Blaze Your Own Trail - They Used Stimulus Checks to Make Their First Short Film with Kaleb & Kyler Cook

Episode Date: October 9, 2026

In this inspiring interview, Kaleb and Kyler Cook share their journey from small-town Illinois to becoming filmmakers with a faith-driven mission. They discuss their creative process, the importance of community, and how their faith shapes their work, culminating in the of their recently released impactful film 'Just One More' which has won several awards in multiple categories Takeaways-Consistent practice and honing craft over years is essential to success.-Surround yourself with people better than you to elevate your work.-Faith and community are foundational to impactful filmmaking.Sound Bites"Surround yourself with people better than you.""High quality storytelling makes much of Jesus.""Embrace the long journey to mastery."Chapters00:00 Introduction to TwinBolt Media and the Cook Brothers02:11 Growing Up in Southern Illinois: Culture and Influences04:46 The Impact of 90s Comedy on Their Creative Journey08:12 Transitioning from High School to Filmmaking09:28 The Journey Through Education and Early Career12:09 The Birth of TwinBolt Media During the Pandemic13:55 Finding Purpose in Filmmaking and Faith15:02 The Evolution of Christian Filmmaking19:00 Addressing Addiction and Community in Their Films22:37 Growing Up with Brothers and Wrestling23:57 The Birth of TwinBull: A Partnership in Filmmaking28:18 The Role of Faith and Family in Filmmaking30:21 Creating High-Quality Content for a Higher Purpose34:28 The Inspiration Behind 'Just One More'38:12 Building Community and Collaboration in Filmmaking42:08 Advice for Aspiring FilmmakersLearn more about Kaleb & Kyler's current & future projects: https://www.twinboltmedia.com/Watch 'Just One More" here: https://www.angel.com/movies/just-one-moreConnect with Kyler: https://www.instagram.com/kylercook/Connect with Kaleb: https://www.instagram.com/kaleb_cook_filmmaker/The Blaze Your Own Trail Podcast is Sponsored by CityGate Studios. If you are looking for a world-class team to help with your Film, T.V., Podcast or other creative production project in a clean, safe and Christ-Centered environment, look not further!Visit their website to learn more: https://citygatestudios.com/   Are you an Entrepreneur, Coach, Author, Actor, Podcaster or Creative?Join my FREE Group Coaching Community where we have live calls, Q&A and more! Our Trailblazer Ecosystem also enables you to network with other entrepreneurs and the creator hub eliminates multiple subscriptions and logins creating a one stop shop with 30 tools to help you take action an grow your business and brand for just $97 per month! Join here: https://trailblazerecosystem.com/ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the Blaze Your Own Trail podcast. My name is Jordan Mendoza. I'm your host, and today I've got two very special guests. It's Caleb and Kyler Cook, and I'm going to have them tell you a little bit about who they are and what they do today. What's going on, Jordan? Thanks for having us. Awesome. So I am Kyler Cook, and I'm one of the co-founders at Twin Bolt Media, and really appreciate being able to come on and tell a little bit about our story.

and hopefully encourage people in their walk with Jesus and their path to creativities. I'm Caleb Cook. Born and raised in Southern Illinois. So I grew up a lot of farmland, cornfields, pretty much what we had in the way of entertainment was you either played a sport or you went to the movies. And so for us, it was very formative in our younger years,

especially. I remember being four or five years old watching Jurassic Park for the first time. It's a young age to watch Jurassic Park. But, you know, we were really fundamental. I think rooted in the 90s entertainment boom that was happening, a lot of great films in that period. And, you know, for us, I think that was a way in which we got to experience the world, got to travel through the art of filmmaking and has just kind of left this indelible impression on us through the years. Saved, very young, eight years old, really felt like both of us kind of

gave our lives to Jesus. And faith became a really important part of our journeys and our relationship to Jesus. You know, growing up in the church, not a whole lot of opportunities there. But ended up in a place where we were doing these skip nights at church camp. And I think that both of us kind of point back to that as a huge moment for us, that one night a year where we got to really cut loose, write something and perform something. And that was a big part of our upbringing was those church camp times with, again, just in the middle of a field camp Oxford in Southern Illinois. You know, God's really just kind of had us on this path for a long time. I think we're realizing now that he's always been bringing us down this journey to become filmmakers, but we're excited to

kind of talk about our experience, what we've seen, what we've experienced, how we've gotten to this place and share with your listeners, if there's any filmmaker interest out there, this is kind of how we did it. Yeah. Yeah, so Southern Illinois, so is there as much snow as Northern Illinois, or what's the, what's the climate like down there? What was it, what was it like growing up down there? Yeah, so we were probably 30 minutes away from Kentucky, And so very warm weather, very southern culture. Illinois is a very long state. It's eight hours from the bottom to the top.

