While many people remember a cash-centered square with tables and tents offering mostly fruits, vegetables, and potted plants, innovations have transformed the farmers market into a laboratory for the entrepreneurially minded. There are many advantages to beginning a small business at the local market, such as low cost, reduced risk, and immediate customer feedback.

Historically, the farmers market provided a place for customers to bypass the supermarket and trade cash to farmers for fresh produce. Though items like lettuce, eggplant, and watermelons can still be found in stalls, there are also artisans, home cottages, and crafts, providing a range of goods, from baked goods and homemade sauces to woodworking and other unique art. 

Thanks to mobile payment vendors, such as Square, Shopify, and PayPal, etc., providing non-cash payment options, new business owners starting out can provide a means of using credit/debit to sell goods without the need for a retail space. For budding entrepreneurs looking to test the viability of their products, farmers markets and local festivals are the logical first step.

Bill Davenport, a retired U.S. Navy chief, has written three books providing tips and guidance for those wanting to be a vendor at a farmers market or even launch their own market. Davenport runs Anchored Market Ventures out of Panama City, where his company organizes four full-time farmers markets and seven specialty markets that pop up once a year in the area, including three at Aaron Bessant Park in Panama City Beach.

Each year, Davenport works with almost 700 vendors at the markets he organizes. That number has been pretty stable the past couple years after spiking up to around 1,100 vendors in 2020 and 2021.

“Right around COVID,” Davenport says, “we saw a significant increase. Folks were avoiding brick-and-mortar businesses. More people were remotely working from home, so they were looking for other ways to supplement their income.”

Davenport says the low barrier to entry is one of the biggest attractions to starting a business at a farmers market, which can usually be set up for approximately $100 the first week, then around $40 a week afterward, which is significantly lower than renting a retail space with a fixed cost and overhead with a combined total into the thousands, depending on location.

“It’s a great way to fine-tune your products and your business before taking that next step to go brick and mortar,” Davenport says. “It’s also a great way to get instant feedback because you are on a very personal level with your customer base, getting face-to-face interaction week in and week out.” That feedback allows owners to fine-tune their businesses in real time rather than waiting for customers to leave comments on social media, he adds.

The biggest mistake Davenport has seen vendors make in starting their business at a farmers market is coming to the table with a hobbyist mindset, explaining, “Some start out thinking this is a hobby, with a ‘I’m good at it’ and ‘I like doing it’ mentality but still treating it as a hobby.” When vendors take this approach, he feels they set themselves up for failure.

Davenport says ultimately, “It is a business. You have to track your financials, your expenditures, your income,” and that mentality is key. Successful owners are meticulous with product tracking.

A strong believer in the farmers market concept, Davenport wants his markets to offer an outlet for locals to expand their hobbies and get their small businesses off the ground. “If folks are making it and it’s local,” Davenport says, “then at the end of the day, we are putting money back into the local economy.”

One of the annual markets that Davenport organizes is the Panama City Beach Fall Festival & Market, now in its third year. In 2024, the farmers market section of the festival featured 60 vendors, 8 food trucks, and 27 business booths.

According to Kylie Coffey, special events coordinator for the Panama City Beach Parks & Recreation Department, attendance for the event has been growing each year, and they expect up to 1,200 people this fall, depending on the weather.

For Coffey, the big attraction centers around anything and everything fall-related “because we just don’t get enough fall in Florida,” adding that the pumpkins are a big draw for her and many of the customers attending the market.

The annual market takes place in September and is free to the public.

Chaos Audio has emerged as a beacon of creativity and cutting-edge technology in the music industry. What started as a vision to push the boundaries of traditional effects pedals has now become a reality, with the Stratus pedal capturing the attention of guitarists worldwide.

“It’s been an incredible journey for us at Chaos Audio, and we couldn’t be more thrilled with the response to our Stratus pedal,” said Landon McCoy, CEO and founder of the Panama City Beach-based business. “From the overwhelming support we received on Kickstarter to the recognition at FSU’s InNOLEvation Competition, it’s clear that musicians are hungry for innovative and game-changing gear. We’re proud to be at the forefront of this revolution.”

The journey began with a bang as Chaos Audio launched its Kickstarter campaign in June 2021. Within just 30 days, the campaign raised an astounding $140,000, accompanied by over 540 preorders.

