North Carolina's Nonprofit Media Studio

Second Serving
Studios

Building a professional media studio for North Carolina, and funding it with a self-sustaining nonprofit model that reinvests in the community.

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The Problem

The Triad is being left behind.

Professional production crew on a soundstage

  • Talented media professionals leave for Los Angeles, New York, and Atlanta because the infrastructure to support their careers doesn't exist here.

  • NC businesses and nonprofits that need professional media production have to go elsewhere to get it.

  • Production dollars that could stay in Winston-Salem don't. North Carolina film and television productions generated $185.5M in direct in-state spending in 2025, and the Triad captured almost none of it.

  • Downtown Winston-Salem's momentum has stalled. The creative infrastructure to reignite it doesn't yet exist.

The Vision

Professional Infrastructure.
Community Mission.

Second Serving Studios is designed to be a full-service media production facility with a modular, customizable kitchen set, broadcast control suite, and in-house production support. All under one roof in downtown Winston-Salem, NC.

As a nonprofit, we exist to create jobs, develop local talent, and make professional production accessible to clients of every scale.

Second Serving Studios will also serve as a gathering place for Winston-Salem's creative and nonprofit community, a hub at the heart of what we believe will become the city's creative corridor.

Once built, Second Serving Studios will sustain itself. Studio revenue funds the operation, develops local talent, and keeps the mission alive — without ongoing dependence on donor support.

Flywheel — Sustainable Studio ModelDonors & GrantsClients &Bookings• Studio rentals• Equipment rentals• Productions• EventsRevenue• Sustains operations• Funds the missionWorkforceDevelopment• Training• Apprenticeships• Career pathwaysCommunity Programming• Free and subsidized community access• Community events
Barbara Maida-Stolle
Like Goodwill, this project blends purpose with sustainability — creating opportunities, growing jobs, and telling the stories that matter.
Barbara Maida-Stolle CEO, Goodwill Industries of Northwest NC

What We Offer

Purpose-Built.
Professionally Equipped.

Narrative production on soundstage
Main Stage

The Soundstage

A fully equipped, acoustically treated soundstage with lighting grid, rigging infrastructure, green screen, and cyclorama wall. Configurable for narrative, commercial, live-audience, and broadcast formats.

Broadcast control room
Control Room

Broadcast Control Suite

Multi-camera switching, audio mixing, and live monitoring built for broadcast-quality output. Fiber-connected and capable of live transmission to any network, anywhere, including live broadcast services to the Stevens Center, the performing arts home of UNCSA, located next door.

Camera operators on set
Production Support

Grip, Lighting & Equipment

In-house grip and lighting packages, camera support, and production gear available to clients. Reduce freight, simplify logistics, focus on what you came to make.

Green room for talent

The Green Room

A private, comfortable space where talent can relax, prepare, and focus between takes.

Community event at Second Serving Studios

The Community Space

The original restaurant and bar — reimagined for screenings, receptions, workshops, and community gatherings.

Prep kitchen

The Prep Kitchen

A fully equipped back-of-house kitchen for food styling, batch prep, and keeping the production stage camera-ready.

Allen Joines
This is more than a studio; it is a catalyst that will showcase Winston-Salem's leadership in arts and innovation and ensure our community continues to grow and prosper.
Allen Joines Mayor, City of Winston-Salem

Workforce Development

Keeping North Carolina's Talent Home

North Carolina produces exceptional creative talent, and too often watches it leave for Los Angeles, New York, or Atlanta. Second Serving Studios is designed to change that. Through apprenticeships, mentorships, and deep partnerships with leading Triad institutions, we are building pathways for the next generation of North Carolina filmmakers, producers, and media professionals to build careers here.

Second Serving Studios is actively collaborating with the University of North Carolina School of the Arts on curriculum development, integrating our facility into hands-on training for UNCSA students and connecting the state's leading arts institution directly to working production infrastructure.

Institutional Collaborator

UNCSA

Prospective Collaborators

Wake Forest University
Forsyth Tech Community College
Salem College
UNC Greensboro
Guilford Technical Community College
High Point University
Winston-Salem State University
NC A&T State University
Eric Johnson
Having a state-of-the-art facility like Second Serving Studios here in North Carolina will open the door to jobs for our talented veteran crew base and create training opportunities for the next generation of film and television artists, producers, and crew.
Eric Johnson SVP, Head of Partnerships & Engagement — Trailblazer Studios
Culinary soundstage Camera filming chef Food styling on set

Culinary Media

The Southeast's Home for
Food Media Production

The Kitchen Stage

Food media is one of the fastest-growing categories in television, streaming, and digital content, and production facilities built to support it are nearly nonexistent in the Southeast. Second Serving Studios will change that, as the only nonprofit culinary media studio in the nation. Our modular, customizable kitchen set can be assembled on the soundstage. Built for flexibility and designed to be filmed. We will also offer dedicated access and special pricing for local food entrepreneurs and culinary creators.

The Prep Kitchen

Every great food shoot starts before the cameras roll. Our dedicated prep kitchen sits immediately adjacent to the soundstage, giving culinary producers, food stylists, and home economists a professional workspace to source, organize, and prepare. So every dish arrives on camera ready for its closeup.