And so you get two completely different things as you get up close to Chicago versus going six and a half, seven hours down south, right there on the Tennessee, Indiana, Kentucky border. And it also borders Missouri over here, which is a place that we would go. We were younger as well. But culture is a very blue collar, coal mining community.

both of our parents, both of our grandparents on both sides were farmers. And so a ton of farmland, soybean, corn crop. And so very much in that world, both raised in the General Baptist Church. And so, you know, all those things kind of together formed where we were and what we were about as a people. Be a man of your word. Show up on time, be early. A lot of those kinds of typical Southern culture idioms. Yeah, and so you mentioned sports being something like it was either sports or it was either watching movies. Did you do both? Did you watch movies and did you guys get into sports and what type of sports? Yeah, we were in basketball, golf, football, track really did quite a few different events in track and really just anything get us out of the house. We're very active, ride our bikes all around town growing up and saw a lot of interesting people, which I thought. I think also Larry's into this idea of

storytelling, very Southern cultures centered around storytelling, whether it's jokes or family memories. It's just very important when you're together that you're telling these stories. And I think that's kind of, we were very active and energetic. Our name of our business is Twin Bolts. So it's a very energetic kind of approach to storytelling. So brainstorm. Twin Bolt, lightning. Yep, that's great. You know, we were talking off air and one of the things that you said is that you guys, you know, got into comedy, you know, so what was that, where did that influence come from? Is that just, you know, you mentioned 90s movies. Did the 90s comedy scene have an impact like, you know, Jim Carrey was prevalent in the 90s?

You know, I think Dumb and Dumber came out in 94 or 95. There's a lot of movies maybe that came out. I'm just curious who inspired you and what type of comedy do you all like? Yeah, very much. I mean, you have Jim Carrey, you have Adam Sandler, you have Chris Farley, S&L, you have the Kings of Comedy, our older brother, who was not a Christian, would sneak in BHS of, I mean, all of the greats. We got to watch really, really high-level stand-up comedy when we were eight, nine, ten years old. And so, I mean, obviously you're hearing some words and some things that come up. But even more than that, you're being sort of shaped by the craft and the people that are at the high-end, level and the people that are like beyond funny like Eddie Murphy and those kinds of stand-up specials that is just really having an impact where you're like this is how good really good comedy can get and so very much that I think being around funny people growing up was really helpful having funny people in our family our older brothers were really funny and constantly

improv comedy quoting comedies back and forth and at school that was huge you know there'd be a phrase that would come out in a comedy and that all of the students would be saying it and I'm repeating comedy back to one another and that's before you could just turn a cell phone over and show someone so you had to tell them what the joke was and yeah just a completely different world than we're living in now yeah I do remember those days I was in high school from 95 to 99 so it was just right in that time you know Billy Madison I think you know any of those movies that would come out dumb and dumber. Yeah, you would just be quoting everything, just knuckleheads running around. Yeah, and Jim Carrey went on a historic run there. It was Ace Ventura. It was liar, liar.

It was the mask. And everything that he did just crushed. And so, you know, just getting a goofy sense of, like, how funny real comedy could be. And that was kind of the golden years of SNL, too, where you would watch, you know, bits and pieces and reruns and things like that. yeah since you like comedy and you like doing comedy definitely check out the recent episode i released was with lana turner so the uh the widow of ralphie may and she talked about you know the beginning of their beginning of their journey you know how he was like you better be funny basically is what he told her he's like hey you better be funny because the guy that went on before was not funny at all and he's like hope you're funny or whatever and then afterwards he's like you were funny

and i don't joke about funny yeah yeah it's the one thing that you got to be serious yeah gave her his pager a number but no i think you guys will like that that uh content but yeah he was he was definitely hilarious uh definitely uh cross cross some lines on both yeah on every end that you can't put her in a nursing home we got to keep that fudge going you know he's like we got to just tell her it's Christmas all year around, bring her into the house, just have her pumping out fudge all the time. Crank that I see you. Crank that I see. Come, Grandma. Yeah, he was like, yeah. We're legends. Yep. Yeah, classic. So let's talk a little bit about after high school. So you're in these church camp skits, by the way,

Guiltiest charge. I did a bunch of church camp skits. My buddy a while back said, hey, he's like, I found all of our breakdancing crew videos and all our church camp skits. And he's like, they're on VHS. How do I get him onto a DVD? I'm like, are you serious right now? Like, we need to. So I might have to fly to the Pacific Northwest because my friend who thinks everyone's out to get him will not go convert these things.

So. But what I do, you better believe, like, I'm going to be posting this content. And it'll be a lot of fun. I just, I remember having a big. bamboo stick and it was kind of like one of the scenes from Ace Ventura or something and we were just doing flips and being psycho and wild so but yeah if that ever hits the the video waves I'll let you guys know absolutely I want to hear more about B-Boy Ben Mendoza that's what I want to hey listen we our crew was sub-tech crew and it was a we were a very international crew and

it was a lot of fun but I'm still teaching believe it or not in my garage I do these connect groups and teach people how to break dance. Nice, nice. Love it. Yeah, so let's talk about after high school, what did you guys end up doing? Did you decide to go to school to learn how to do filmmaking formally? Was that kind of on the agenda, or did you decide to do something else? I knew I wanted to get into film. We'd done a class junior achievement in high school that kind of like, let me cut my chops

and the idea of like commercial advertising. So it's what I wanted to do. I wanted to get into filmmaking. We also, our final year of high school, learned about something called the speech team, which forensic speech was like competitive acting. You travel around, going to these rooms, you've got these black books, and it's prose and interpretation and poetry, and it's very dramatic and humorous interpretations. And you compete against other people performing these parts.