The resounding success of the crowdfunding campaign was a testament to the revolutionary nature of the programmable Stratus pedal. Adding to their list of accolades, Chaos Audio’s Stratus pedal claimed first place at FSU’s InNOLEvation Competition, solidifying their position as pioneers in the industry.

For over a year and a half, the team at Chaos Audio meticulously refined and perfected the design and manufacturing of the Stratus pedal. This commitment to craftsmanship culminated in the production of over 1,000 pedals, starting in September 2022. By November of the same year, the first U.S. Kickstarter orders were delivered, followed by the remaining international Kickstarter orders in January 2023.

With the Stratus now readily available on their website, guitarists everywhere can acquire this game-changing piece of musical equipment.

The Stratus product enables hands-free effect switching and features a wide range of effects options — distortion, modulation, reverb, delay, fuzz and more. Musicians can save and load presets and enjoy access to new effects through Stratus’ online effects library.

Building on their success, Chaos Audio forged a strategic distribution deal with a prominent U.S. distributor. Through this partnership, the Stratus pedal found its way into the hands of musicians across the country. Chaos Audio’s global expansion is also well underway. They are nearing completion of distribution agreements with partners in Europe and Japan.

Chaos Audio has been proud to help put Panama City Beach on the map as a growing hub of innovation and creativity.

Impressively, the Stratus pedal has garnered exceptional reviews and minimal returns.

“With over 700 pedals shipped, the company received only six returns,” according to McCoy, a testament to the quality and reliability of their product.

Looking to the future, Chaos Audio has exciting plans in store. The recent announcement of the Partner Effect Program opens up its Tone Shop platform to third-party brands, fostering collaboration and innovation. This program allows other manufacturers to create effects that seamlessly integrate with the Stratus pedal, expanding the possibilities for guitarists seeking to create new sounds.

In addition, Chaos Audio is set to unveil new hardware products and software updates.

Their upcoming investment round, with a goal of $1 million, will provide the fuel needed to drive further growth and cement Chaos Audio’s position as a trailblazer in the guitar world.

Precision is paramount in war. Stakes are high, and departures from perfection can result in failed missions or casualties. That reality applies to weapons systems, military hardware, troop movements — and to the painstaking manufacture of parachutes.

Co-founded by disabled military veterans Aaron Nazaruk and Alexander Alvarado, Paradigm Parachute & Defense, Inc., supplies gear for maneuvers, including jumps by paratroopers and the deceleration of aircraft and munitions. The Pensacola-based business has clients worldwide, including commercial enterprises, humanitarian organizations and space exploration interests. 

“Our training process is pretty intense,” said Alvarado, a retired U.S. Army parachute rigger, Federal Aviation Administration master rigger, military free-fall instructor and oxygen technician. “It takes three days to train, and then they begin sewing on live equipment.”

Alvarado said he has worked even with beginning employees with no experience and quickly moved them into production roles. Typically, he added, members of the sewing team work 30–60 days before reaching optimal efficiency levels.

Paradigm obtains nylon from a local supplier; it is then shipped to New England for processing and inspection and returned to Pensacola. The business’s operations, Alvarado said, are subject to “a lot of government and military oversight to ensure safety.”

Founded in 2019, Paradigm has deep roots in Northwest Florida.

It was in Pensacola that the late Samuel George Miller once sewed U.S. Navy Blue Angels uniforms. His business, previously named Feminine Flair and now the Sewing Box, is still going. Just a month before Miller’s death in July 2022 at age 84, he witnessed a milestone that he had long hoped to see: U.S. Navy Lt. Amanda Lee became the first female F-18 fighter pilot to join the Blue Angels.

“The military history, especially with regard to sewing, was a big reason we wanted our business to be based in Pensacola,” said Nazaruk, who served in the U.S. Army for seven years and earned a Bronze Star.

Alvarado had some experience with sewing before launching Paradigm.

“In my early career, I was like, ‘What? Sewing? You want me to sew?’” he said. “And then I tried it and liked it. You lock in and go.”

When Paradigm was much smaller than it is today, the founders worked the sewing line. Today, it employs more than 50 people and is expecting continued growth. Paradigm has pledged to add at least 28 full-time jobs with a grant awarded by the Industry Resilience and Diversification Fund program administered by the University of West Florida.

“One of the things we’re most proud of is providing stable jobs,” Nazaruk said. “We’re also teaching our employees a new skill and giving opportunities to engineers from the University of West Florida. Currently, we have four engineering interns.”

Alvarado said Paradigm will figure in upcoming space missions but wasn’t at liberty to share particulars.

