Every year, the Bulls in Action (BIA) Alumni Speaker Series brings together thought leaders from across disciplines to spark conversations that span the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and more. This year, students in Professor Wayne Garcia’s Media and Society class in the Zimmerman School of Advertising and Mass Communications were treated to an inspiring success story.
Students filled the auditorium at the Biosciences building to hear Moore's story. (Photo by Dakota Galvin.)
Tim Moore is a three-time Emmy award-winning director and founder of Diamond View Studios and, more recently, Vū Technologies. But establishing a worldwide media powerhouse doesn’t happen overnight. For Moore, it was built on a single driving mission: using media to inspire positive change.
It started on a mission trip with his church when Moore was 15. While abroad, he was
tasked with documenting the experience on camera. When he finished the project and
showed it to his team, their reaction changed the way he saw the power of storytelling.
“When I shared [the video] with my team, I saw people cry. And I realized right then,
wow, this is a powerful medium. Stories are the fabric of understanding. They give
evidence of all the patterns in life,” Moore shared with the full auditorium of students.
“If you can tell a great story, you can connect with people on such a deep level.
I learned that as a kid, and I found out that day this is my passion. I couldn’t run
away from it, so I pursued it.”
In 2007 Moore and his college roommate, Jon Davila, immediately went to work. Diamond View Studios was born – even though the small team didn’t own a camera or studio space. The “studio” was in Moore’s parents’ house.
“So, at that point in time I couldn’t afford a video camera, but I started a video business with the idea that someday I would, and I would start editing in the meantime on the computer,” Moore told the crowd.
“For my first two years, I would have clients come over to my house, which is my parent’s house, and they would come to my bedroom in the back, and underneath my bunk bed I had a little edit suite.”
With a captivated student audience, Moore emphasized the importance of perseverance – no matter what industry – and highlighted his personal experiences in getting started.
“Everything started with a ‘no,’ or ‘you can’t do it,’” Moore said. “The people who are saying no can’t stop the people who are doing it.”
This mindset helped to secure Diamond View’s current building, which led to additional Diamond View locations opening in Atlanta and Miami. Moore went a step further and took a leap of faith during the pandemic in 2020 when he took an all-or-nothing business venture.
“Then the pandemic happened,” he told the crowd. “And when everything shut down, we didn’t have any work.” With sports, tourism, and hospitals being Diamond View’s most prominent clients – and those industries being the most affected by the shutdown – the company was losing money, quickly.
With the money they had left to invest, Moore and Davila established Vū’s first virtual
production studio in Tampa Bay.
“It was a big leap for us, because we essentially rolled the dice with all the money
we had in the business. It was either going to go to the moon or explode along the
way,” said Moore.
They ended up going to the moon.
In 2021, NBC correspondent and USF alum Kerry Sanders from the TODAY Show visited the newly opened studio to create a special segment described as "out of this world." The feature aired nationally the same weekend as Super Bowl LVII, the most-watched broadcast in American television history.
Within four years, Vū Studios achieved global success with a clear mission: to make advanced, creative technologies more accessible to brands, filmmakers, and content creators alike. Since establishing the first Vū Studio in Tampa, three other studios in Las Vegas, Nashville, and Orlando. Additionally, thirty-six similar studios have been built worldwide through its Virtual Studio Network.
But one of his favorite studios is in our own backyard at USF.
At the Bulls in Action event, Moore emphasized to the students that this level of success is attainable with persistence, hard work, and dedicated passion.
“Figure out what your mission is and don’t stop,” Moore said.
Moore and a group of students from the Zimmerman School of Advertising and Mass Communication during the unveiling of Zimmerman's new Vū studio space in 2021. (Photo courtesy of USF Foundation)
This year, Moore received the inaugural Media and Communication Visionary Award from The Zimmerman School, recognizing individuals whose leadership and entrepreneurial spirit have elevated Tampa Bay as a hub for media innovation and inspired creative solutions that advance the role of media in democratic societies.
"Tim Moore is truly visionary, with a unique ability to anticipate what's on the horizon and turn potential challenges into tremendous opportunities to forge new paths forward," said Kathy Fitzpatrick, Director of The Zimmerman School, in a statement.