And so we actually got our school paid for, competed for two years at a junior college. It's highly competitive, top three in the nation for the last 30 years. really gave us our foundation on performance underneath a specific coach Jonah Rice, who was just legendary in his performance and coaching and teaching. Yeah, him and Paul Cummings both had been there for a while, and it was very kind of like Ralphie Mae talking about comedy, it was very serious. You were either a serious competitor or you were a joke,

and you probably just needed to quit and not get your college paid for. And it entailed three to four hours of training and practice and rehearsal a day. And so think whatever you think about it, think of more athletics than like, oh, I'm going to go do a theatrical play. Much more like serious, competitive, we want to win, we want first place in the nation. That was the vital. That's really cool. So after that point, we went to our, you know, proper university, S.I.U. Cargondale, S.I.C. Southern Illinois University of Carvindale.

So I'll just say it, the full name. And I got my degree, double bachelor's film, integrate marketing communication so I can go in a commercial advertising. Kyle went into writing, performance, and ultimately a master's in speech. Communication studies, yes. Communication studies. And so we set forth, we church planted out to different states. And I spent the last 13 years just growing in film and production, working at Penn State University in the commercial department, working in athletics, working with research, science,

documentary, filmmaking. And it was just like, just constantly. And then I did over 140 weddings over the last 10 years. And so really just kind of building my knowledge on filmmaking. Yep. And so I went to Kalamazoo, Michigan and was there for eight years as a college instructor out there and as a high school instructor. I was an English teacher and was writing in my spare time.

So focusing a lot more on the kind of creative writing component of what we do. And then it was kind of in the COVID shutdown where we really started Twinbolt and Ernest. So our first short film was funded by us putting together our stimulus checks that came out from the government. And we were really impressed with Dallas Jenkins, The Chosen, the first episode. And that was whenever it was dropping kind of episode by episode, Caleb sent it to me. And he was like, it's a Jesus show, but it's not cringe. I'm like, how can this be? How can it be possible?

And so I watched it and I just left a really big impact on us. But there were some other things that we were dealing with at that time that Caleb often shares about it's more his story. Yeah, so really coming into the pandemic, my wife was diagnosed with cancer. And so we started that battle right at the height of the pandemic. We were doing the first round of chemo, and the news came on. They essentially had a TV where the president announced we're in a global pandemic. So they shut down the hospitals. I wasn't able to go through treatment with my wife after that point.

And it just led us to a place where we started asking really critical questions about just how long we have. I mean, are we really in a world and an existence where we're guaranteed 80 years? No, like, we need to run after this. We need to be about our business and ask God those critical questions. What am I made for? What have you called me to? And really just in prayer and deciphering through that over the last six years, it became ultimately clear that God has called us to be filmmakers.

To run after excellence and to discern what is our calling and what we're supposed to be doing. has been something where we look back and we see God has been crafting this in us for our entire lives and really, this is the culmination of 36 years of God doing this in us. But realistically, it was this last 15 years that God's been shaping and molding us to be directors and to pursue art and design stories that ultimately impact and draw people back to the truth and the nature of the gospel. I love it. So what I hear in a lot of that is you guys went out and, you put in a lot of reps. You know, you wanted to really hone your craft, you know, at the collegiate level. And then, you know, now, of course, doing it at a high level and getting a show that's

going to be distributed on larger platforms. And with the end goal of reaching people to, to get them closer to Jesus, which is awesome that you're doing it for that reason. So I'd love your guys' thoughts because it was pretty funny to watch you go. And it's not cringe, you know, Because when you think of a Christian content, especially older stuff, it was, I mean, it was kind of like B minus, you know. You had B movies and you got like B minus and it just wasn't that great. And to see what you are doing and to see what some of the other directors are doing with some of the other content, it's got to be exciting for you all to see.

But it's such in its infancy that there's so much room for growth. There's so many cool things that can take place. with all the creators that are out there. So I'd love to just get your take on, you know, from looking back at skits with maybe camcorders or not great technology to what's available today and then looking at how fast things can get done from a timeline perspective versus the years it would take to get something released. How does all that excite you as well?

Oh, man. I mean, yeah, we look back eight, nine, ten years old. old camcorders doing wrestling match videos with our step sister and older brother out on the trampoline. And God has obviously just been putting it on our hearts and minds, but practically to be able to become a filmmaker, you have to have a lot of knowledge. You have to have a lot of relationships. There has to be an access to financing and resources, which is not something you just walk into. It has to be very intentional.