“We’re excited about the future,” Alvarado said. “We’ve got a solid core of employees, and it’s encouraging when they express how much they love working here. We all work as a team with transparency and integrity to support the government and military operations.”

Brian Howell joined Paradigm as an employee in March 2021.

“I was fortunate enough to see a parachute that we built being tested,” he said. “To watch that parachute work flawlessly was an amazing sight to behold. Working at Paradigm means a lot to me. From the people to the vision — I want to come to work because it matters.”

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A lot of business owners have struggled to catch their breath these last few years. The pandemic and its aftermath forced many to shut their doors and even more to shift their business models to survive.

For Panama City startup ATOR Labs, the problem of breathing is more than a metaphor though. It’s their mainstay.

ATOR’s parent company — Mine Survival, Inc. — was started in 20ı4 to help coal miners breathe more easily in the event of a catastrophe. As the pandemic hastened the decline of the United States coal industry, though, the company’s founders decided to pivot.

Now, ATOR Labs is one in a handful of firms manufacturing machines that are used to test the masks and other respiratory protective devices with which we’ve all become so familiar. The company’s founders are hoping that the newfound rigor with which these devices are regulated post-pandemic will propel their company to new heights.

A Minefield

Like many Gulf Coast companies, ATOR Labs has military roots.

Founders Dave Cowgill and Rob Moran both trained at the U.S. Navy Dive School. It was there that Cowgill developed the wearable rebreather device that would become the focus of their partnership.

Initially, the pair intended to market the product for military use. Cowgill had heard soldiers returning from the Middle East complain that their standard-issue gas masks made it difficult to breathe. His idea was to use the closed-circuit design common in diving to improve on existing military technology.

While Cowgill and Moran were perfecting their design, however, a researcher at the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration learned of their work and asked if they might be interested in repurposing the technology for miners, instead.

Mine workers often use a device called a “self-rescuer” that contains an emergency oxygen supply they can tap should the surrounding atmosphere become inhospitable. The devices, though potentially lifesaving, tend to run very hot and can burn miners’ mouths and throats. 

Cowgill’s lighter, cooler device had an edge over competing products. The technology was promising enough that he and Moran were able to secure seed funding from the Florida Institute for the Commercialization of Public Research. This progress was halted, however, when the market for coal began to erode.

“We shelved the Mine Survivor during the certification process simply because coal crashed,” Moran said.

A Breath of Fresh Air

Though their early efforts in the mining sector were thwarted, Cowgill and Moran quickly identified a pivot strategy.

Cowgill had sat previously on the International Standards Organization board that develops design guidelines for respiratory protective devices globally. This background made him uniquely qualified to understand the ISO requirements.

In the course of preparing the Mine Survivor for testing and certification, Cowgill had built a breathing and metabolic simulator — a device that simulates the human respiratory system — that was fully compliant with these rules.

“Come to find out we were the only folks in the world to have built such a machine,” Moran said.

Seeing an opportunity, Moran and Cowgill settled on a new strategy. They set up ATOR Labs as a subsidiary of Mine Survival, with the goal of making the company the world’s leading provider of respiratory protective device certification machines.

They’ve made steady progress toward this goal in the intervening months.

One of their machines is currently being used by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Moran said they were in the process of building another for the South African government.

“We have interest coming out of Australia, Germany and France, as well,” he said.

The market for the machines themselves is not huge. Moran said he hoped to build 50 in the next 20 years at a unit cost of $250,000 to $450,000. This manufacturing revenue is supplemented, though, by consulting and testing fees, which can be ample.

“We’d much rather be the testing and certification guys than just another player in a crowded marketplace,” Moran said.

Future Directions

While ATOR Labs and the testing and certification business have become the team’s main focus in recent years, Moran said they planned to continue their research and development work through Mine Survival, Inc., as well.

The company recently received a $ı.5 million contract from the Department of Defense to develop a specialized rebreather for military use.

“We’re coming up on our first delivery of product to them in September,” Moran said. “Our expectation is that they will sign the follow-on contract in October, which would take us into soldier testing. After that, hopefully, we would become a program of record for the DOD.”

They also hope to revive their mining-focused product line in the future.

“In another year, we’ll push it out to the European market and see what kind of traction we get there,” Moran said. “The Germans are starting to consume coal again, and we expect that trend to spread throughout Europe. It will take a while for them to spin back up, but we expect there to be a buying spree of safety equipment within a couple of years.”

