I'm Jason, a husband and a dad in Middle Tennessee who's been making things his whole life and never really grew out of it. My family is where I see God's love most clearly, and I keep them mostly off the internet.
I got my start in 2004 building a video department from scratch at EMF Broadcasting, a radio-first Christian broadcaster, which meant figuring out the gear, the studios and the hiring all at once. Then I spent seven years running video for two big churches in California, Bayside in Granite Bay and Eastlake in San Diego: a paid staff, a hundred-plus volunteers, eight weekend services, national conferences, a summer camp for 15,000 kids, and a Christmas event that reached 50,000 people.
In 2016 I co-founded a production company, So Long Saturn, and spent the next several years making social content, ads and launch films for Facebook, Adidas, Coca-Cola, Intel and R+Co, and editing award-winning documentaries, including my own, 500 Feet Ahead, which is on Amazon Prime. One I'm still proud of: I had rare access to interview Louis Zamperini, the WWII survivor at the heart of Unbroken, near the end of his life. The footage held up well enough that the team behind the film licensed it for the publicity tour and the home release.
In 2022 I joined BuildWitt's marketing team and was a lead on the effort that took their YouTube channel from about 8,000 subscribers to 350,000 in a year. Since then I've been building the other half of the job: AI systems that plan, sort and rough-cut video, a local AI company called MuleTown, and the studio, which now goes by my own name.
Which brings me to this site. As the machines take on more of the editing, I've got more room for the questions I've been circling for twenty years: what work is for, what faith has to say to a guy who builds AI, which old ideas still hold, and how to raise a family through all of it. I'm going to think about those out loud here.
On the faith side, I'm somewhere in the middle of the road. I'm on a path toward the Catholic Church, and I'm still learning as I go. What draws me is that, of all the Christian traditions, it feels closest to the root. It gives a clear framework for how to actually live a Christian life, and it has spent centuries in deep conversation with philosophy and science, which suits a guy who likes to test things. Most days it looks like a prayer walk, a rosary and a notebook.
I love the woods, big skies, old space-race optimism, and a good story.
Reading and influences
Who's shaping the thinking.
- Thomas Aquinas. I'm still learning my way in, slowly.
- Dante, Inferno. Reading it now, and it's landing harder than I expected.
- Jordan Peterson.
- Walt Disney.
- My dad. The first one.
MuleTown.ai · co-founder
A family venture. AI receptionists, review tools and chatbots for small businesses around Columbia, Tennessee.
REX · Chief Creative Officer
Brand, investor films and launch creative for a startup whose pre-seed round topped $3 million.
BuildWitt · marketing video team
Rebuilt the video process and edit style and led packaging (titles, thumbnails, descriptions). The channel grew from about 8,000 subscribers to 350,000 in a year.
So Long Saturn · co-founder
The production company I co-founded. It used to be called So Long Saturn and is now my studio under my own name. Facebook, Adidas, Coca-Cola, Intel, R+Co, Tesla, MasterClass, AWS, and a pile of companies you've never heard of.
Eastlake, San Diego · video content director
Led a team of seven and about seventy-five volunteers; ran a digital campus reaching 10,000 to 15,000 people a week.
Bayside, Granite Bay · video director
A staff of nine and 100+ volunteers. Eight weekend services, three national conferences a year, a 15,000-kid summer camp and a Christmas event for 50,000.
EMF Broadcasting · video producer
Hired to build a video department from nothing at a radio-first media company.
Awards
- Best Editing, Nice Filmmaker Festival, 2018 (I Am The White Tiger)
- Best Picture, Global Cinema Film Festival of Boston, 2016 (Stopping Traffic)
- Winner, Accolade Global Film Competition, 2015 (Old Love)
- Editing Excellence, Videography Awards, 2014 (Louis Zamperini Tribute)
- Official Selection, San Diego International Film Festival, 2014 (Memorial Day)
- Official Selection, Show Me Justice Film Festival, 2016 (Stopping Traffic)