And so it's something that we've kind of been building on for the last six years to be able to come and execute on the feature film. It's also terrifying, you know, putting yourselves in a position where you're willing to risk that much. We just really had to have a serious set down with our wives and prayerfully consider making that choice. And then once we did it, once we started,

we had to fully commit. It's been really interesting to see over the last year, essentially, how many doors God has continued to open and then the doors that got us shut where he's crafting our story. Ultimately, we're going to do it. what he's called us to, which is to be the best quality filmmaker that we can be as Christians, right? And so there's a unique dynamic there, which is we are filmmakers and we are Christians.

And so we're not seeking to make the best Christian film, although our first film is a faith-based film. It's right up the middle. It is about somebody who is handing their life over to God and saying, I want more than what I have currently. And we're not ashamed of that as filmmakers, but also we're not locked into just telling a story of good versus evil and atheists and a Christian battling out on is God real and ultimately God is and there's that winning over of self. Rather, we want to focus on humanity. We want to focus on intricate gray issues, things that teach. We always start off with our films with a Christian dilemma.

You know, this is something that has been buried into our hearts as Christians for for 36 years. Now God has been working on showing us. Sometimes it's a little bit difficult. Sometimes it's hard. Sometimes we have to have mercy for people who don't yet know the Lord. And so, you know, the way that we crafted this film specifically just one more, we went into it with years of experience to say, you know, we really want to tell a story that impacts people. And to do that well, we need to create a series of truth questions and ultimately ask the church, what do we do when we have somebody who wants to give their life over to the Lord? but they biologically and historically have given themselves over to this other thing, to addiction, to sin.

And now there is a, there is a, you know, sometimes God doesn't heal somebody physically from the decisions they've made in the past. And so there's a window and a process where that person is still going to continue to knee-jerk, go back to the things of the past. And we have to have mercy for those people. Yeah. And then ultimately those in the church to realize, and we've got to welcome these people in. We've got to be a place where they can safely practice learning about their faith while also detoxing.

And there's something about this film that I think over our experience where we've realized, men, the church hasn't really embarked on a journey of telling a truthful story about addiction. And allowing there to be portions of this film that's like, hey, there's some things as Christians and as the church we need to own. We need to start doing a better job of this. And I think crafting it that way allows for both sides to be able to watch it and learn. Right? Those that are addicted to learn, hey, this is pretty tough. This is a difficult thing to ask of people and to trust and to not be afraid and vice versa, that these people need a place to make mistakes and ultimately harm us. And we need to love them. It's the story of Christ. Yeah. I know for me personally, you know, I grew up, you know, Pentecostal Christian. My mom was Catholic. My dad was Catholic, but we had the luxury of my mom sending me and my brothers on the church van to the Pentecostal Christian.

Church. So we were, you know, at a Pentecostal Christian church, a spirit-filled church. That's kind of where I was raised. And it was a really cool experience to, you know, learn about the Bible in the adolescent years, be surrounded in a place that, you know, that taught you scripture. You know, we learned things like, and they would also bribe us like, hey, for five bucks, you can learn the New Testament, you get five bucks. You can learn the Old Testament and memorize it. So they bribed us pretty good too, which is nice, I think. Got to give the kids some cash to learn. That's called generosity, Jordan.

That's called generosity. I'm not bribing. Exactly. But for people that, and now I'm at a non-denominational church, you know, as an adult, which is pretty much you see everybody there. You see former Baptist, you see all of it. And there are people that are not exposed to community. this conversation and even the film and kind of the previews and the trailers that I've seen

where that's a part of it, right? You've got to surround yourself with people. It's interesting now that that's something that I'm very plugged into at the church that we've been at for the last nine years. We do a very good job at creating opportunities, connect groups, serve days, ways that people can invest in other people. And really, that's what it's all about is we have to get out of our own way and decide that, hey, everybody has a story, everybody has a season, everybody's at a different place in their journey, and to your point, everybody is going to fail consistently. You know, these are the stories that are in the Bible. It's a bunch of knuckleheads that are failures and, you know, doing things, trying to do things

the right way, and they get off track, and then they come back. I mean, this is kind of the story, right? And so the more community that you can surround yourself with to anyone that's out there listening, the better. We need people to iron sharpens iron, as folks may have heard. And without that, it's very hard to get out of your own way. Without that, it's very hard to be rooted and to start to flourish and start to grow. Yeah, we've even heard, we're partnered with Spring to Life here in the Franklin area, a Christian rehab facility. We've even heard it said that the addiction is a loneliness disease. That's what causes it.

And so being alone, it's a symptom of not having people around you and really struggling with loneliness and depression and trying to figure out who am I and my identity. It's important to surround people that are struggling with addiction. Yeah. And another way that I've heard it that I think you'll resonate with is that it's called relational poverty. Yeah.