It’s impossible to say now, but you know, there’s a chance that this business wouldn’t have started if there was no pandemic,” began William McCarthy.

“Oh, I’d put money on it,” Jonathan Virga cut in. “A hundred percent. I think that’s entirely true. That boredom fueled this.”

McCarthy and Virga are co-founders of Dunsel’s Sail Bags, an eco-friendly Tallahassee startup that produces a line of high-quality, durable bags constructed entirely from used and discarded boat sails. As entrepreneurs who have launched a business via social media, they are part of a trend that has gathered steam since the pandemic began.

Recent months have seen a dramatic rise in people venturing into the entrepreneurial space to supplement income, fulfill dreams or gain freedom from an increasingly unpredictable corporate work environment. 

Between 20ı2 and 20ı9, LLC filings in Florida grew by an average of ı0 percent per year, according to records from the Department of State’s Division of Corporations. In 2020, that number jumped to 28 percent, even as many traditional businesses suffered declines.

“I think you really need to look back at the last recession to have a good idea of what’s going on,” said Robert Blacklidge, executive director of the Tallahassee business incubator Domi Station.

“Back in 2008, there weren’t a lot of resources readily available for entrepreneurs,” he added. “During this economic downturn, the government stepped in and replaced that revenue. Wealth has, for a lot of people, increased. Real estate has gone up, stocks have gone up and that has created an opportunity for people to seek out resources for their own ideas, their growth, their business.”

In just a few months, Domi’s enrollment jumped from eight to 44. Among those enrolled in the program are Virga and McCarthy.

While recessions historically have discouraged new business formation, the downturn resulting from COVID-ı9 has proved to be an exception to that rule.

“While many small businesses were unable to survive pandemic lockdowns, new business startups nearly doubled in the United States during the pandemic,” reports the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI). “During COVID-ı9, many workers in the United States who were furloughed, laid off or dropped out of the labor market for reasons such as child care, took the opportunity to create the startup of their dreams.”

Government policies and stimuli affected that growth.

“Added unemployment benefits and stimulus checks that were part of massive government stimulus packages may have enabled these new ventures,” MGI reports. “Governments can support continued growth by expanding digital architecture to give everyone access to affordable broadband connections and by making permanent some temporary changes in regulation that have allowed new businesses to flourish during the pandemic.” 

Virga and McCarthy got their start on social media. The FSU entrepreneurship majors were approaching graduation when they launched Dunsel’s on Facebook in the fall of 2020. The two men were overjoyed when orders started to trickle in and then picked up as the holidays approached. With a few dozen sales under their belts, the two gained confidence and spread their message of transparency and sustainability through livestreams, blogs, workshop videos and Instagram.

“I don’t like getting emails that are just like, ‘50% off buy now,’ ” Virga said. “I like more of a storytelling aspect and really having a personality. I think that’s really what we’ve tried to do across the board, whether with the blogs or Instagram posts or Facebook. We’ve even posted on Reddit a few times in different communities with just an intro and blip about who we are, what we do. We’ve been well-received in that, but I think it’s because of that transparency and that storytelling — it’s more real than a big company with no face.”

Today, the two still handle the bulk of the business on their own. McCarthy sews bags, Virga handles most of the marketing, and both spend hours on end cold calling sail lofts or anyone they think may have a sail in the garage. It’s a lot of work, but it’s a labor of love.

“We want to feel good about what we do every single day,” McCarthy said. “Sure, we could probably build really awesome products out of brand new sails. We could just get the material, and we can buy it probably cheaper than we can literally source it. But that’s not our mission.” 

“This idea of consumerism, we’re beating it twice,” Virga added. “The first time, we’re taking from trash. We’re taking from the end of a life cycle, but then we turn that into a product. When somebody buys one of our bags, they’re not buying something else that’s been made from raw materials. We’re lessening demand on the raw materials that are being used to make new backpacks, new totes, new toiletry bags, new things.”

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 20 percent of businesses survive less than two years, and 45 percent close their doors within five years of opening.

Those failure rates are lessened, however, when fledgling businesses and growing startups benefit from accelerator programs that school entrepreneurs in the proper steps to market and sell their products and services.

gBETA is a program offered by the nationally recognized accelerator program, gener8tor, which has invested in 54 companies with a combined capital investment of over $ı20 million in follow-on financing. Gener8tor is active in cities across the United States and parts of Canada and has chapters as far away as Puerto Rico and St. Thomas. 