Sheri Castle
The custom-crafted, multipurpose kitchen in Second Serving Studios is going to be superior to any other in the region. It's going to be a hub of creativity grounded in good business sense.
Sheri Castle Host, PBS North Carolina's The Key Ingredient
Creating jobs.
Feeding a community.

In-House Production

From Idea to Delivery,
Under One Roof

Second Serving Studios will operate its own in-house production team, a dedicated group of creatives and producers available for projects of any scale and scope. From concept to delivery, we manage the full production process. We handle or coordinate every stage, including post-production through our network of trusted partner facilities, working alongside your agency and crew at every step.

01

Concept Development

Creative development and scripting

02

Pre-Production

Planning, hiring, and production prep

03

Production

Full crew, equipment, and stage resources on-site

04

Post-Production

Editing, VFX, color grading, and audio post

05

Delivery

Platform-ready output in any required format

Creative team in concept development session
Director and producer reviewing footage on set
Editor at post-production workstation

The Space in Action

One Stage. Infinite Applications.

Film and television production

Film & Television

Narrative, documentary, streaming

Advertising

Advertising & Commercial

Brand content, product, food

Podcasts

Podcasts & Live Events

Live recording, panels, screenings

Corporate events

Corporate & Community

Events, launches, receptions

Remote broadcasting correspondent on set

Remote Broadcasting

Live transmission to any network, anywhere

Pricing

Professional Production. Within Reach.

Professional production has always meant a trip to Los Angeles, Atlanta, or New York. We're bringing it home and pricing it for the people who live here: the same professional gear and the same full facility you'd fly to the coast for, at a fraction of the cost. As a nonprofit, the revenue beyond our costs goes back into the community, training local talent and more.

Priced to keep us busy, and built to sustain our mission.
Every booking here helps build a creative career in North Carolina.

The Stage

$1,500 / day

Our soundstage, ready to shoot. Bring your own crew and gear, or rent ours and hire crew from our database.

The Studio

$3,500 / day

A complete setup for a photo shoot or small video production: a Sony or Canon camera package with primes and zooms, lighting and grip packages, plus the prep kitchen and prop package.

The Production House

$6,000 / day

Best Value

Premium gear and the full facility: an ARRI or RED camera package, your choice of cinema lens set (ARRI Signature Primes, Cooke S7/i, Cooke Panchro/i, or Zeiss Supreme Primes), and the full lighting and grip packages, across the entire facility.

Full Production

$10,000–$50,000+

We make it for you, from first idea to final delivery. Quoted to your project.

Add-ons, NC-crew rates, and reduced rates for local nonprofits and students available; final pricing confirmed at booking.

Creative Corridor

A Hub for Creativity

Second Serving Studios is located at 411 W. 4th Street in the heart of downtown Winston-Salem, steps from some of the city's most vital creative institutions. A creative corridor is taking shape on this block, and Second Serving Studios is designed to be at the center of it.

Stevens CenterPerforming Artsa/perture CinemaIndependent CinemaNCMAMuseum of Visual ArtBookmarksBookstore & VenueAmphitheaterLive Music & EventsOPENING 2027
Community cooking demonstration

Economic Impact

Built Here.
Built for Here.

$4.4M

Direct local economic activity in the first three years

21 Jobs

Supported at full operation

$3.2M+

In local wages

Second Serving Studios is projected to generate approximately $4.4 million in direct local economic activity in its first three years of operation. It will bring skilled production jobs to Winston-Salem and create pathways for local talent. Production spending will stay in North Carolina, supporting local crews, vendors, and small businesses.

Figures based on a conservative application of standard regional economic methodology (BEA RIMS II / IMPLAN). Full methodology available on request.

David Crabtree
"This visionary initiative holds significant potential to enrich the cultural and educational landscape of our region. PBS North Carolina is pleased to extend our full support for [Second Serving Studios]. We are eager to explore potential avenues for collaboration and mutually beneficial partnerships that will further enhance the success of this transformative project."
David Crabtree CEO, PBS North Carolina
PBS North Carolina

Our Supporters

Twin City Development Foundation
Goodwill Industries of Northwest NC
Richard J. Reynolds III and Marie M. Reynolds Foundation
James G. Hanes Foundation
John W. and Anna H. Hanes Foundation

Leadership

Built by Industry Veterans

Second Serving Studios is led by two Emmy Award-winning television professionals with decades of combined experience producing and delivering high-end content for major networks and streaming platforms. They bring hard-won operational knowledge of what professional production actually requires, and how to build the infrastructure that makes it possible.

Jake Camp

Executive Director

For fifteen years, Jake Camp was the person who got national television shows made. As an Emmy-winning line producer on shows like The Pioneer Woman, Barefoot Contessa, and Be My Guest with Ina Garten, his job was turning big ideas into finished shows, on time and on budget. A Greensboro native, he's bringing that discipline home. He's completing an Executive MBA at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management, where he was named Social Entrepreneur of the Year for the work he's doing with Second Serving Studios.

Paul Bercovitch

Director of Operations

Paul Bercovitch has spent 24 years in the rooms where film and television are finished. A supervising sound editor with two Emmy Awards, his credits include Game of Thrones, Disenchantment, What We Do in the Shadows, and Acapulco. A Brown University graduate, he came to Winston-Salem to help build something different, a studio designed to serve the community that surrounds it.

Meet the Full Board