Right. And that's, man, when you hear that, when you hear it like that, it's like, man, that's tough, especially if you have family, like you got a twin, like you guys are like super close, right? Just imagine if you didn't have each other. Like, what would life be like? You probably couldn't even imagine what your life would be like without having. I mean, you grew up on a farm. So I bet you better believe you guys probably had all kinds of chores and everyone was doing something. And you know what I'm saying? So like just imagine a world where that didn't exist. It's a almost hard to fathom. You know, I grew up with five, my mom had five boys, so it's a bunch of knucklehead brothers fighting watching. This is back, this is WWF days. So this is before, before E exists. WCW, yeah. And so, yeah, you better believe, you know, breaking each other's legs and collarbones.

Every night we'd watch until 8 a.m. was bedtime. We'd watch, we'd watch wrestling at night. I remember Steve Nash, the era of the Undertaker. Sting. staying man, Mysterio. Come on. Yeah, there's some And we had a trampoline too.

It's dangerous. Yeah, trampolines after watching wrestling is just not a good combination. It was, especially not for the hyperactive. Yeah. So let's talk,

you know, pandemic hits. Here you both are. You're finished with school at this point, both in your careers and you decide to kind of create this, form this partnership together and start twin bolt, right? And this is, it's in alignment with the way that you are about things. You're passionate. You get a lot of energy. It's kind of what you explained.

And so how did that conversation go with the wives? Let's get, let's dive deep into that because you guys had your pitch. I'm sure you had everything ready to go and you're like, all right, well, we got to go to the final boss level, which is wives. So I'm sure there's a lot of prayer before you went into that meeting. Like, how did the conversation? conversation go and what's the journey been like with them in your corners because we are six years into it. Yes, we are. And in some ways even longer, which is kind of the point I was going to make, my wife says whenever she first started dating me, she knew that Caleb and I were eventually going to be filmmakers. And so I met her whenever I was 19 and I'm 36. So the writing was on the wall. And Caleb and I have often

said this, if you want to know what God is calling you too, just look what he's equipped you for. So look back, look back over your life. Many times God is kind of telling you what your purpose and what your fulfillment is going based on things like what do you really enjoy? What are you passionate about? Meaning what kind of work would you do even if it meant personal pain? And I really love that idea of passion. Jesus loved us so much he went to the cross for us.

So what's that thing that you love so much that you're willing to go through difficulty for? I think that's a really powerful thing to think about. And so whenever it came to, yeah, Caleb and I want to make our first short film. I think both of our wives fully knew that that was something that was coming and something that we were interested in. And so it wasn't necessarily a hard sell, although going all in, whenever we really became filmmakers and quit our day jobs, that was a different story that required a lot of faith and a lot of figuring things out. And it was kind of messy, but that's how it has to be in a really beautiful way. And so, Dale, what would you say on that?

Yeah, it's a journey. You know, for me, I always wanted to have a family. I always wanted to be involved. Had some really very clear warning signs in school, having professionals come in that kind of communicated, hey, don't get into filmmaking if you want a family. And I think to the certain degree, you have to understand that Christian filmmakers of the past,

gosh, they're being compared to men and women that have given everything at the foot of idolatry in their career. And it's hard to compare. It's hard to compete. You know, you hear stories of Michael Jordan, for instance, and you just realized nothing was more important to him. No child he had, no wife, nothing was more important than excellence. And so by comparison, you know, the B-minus thing, it is true. I mean, you know, some of the content that came out in that period was sorely lacking, but we wouldn't be here today if it weren't for some of those people making those inroads. and even just the concept of this podcast, trailblazing, right?

Somebody else paved a path so that we could now come down that path and maybe take our own path. And now we're going to start to trailblaze off of. But now there was a lot of stuff that got mowed down for us. You know, for instance, we wouldn't have Angel Studios if there weren't a group of filmmakers that succeeded before us, Dallas Jenkins, with The Chosen. And so we look at him and we hear his story and his first three film. he made, he didn't make money off of and they were considered, you know,

flops by his own, you know, extent. And, you know, we wouldn't be here if it weren't for what Dallas did, for instance. And we're so grateful to the quality that led to this place so that money was made somewhere so the distributors can now

pick up our project. And we can take that baton and keep running, I guess is the goal here. Raise the time. With something that's a little more modern, something a little more contemporary, and quality-centric. And, you know, we can now focus on, with our goal, you know, talking with our wives, it's like we feel called to elevate

and raise the quality standard. And I think they've seen our hearts and they know that over the last 10 years, we've church planted and been all about the mission of the gospel of the local church. And now our calling is a little different. And, you know, it is still important that we are involved in our local churches and have community. And that's something that we've made a top priority. But for us, I mean, our wives were aware of our hopes and aspirations early on.

And so it wasn't a shock when we let them know we need to go after this now. This is a dream. And we need to see as God calling us to this. Right. Yeah. Yeah, and I love it. And there's different types of ministry, right? Some people are called for preaching and some people are called to create long-form content

like you guys are doing at a high level. And some people are created for short-form content, right? So as long as the goal is the end goal is the same, which is getting people to Jesus. I think that everybody, to your point, you got to use your gifts, right? You got to figure out what your God-given gifts are. So I've been doing sales for 30 years. There's definitely wasn't a coincidence that I'd be podcasting now for the last six, right? Because it's talking to people.