In 2020, gBETA expanded its program to Pensacola, soon after D.C. Reeves became the chief entrepreneurial officer for the Studer Community Institute. 

“My first job was to scour the country and find best practices of people who are optimizing their entrepreneurial ecosystem,” said Reeves. “We were attracted to gBETA because we wanted local companies and those in surrounding areas to have an opportunity to really accelerate themselves through a program that didn’t exist in our community before. They had such a sterling reputation with a large investor pool and a plethora of knowledge within the entire national organization that could be helpful to folks that go through our program.” 

Though sponsored by the Studer Institute, the Pensacola gBETA program is run by Jonathan Kretz. A native of Texas and graduate of the University of Texas at Arlington, Kretz relocated to Pensacola after the pandemic hit and his own business slowed and now helps other businesses to achieve success. 

For each cohort, gBETA Pensacola selects five businesses out of 40–50 applicants to sponsor in its seven-week program. Last year’s cohort included a wide range of businesses. Argo offers cutting-edge cybersecurity services. DESHI provides modern nail and skincare products and treatments. National Energy works with clean energy solutions. QuNav designs global positioning technologies with applications useful to the automotive industry and military-grade autonomous aerial vehicles. Shipshape Urban Farms squeezes 3.4 acres of hydroponic crops into a shipping container for a safer, fresher, more cost-effective food source.

The initial round for selection is simple.

“First push is keep it local,” Kretz said. The goal is to develop Northwest Florida into a hub of innovation, technology and entrepreneurship, so they narrowed the search to Pensacola and the surrounding region.

The second part of the vetting process considers the scalability and growth potential for businesses.

Kretz admits that choosing the final five is a challenge. It’s not as if the businesses that are not selected don’t have great ideas. 

“Mostly, they are not quite ready for gBETA,” Kretz said.

Either their product or service is not ready to scale or they are in too early of a stage in the process of development, but Kretz sees it as a “big win” for the program that four out of the five members of the 202ı cohort are applicants from the previous year. The program finds that repeated applications “show the resilience of a founder, failing forward, and getting back up and trying again.”

Among businesses in the 202ı cohort, RCI Health Metrics has created an automated system used by nurses to more closely monitor patients’ pain levels based on a distress index. Rainey’s Closet makes rental formalwear for children available at affordable prices.

Eduocity is a company specializing in micro-content curriculum to aid teachers in e-delivery systems in urban communities. Alla Prima coffee was founded by two artists who offer a top-tier coffee experience, combining their passion for the arts with premium coffee. 

Since their next cohort is still going to be virtual, gBETA Pensacola has recruited a company from Orlando for their fifth founder, called Assist, who will make Pensacola their launch point. Assist is building Oddjobs, an app designed to connect workers with people seeking help with small-scale tasks from pulling weeds to painting a fence. Users employ the app to negotiate price and timing. 

Over a seven-week period, these companies will learn techniques in scalability, but the focus of the program, Kretz said, “is to show the key aspects of what an investor will want to see” in each of these businesses. After a morning of introductions, the program is kicked off with the daily “lunch and learn.”

“We try to help our founders understand that there’s actually a minimalism that is required in the investor world,” Kretz said. “The lunch and learn will be on a very specific topic that is a support session that will help them build out their executive summary.” This two-page report is arrived at in four to five weeks and is designed to provide prospective investors with a succinct introduction to a company. 

The process of building out the executive summary is different for each company. For a tech-based business such as Assist, Kretz and his team put in place a large goal such as “by the time they get to launch their MVP (minimal viable product) or their beta launch, we will have 500 users signed up. And then we’ll make it more bite-sized than that. We’ll say, how many users does that mean a week?”

Founders track the growth of their businesses, actively work the network they are building and find mentors within the gBETA program to help them achieve their larger goal. 

To aid founders in building out their summaries, each business owner is paired with mentors through a speed networking session. Every Thursday, founders will spend ı5–20 minutes with each mentor — everyone from entrepreneurs and CEOs to community-resource executives — finding partners with expertise compatible to their growth goals. 

After completing the executive summary phase, the focus in Weeks 5 and 6 is on developing a five-minute pitch deck. Each pitch is honed to be ready for Week 7, when founders “are put into the fire,” Kretz said. Founders use what they’ve learned to pitch their businesses to investors; each founder gets a minimum of 25 investor meetings.

After this, they become alumni of gBETA, and the rest is up to them.

