It’s not an overstatement to say that Emanuel Wallace, aka Big Manny, is a social media sensation. His videos of science experiments featuring fire and explosions frequently rack up hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of views, and he has two million followers on TikTok and almost as many on Instagram.
Ex-science technician Big Manny started posting videos during lockdown when he realised that students were really struggling with science, and weren’t familiar with the concepts they were supposed to know. Because of the lockdown, “they just weren't getting that practical experience,” he says. Enter Big Manny.
Big Manny is inspired by the National Curriculum, “I like to follow that closely because that's the videos that are going to benefit [students] the most, because these topics could come up in exams,” he explains. But there’s plenty of room for the fun stuff too. “I like to do fun experiments that look good, things that have fire, things that have explosions, colour changes – anything that is exciting. I want to show people the power of chemistry and the power of all the different elements and what they can do and how they behave when you combine them together.”
The third type of inspiration comes from societal issues. “So for example, I did a video around lithium batteries. I opened up the battery and reacted it with some water, because I wanted to show people the dangers of not disposing of batteries correctly, to encourage them to recycle properly. I did a video around wildfires as well, showing how they start accidentally, in terms of people having barbecues or campfires.”
Big Manny is keen to emphasise that his videos should not be replicated. “It is very dangerous. That's why I always tell people, don't try this at home. But I was a science technician. So I've been trained in how to handle chemicals, how to store them, how to prepare them. I always use my PPE, my gloves, goggles, make sure that there's no skin exposed, and that's how I work safely.“
How has his content evolved over the past few years? “It's evolved a lot,” he says. “When I first started, I was just posting purely the visual. There was no sound. It was literally just a video. And then one day I decided, ‘you know what? Let me add a voiceover to this.’ People liked the voiceless videos but when I added a voiceover to it, people liked it even more.”
Big Manny shoots using an iPhone, “because of the camera quality”, he says, noting that he’s tried lots of different phones and iPhone is the best. “And not only that, but I like the simplicity of the interface. It's just easy to use. It's very intuitive. I just love the iPhone.”
His top tips for settings are to always shoot in 4K and at the highest frame rate possible, at least 60 frames per second.
What else does he recommend to aspiring content creators? “Make sure that your content has some kind of value,” he says. “So, when somebody finishes watching that video, they can actually take something away from that and apply it into their own lives in a way that is gonna benefit them.
“And [create] content that has a purpose as well. Why are you creating the content? For me, it's about education, but somebody else, they might want to make somebody laugh, so they might want to do comedy. Somebody else, they might want to inform someone, so they might want to make some news content. It could be anything, but just have a clear purpose of why you're making this content. What do you want to achieve? What do you want the viewer to get out of this? I think having a clear direction on the content can really help it.”
I asked Big Manny how he deals with creative block. “I don't force it,” he says. “Sometimes I just wake up one day, and I'm like, ‘Yeah, let's do a mad experiment.’ And other days, I'm like, ‘Oh actually, no, let's just do nothing today.' So, for me, it's quite spontaneous. Like, I will just feel inspired to just blow up some fruits or a pumpkin, or open a battery. I don't really get creative blocks in that sense. I just get spouts of inspiration, and I just act on it, there and then.”
His other top tips for creating content include having a similar backdrop. “So most of my videos, I film in the garden,” he says. “And the reason why I recommend having a similar backdrop is because as soon as your viewers see that, it's gonna be recognisable so they're gonna be able to see you, and think, ‘okay, yeah, that's a Big Manny video. I see that garden. I know what's coming next. I know what to expect.'
“Also, start with a nice hook. I say ‘aight cool’, or ‘aight boom’. So when people hear ‘aight boom’, they know it’s experiment time.
“And sometimes, like, less is more, just keep it simple, you know? You don't need too many different features in a video, too much going on. Just keep it simple.”
Simplicity is something Big Manny also advocates in his editing process. He uses iMovie on the iPad Air to edit “because it's easy to use”.
“And the thing with my science videos is the science itself can be difficult. It can be quite complex. So I don't want to overcomplicate the video with too many graphics, too much text, too many images. That's why I use iMovie because it's just simple to edit. And I don't really need to add too much to my videos. It works perfectly for my style of content.”
Big Manny brought that simplicity to a video he did with Prince William, who he says he really enjoyed collaborating with. “I was quite surprised at how engaged he was with the experiment. He was asking a lot of questions. He could tell that he had a genuine interest in science. It was nice to see how down to earth he was. I had a nice chat with him.
He also enjoyed working with Brian Cox. “I did a video with Brian Cox, it was around acid, investigating the effects of it. So, obviously Brian Cox, he's the physics king, when it comes to talking about astronomy, the stars, solar system, he's the guy. So to create some content with him, that was an honour.”
How do these collaborations come about? “Brian Cox released a BBC series called Solar System, where he's talking about all the different planets. I think he's done a few of them, but he just dropped a new series. So that video was promoting his series.
“And then, Prince William, he has an organisation called the Earthshot Prize. And what they do is they award organisations who are promoting sustainability. So the organisation that won it, they do work looking at DNA; they collect DNA samples from soil, ponds, parks, and they look at the DNA to see the biodiversity in that area, so they can see what kind of animals are there. Me and Prince William extracted some DNA from a strawberry to correlate with the organisation who had won the Earthshot Prize for their work on DNA.”
Were these collaborations his career highlight so far? “I think my book and my science kit are my highlights. I released a children's chemistry book, aimed at kids aged between 8 to 12, introducing them to chemistry, and getting them ready for science in secondary school. And then I released a physics version of that as well. Aimed at the same age group, 8 to 12, just getting them ready for physics in secondary school. And I hold those two books really close to my heart. I'm really proud of those.
“And then we took it a step further, and we turned the books into a kit so that kids can get involved as well and do the experiments at home. My experiments that I show on social media, like opening batteries, I don't want kids to do that. That's why we made a safe science kit that is kid-friendly, so that they can have some fun with that.”
To finish our chat, I ask Big Manny how he balances his passions with the needs of social media algorithms.
“I'm quite fortunate,” he says, “because I'm passionate about explosions, and everybody loves explosions. As long as it's a controlled fire and a controlled explosion, it's just human nature to love that.”
Follow Big Manny on TikTok , YouTube or Instagram.
If you're a student who wants to create content using Apple products, you may be able to take advantage of Apple's Education Pricing.