I did door-to-door sales for five years. 200,000 people tell me no. There's not a single situation that I haven't been faced with. That's exactly it. So what's fun about that is that you get to meet people in podcasting from all walks of life, all different backgrounds, you know, talk with so many people have got, you know, $100 million businesses, but everybody's the same. We all laugh.

We all cry. We all fail. We all grow. Sometimes we don't want to grow, right? So that's the through line is humanity is in all of us. And once we figure out why we're here, what our purpose is, then it makes it a lot easier to go after our goals. Yeah, and that's the really beautiful thing. Like, if you think of Paul in the New Testament, he was going to the Areopagus because that's where the attention was. Well, where are people

putting their attention today? Right. Like, where are they spending their time? Where is their focus? And the big answer there is, God is desiring for people's affection. He wants to have people won over to him. And so if we can make really high quality art that doesn't get in the way of itself and it prioritizes beautiful cinematography, lighting, excellent acting, really, really high quality writing, we can control those things and we can put out a story that really makes much of Jesus and has you thinking and respecting you as an audience member and doing all those things of really high quality cinematography and film does. Well, the end result is going to be, hopefully, May 14th, one of our film drops on Angel,

two million people are going to watch it and they're going to go, man, I really need to and they're going to feel activated. I need to be more aware of who is either in my family or my community that's struggling right now. And then on the opposite end, oh man, I'm struggling, and I didn't think anyone in the church cared, and I'm not given an opportunity to get close enough to somebody that might disciple me and personally love me and show me the way to truth and the way out of this pit that I met. And so, yeah, it's absolutely a calling of going to the place where people are putting their attention, and that's where Jesus is calling many Christians right now. We live in Franklin, Tennessee. It is incredible. The amazing.

of thousands of Christian artists that are flocking to the Nashville area because there is kind of a renaissance happening of people that are raising the bar in the standard. Lots of actors coming here, lots of writers, lots of filmmakers. So it's really beautiful and it's not a, there's only so many slices of the pie. This is a fountain that is constantly producing. And so everyone can come here and can have an impact and use their gifts as long as quality is the highest goal. Yeah, I love it. And I love the fact that, you guys are about collaborating with other people. You know, I went to this event.

It was a partnership between the Christian Crater Conference. I don't know if you know Tim Shields. He runs a conference out. Yeah, so I'm speaking out there at Copernum Studios. I think it's September 21st to the 25th. And I love what he's doing because he's like, hey, you know, bring, if you're a filmmaker come, if you're an actor come, if you're a director, come. If you're a podcaster, because everyone in the ecosystem,

can add value to each other if you're willing to play with others. You know, if you want to be a knucklehead and just like kind of gatekeep and keep things to yourself, that's cool, but it's not really going to add more value to other people. So what are your thoughts on that? And do you guys get out into the community? Do you guys do any of those types of networking events? And I think they did one in Nashville. His team did one not too long ago.

Yeah, that's a great question. I think the main thing that we should be doing as Christians is being in a give mentality. Jesus was in a give mindset. Whatever you are focused on giving, you will be returning. You're sewing and you're reaping. And so it's not a, I want to give so I can get. It's focus on genuine high-level collaboration

where you're helping pass on information. You're reaching out, taking people out to dinner, connecting with really high-level talented artists. You're interested in them and their story. You're wanting to know more about them. It's being a genuine Christian, considering others is more important than yourself. That is the model for high-level performance.

And so if we can do that well, we have been connecting with people in the area. We were up with Adam Drake, who's the first AD of the Chosen at the Music City Cinema Conference. We were in the room with, I mean, we were walking around, Andy Irwin's there, Stephen Kendrick is there, and, you know, Johnny Durango, really well-known DP is there. And among those three or four people that are in that room,

just walking around talking to students, you have what probably is the equivalent of around $750 million at the box office. They're really high-level producers. And you go out, you give, we sponsored that event, we helped with just inspiring students and motivating and being there. And the next thing you know, you're rubbing elbows with people that are producing at the highest level. So I think actually, yeah, next year there's going to be even more, even a bigger.

and that's what happens is it grows as people hear about that. Yeah, yeah, I love it. Well, let's dive into the movie a little bit. I know it's going to be out on Angel May the 14th. The title is called Just One More. And I've seen, you know, a couple of the trailers. My buddy Christian McCartney's in it. It's got a really, really cool cast.

It seemed like the people that were in it really jelled well together. So can you talk, A, a little bit about what got you excited about writing a film about this particular topic, and then how did you actually create this ensemble of a cast together? Yeah, just talk a little bit about that. Yeah, so it's really a combination of two real-life stories. We say this is inspired by real events. Tyler's wife's cousin, struggling with opioid addiction and marijuana addiction.

