefits received by film-makers and the whispers of other states considering reduction of similar programs. Personnel in the industry, though pleased with local progress, often talk of moving to bigger cities like Los Angeles and Vancouver for greater opportunities. And though the hit TV series Nashville has helped put the city back on the map, there’s talk of the show’s production relocating  to areas with already-established infrastructure.

So what should residents of Tennessee expect? Simply put, more film and video projects with an improved quality. Consider the recent phenomena of “crowd-funding” campaigns, and how people a few years back asked their friends and family for financial support.  A director’s successful short film is released to critical praise, and now the amateur auteur is a movie maestro, making a bigger and better production than before. More in-state  audiences are going to anticipate independent films, and so a greater demand of movies in our state will eventually warrant a greater supply. Some audiences may see heavier emphases on music and southern culture, as native Tennesseans look to share their experiences through cinema. Ultimately, a greater quality of movie with more of a local emphasis, helping better tell the story of Tennessee. And while the time-frame and specifics of this movement remain unclear, one thing is for certain: the moving picture is starting to call Nashville “home”.