Published April 28, 2026 | By A. Nadine Hagood, Business Reporter
For most Spartanburg manufacturers, the hardest part of telling their story on video is not the camera — it is the camera operator. Plant tours go sideways when the crew has never set foot on a shop floor. Safety glasses come off in the wrong frame. Equipment shots cut to b-roll that gives the line foreman a stress headache. The end product looks polished and lands flat.
That gap is where Firetower Media built its business. Founded in 2014 by CEO Joel Simpson and based in the Charlotte–Rock Hill corridor, Firetower is a video production company with deep roots in the blue-collar world — a small, specialist firm that takes the industrial and trade environments most agencies treat as photogenic backdrops and treats them as the point.
A Production Company That Speaks Manufacturing
Firetower’s positioning is unusually focused. The tagline — Sell. Educate. Recruit. — maps directly onto the three business outcomes Spartanburg-area employers most often need video to drive: closing a customer, training a workforce, and bringing in the next generation of skilled tradespeople. The firm’s five service lines are organized around those outcomes: corporate promos and testimonials, commercial production, training videos, corporate events, and live broadcast production.
What separates Firetower from the dozens of generalist Charlotte-area video shops is the bench Simpson has built around the work. The producer, Mac Rea, brings large-scale movie set and corporate production experience. Lead editor Chris Martin, a military veteran, is known for finding the most impactful moments inside hours of raw footage. A West Coast Director of Photography, Joel Edwards, runs productions independently in the western US so bicoastal client work does not require flying a Carolina crew across the country. And a manufacturing consultant — Brian Pittman — spent 20 years on US Navy submarines and surface ships followed by 20 years running facility maintenance, reliability, and automation across textile manufacturing plants. He advises Firetower on the kinds of complex industrial shoots that scare off less-prepared crews.
Why It Matters for Spartanburg
Spartanburg County’s economy is overwhelmingly industrial. BMW Manufacturing in Greer runs the largest BMW plant in the world. Michelin North America operates major facilities across the Upstate. Milliken & Company, Adidas, Toray, and a long tail of tier-one and tier-two suppliers depend on a workforce pipeline that runs through Spartanburg Community College, the technical apprenticeship programs at Apprenticeship Carolina, and the recruiting departments of dozens of local manufacturers.
Every one of those organizations has the same problem: they need video that actually drives a recruiting pipeline, trains workers on real equipment, and shows customers what the plant can do — without violating safety protocols, leaking proprietary process information, or producing the kind of generic stock-footage corporate reel that nobody watches past the first ten seconds. That is the brief Firetower is built for.
How They Work
Across Firetower’s service pages, a consistent operating principle shows up: scale the production to the client’s budget and project size, not the other way around. The same crew handles complex set design and simple show-and-tell formats, and Simpson markets a transparent fee posture — bid by the job, with full image and footage rights handed over to the client at delivery. There are no licensing constraints on reuse, which matters for manufacturers who want to repurpose plant footage across recruiting microsites, sales decks, training portals, and trade-show loops.
The firm’s claim of nationwide reach is operationalized rather than aspirational. The dedicated West Coast DP role means Western-region productions get a local crew without the cost overhead of flying a Charlotte team across the country. Productions across the Americas, in Simpson’s words, are routine.
Disclosure: HERESpartanburg.com is published by HERECity Network. Firetower Media is a video production partner of the HERECity Network. This Business Spotlight was reported, written, and edited by a HERESpartanburg journalist to HERECity Network editorial standards. Firetower Media reviewed the article for factual accuracy regarding its own business operations only; editorial judgment and final publication decisions rest with HERECity Network.
How to Reach Them
Spartanburg-area manufacturers, contractors, and corporate clients can reach Firetower Media directly at (803) 608-5339, by email at [email protected], or through the firm’s website at firetower.media, where the full service catalog and a project inquiry form are available.
What’s Happening: Firetower Media
Who is Firetower Media and what do they offer?
Firetower Media is a Charlotte- and Rock Hill–based business video production company founded in 2014 by CEO Joel Simpson. The firm specializes in commercials, corporate promos and testimonials, training videos, corporate event coverage, and live broadcast production for industrial, manufacturing, and trade clients across the Carolinas and nationwide.
Why does this matter to Spartanburg businesses?
Spartanburg’s economy runs on manufacturing — BMW, Michelin, Milliken, and a deep bench of tier-one suppliers. Those employers need video that recruits skilled workers, trains them on real equipment, and shows customers the plant in action. Firetower has built its production model and its team specifically around shop-floor and trade environments, which most generalist video agencies are not equipped to handle well.
How can Spartanburg businesses get started?
Firetower Media bids by the job and hands over full image and footage rights at delivery. Spartanburg-area businesses can reach the firm at (803) 608-5339, at [email protected], or through firetower.media to discuss a project, request a quote, or schedule a discovery call.