And then during the pandemic, I had read a story about a man that was passing from cancer. He's given 40 to 45 days to live. And he, instead of going and getting treatment to kind of prolong that, he was older in his age, he just went out in his front yard and put a sign out that said stop and let's pray about it. And really just the beauty of that story, it's very similar to like what kind of I think is like a braveheart kind of story, somebody who's just so confident in their faith and in where they are in life to say, you know what, I'm just going to pour out into the community until I passed. And so the name, just one more, really, comes from a double entendre, this young woman struggling with opioid addiction and this man who's praying, God, would you use me to save one more person before I pass?

And so it is her sort of spiritually dead coming to life and him spiritually alive, but physically passing away in that baton pass off that's happening. And this beautiful example of what God has called us to in this world, which is go forth into all nations, preaching and teaching the gospel, you know, sort of indiscriminate of somebody who might walk. walk up into your front yard, and maybe their life is different than yours. Maybe they've done some things that's pretty, you know, pretty devastating and hard. And we still have an obligation through Christ that while we were still yet sinners, Christ died for us. The beautiful nature of God is he doesn't care, doesn't care about your past. If he's claiming you, he's claiming you.

And we each of us get to be a part of that process every single day when we wake up to ask, or are you going to use me today to see somebody saved? Yeah, and the cohesion on set, you're absolutely right. It very quickly became a family. I think for two reasons. One, everyone bought in. They were willing to work really hard and have a high standard, which is the standard that Caleb and I said on our film sets.

Cursel was a month and a half out. We started rehearsing and it was three to four hours a week where I was doing private meetings. And then we were doing group meetings with the cast and they were getting to know one another. So they didn't come in blind. They didn't come in strangers once we were doing. landed on set. And then there's a little luck component or grace of God component to it where it's just the actors genuinely are good people. Christian. We go over to get pizza because some of the neighbors heard what we were doing filming in this house on this street, residential street,

and wanted to support us. So they bought us pizza for after we wrapped for the day. And we go over and we get pizza and then we turn around and we walk off. And I'm with all of the cast and I noticed Christian's not there. So I turned back around to see. He's got his hands on both of these people and he's praying for them just blessings because of them buying pizza for us. And not everybody in the cast are following Jesus. They're not all Christians. But I think there was this like, yeah, I want to learn more about this. I want to understand this.

I want to approach this with truth and honesty, which should be the primary thing you're doing as an actor. You should be really interested in truth telling so that it doesn't come across like you're trying to act. And so I think it was a number of things that really worked out for the overall. all success of this, but we give the glory to God, and we also say it's a lot of hard work. It's really hard work. It's setting a specific standard for your actors so that they know, what are we doing on set? How are we doing this? What's the quality of our relationship supposed to look like? And we let in that. Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, I was at this conference, one of my friends through last year in Dallas.

And one of the speakers said, you know, you may hear people say coincidence and, you know, something like that a lot. But there are no such thing as coincidence is a God incident, you know. And I was like, yep, that's it. That's better. That's why it happened. It was, it wasn't, you know, an accident, right? He already knew that it was going to take place.

The timeline just hadn't caught up yet. Well, I'm excited for this. this film, for everything that I've seen, I know that people are going to get a ton of value out of it. What you said earlier is that you hope that it will encourage people, right? Maybe that people are at this crossroads. They're on the fence of like, hey, I feel called to make a choice or decision to better my life. Maybe this is that push. Or maybe it's, hey, you know what?

maybe I should actually, when I kind of get this gumption that I should say something to people when I'm driving by him, whether it's a homeless person or the clerk at the grocery store or someone that you just bump into all the time and you want to share a message with them. Right. Or just not being weird, but maybe just like, hey, how are you? I hope you're doing well. How's your day been? Because just by asking a simple question, that might spark somebody to share something that they want to share. Absolutely. I mean, that's what Jesus did primarily. He asked questions and told stories. And that is our heart is that older people in the church would know your best years in your ministry is not behind you. If you have a year left, if you have a month left, God can do miracles through your ministry. And so just to encourage, even those of you that might be listening to this, find yourself in the 60s, 70s, 80s plus, you can still do really, really incredible things just by giving your time to Jesus and saying, hey, take for today. I'm going to try to do whatever you ask me to do. And really cool things come from that. Yeah, I love that. And you know, you can either make excuses or you can make progress. You know, there's really not a whole lot of in between. I have a client that I'm super proud of. He is 71 years old, or he would like to think years young. And over the last basically year and a half, he has,

you know, revamped a coaching and consulting business. You know, he actually sells, commodities to construction developers, and he's got almost seven million in business in the pipeline. His podcast has hit almost 60,000 new downloads. And the guy's 71, right? And so I look at some clients that are in their 20s. I have him like, hey, Jeff is kind of flying by you guys. What's going on? Let's pick up the pace a little bit. But yeah, to your point, it doesn't matter how old you are or how young you are. What matters is, are you putting in the reps every day? Are you dedicated, are you passionate, and are you willing to go and put yourself out there? Because whether you're making a film or you're building a construction business or you're a quilter,

you've got to put everything into it. And I love the fact that your goal was set out from the beginning is like, how can we go create impact? How can we go and take our creativity, package it together and become Twin Bolt, which I think you've accomplished it. So I appreciate you guys taking time out of your schedules to come on the show. I'm excited for our listeners to hear this. I know that they're going to be inspired, especially those that want to create a film someday. So I'd love, as we're wrapping up here, if we could share two or three tips to encourage a future filmmaker, that'd be great. And then I'll let one of you do that, and then the other one can just wrap up with support.