Kretz and his team are also working to introduce a gALPHA program to give companies not quite ready for gBETA a place to grow.

It is hard to know what most network television content producers in LA would make of “Wewa.”

Chances are slight that they would know that those two syllables, sounding like something a donkey might bray, are short for a small town in Gulf County, Florida.

That matters little to Kevin Elliott, an emerging documentarian who co-founded Wewa Films with Courtney Gaskin, the lady behind the cameras.

“It’s easy to say, fun to say, memorable,” Elliott said of Wewa. “And, it’s hard to find a short website url that’s available.”

Wewa Films, formally established in January, has ramped up quickly. In particular, its “docuseries” about artists and artisans in and around Panama City has attracted significant attention.

“We put out two episodes and the phone started ringing,” Elliott said.

A producer who generates content for Netflix and HGTV found Wewa Films on Facebook. That producer — what were the chances — grew up in Southport, in north Bay County, and may actually know about Wewa.

“She told us that she loved the quality of the work we are doing and didn’t know that anyone in our area could do stuff like ours,” Elliott said at a break in the filming of a trailer for a proposed TV show about a Gulf County homebuilder who also keeps bees. A day earlier, Elliott and Gaskin had worked on a pitch involving a South Walton County real estate company.

The producer had encouraged Elliott to send her trailers — especially if related to real estate, building and women in those businesses — because big West Coast production houses were closing due to the COVID-ı9 pandemic, and Wewa Films was capable of doing its own production work.

Career Change
Elliott was 36 and running his own property management businesses when he started to look for ways to get in out of the heat. He enrolled in the graduate communication program at FSU Panama City after a professor at the school, Dr. Stan Lindsey, assured him that his master’s degree would lead to a good job in Bay County. (Lindsey and Elliott hit it off well; both hold degrees in theology.)

Today, in addition to launching a business, Elliott does communication work for Applied Research Associates in Panama City and teaches as an adjunct at FSU PC. He met Gaskin, who he describes as a “genius videographer,” when she was a student in his public speaking class.

She friended him on Facebook, and Elliott saw on her page video she had taken at a Mumford & Sons concert.

“It looked so good that I first thought it was a professional promo video for the band,” Elliott said. “But it was just a young woman playing with her camera. I pulled her aside at the next class and told her, ‘I don’t know what you plan to do with your life, but you have an extraordinary gift for this medium.’ ”

Following Gaskin’s graduation, Elliott discovered and was impressed by her work as a wedding photographer. They worked together on a public service announcement for an initiative called Alignment Bay County, which strives in part to sync up public school curricula with the needs of employers. More projects ensued, and Gaskin and Elliott then decided to make their partnership official.

Gaskin lives in Wewahitchka and married the mayor’s son. Elliott lives with his family in the Sandy Creek area in eastern Bay County.

The docuseries, called CRAFT, is representative of a commitment by Elliott and Gaskin to telling “heartwarming, life-affirming stories about people who are doing well and succeeding. People want to see that. We prefer unscripted productions versus manufactured drama. We want to celebrate people and what they create.”

After Hurricane Michael, Gaskin and Elliott strategized about how they wanted to present and market Wewa Films.

“I had a lot of artist friends mowing grass, and the idea for CRAFT hit me,” Elliott said. “I love it when people tell me they know how to make fly rods or stained glass windows. I will sit and listen to them talk about their passion all day long. We drop in on people’s lives and make them feel safe; we’re not here to do the Kardashians.”

At this writing, Wewa Films, according to Elliott, has $ı70,000 worth of work in the cue. It has done work for clients, including marketing firms; an environmental advocacy organization, Safe Water for Walton; and the Gulf Coast Children’s Advocacy Center. 

Complementary Skills
Elliott elaborated on his “great creative partnership” with Gaskin.

“I do all the scriptwriting, and she does all the visual stuff,” he said. “I handle the scheduling and the interviews, and that way, I can turn her loose, and she shoots what she sees and cuts it. We are both very musical; we pick tracks and bounce them off one another.”

Together, Elliott and Gaskin want to be much more than the next local videography company.

“Everything we produce should look like a painting in motion,” Elliott said. “I will watch movies like Pride & Prejudice several times just because they are a beautiful things to look at. We want our work to have a cinematic look and feel.

“We’re shooting for big. We want to travel the world, producing great stories.”

Elliott believes world-class talent exists everywhere even as equality of opportunity does not.

He’s working to overcome that.