parting words for the audience. Awesome. Yeah, I think from a filmmaker standpoint, you have to learn how to produce. You've got to be on sets. You've got to have your hands on equipment or at least learning in the ecosystem. And so if you feel called by God to do something, I think Tyler said this in another interview. It's, you know, you don't wake up at 45 and say, man, God's called me to be a world-renowned chef and you've never been in a kitchen before. And if that's the case, then get ready to go into a kitchen for 10 years, you know? And so you're starting your ministry 10 years from now. Your excellent standard that you want to go for is 10 years away. And so if you are looking to do excellent work, you have to start to sharpen that sword every single day. It is monotonous. It's

difficult work. It is routine. It's habit. It is things that, you know, if you want to be a runner, you've got to get out and run, and it hurts and it's difficult. And you don't always feel like it. But that's how you really know God's called you to this, because you're going to do it even when it hurts and when it's uncomfortable because you have that passion and joy in it. It lines up with exactly what you're made to do. And so for us, even the hardest things have been a joy to be a part of because, man, I can't even believe that we have a film coming out,

and it might impact people. It might bring glory to God. And it was just so wonderful. The second part is, you know, you've got to put people around you that are better than you in their craft and in their field. And so Kyler was mentioning it earlier. It is a give-to-receive kind of thing where, you know, we're not giving just a receive, but you have to realize like everything in this industry is, do you have anything to offer?

Right? Because there's a thousand people who want to be on film sets and they want to learn and grow in something. But what is it about you specifically that you have that value adds? Figure out what that value ad is and make sure that you are communicating that to people. Man, I'm really good at this. I'm really good at setting like morale. I'm really good at staying positive. Those things are very important on a film set.

And so if you're looking to get started, know what your value at is. What do you have to offer in the ecosystem of filmmaking? And then finally, just make sure that you are lining up in your community with Jesus, that you're not allowing yourself to be in a position where pride could take over because it's an industry that vary based on visually and pressing people with what you do. And you just have to be careful with that. Jordan, I would follow that up. Caleb and I say it all the time.

this is not a godless statement. It's going to sound like a godless statement. No one is coming to save you. I think that is huge. The Calvary, some people say, is not coming. Meaning, you're not going to share your dream idea of a film with someone and then give you a million dollars. Or if that happens, it's the scratch off lottery ticket. It's so rare that that happens that it's almost not even useful talking about it.

So just know as a filmmaker, if you want to be a feature filmmaker, you have to make two short films where you make no money over six years and then you'll get to a point where people start to see what you're doing and start to see the proof paying out. Our story is not a, we wanted to be filmmaker so we made a film. Our story is we wanted to be a filmmaker. So we joined a speech team in college and got really serious about acting and learning the craft. And then I got really serious about riding where Caleb got really serious about being run equipment daily, being on sets daily, finding a job where he could really figure out how to be a director and learn the language and learn the lenses and learn the what is the top level secular artist doing. And then it all comes

together. And then it still takes six years. And then you're there. And you're partnered with Angel Studios and something really incredible is coming out on May 14th called Just One More that you all should go watch. And then it all works. And it's like, yeah, this is really great. But I think what Caleb was saying, embrace the long form of the ground. They told David, you are anointed as king. And then the next day, he got to take the throne and he got to enjoy being the king. That's not the story. David was anointed as king.

And then he waited another 15 years of being a really great warrior and a really great leader and learning how to do the work. And so just a reminder to everyone out there that dreams look like notes in your calendar. they look like taking time daily to be able to achieve your goals, just like your friend that you were just talking about, that's 71. I'm sure that he took his goals very seriously, and it looked like daily behavior, which is great. And so parting words, go out there and follow your passion, those things that Jesus has put on your heart and reverse engineer

based on where there's supply and demand. Don't just be a dream follower artist that isn't looking to what is culture actually demanding. So try to find a way to supply where there's a need and think of it from that perspective and you will always be successful. Love it. Love the advice. Love the parting words.

Well, Kyler and Caleb, it's been an honor having you on the show, learning more about your story and both of your journey. It's really cool how you both follow a very similar paths and just kind of took a little bit of a detoured route to hone in each of your individual crafts, which ultimately added to the spark of, Twin Bolt, pun intended. So thanks so much for coming on the show. I know our audience is going to get a ton of value. Make sure you guys run over to the show notes. Don't walk. We're going to have all the links down there. May 14th on Angel Studios. So excited for a just one more to be released. And I hope you guys have an amazing rest of your week. Thank you. Yep, my pleasure.