October 20, 2024 • 48 mins
Discover the inspiring journey of Discovery Mountain, a popular audio drama podcast for kids, as we delve into its creation, challenges, and lasting impact on young listeners.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to Adventist Waves.
(00:18):
Hey guys, you're listening to Adventist Waves.
This is the very first episode of Season 2.
Audio storytelling certainly isn't new, and believe it or not, someday Adventists have
been on the front line of this medium.
And Ruben Gomez has witnessed the impact that this has made firsthand.
He's the executive producer of Discovery Mountain.
(00:39):
I would hope that they get a sense of security and identity in Jesus ultimately, right?
I'm the kind of person who believes a program like this is one of many tools that can help
do that.
And so we are just pointing the way to Jesus, right?
That's our job.
We want them to see life, real life.
(01:00):
We want them to have fun for sure.
But we want you to learn to walk your journey with Jesus.
This is the power of audio stories to introduce people to Jesus, to help them have a relationship
with Him.
Doug Bruce, also known as Director Doug, knows the power of the medium.
(01:23):
He shares the podcast while he travels on planes.
So let me give you an example.
I don't fly down there a lot, but I used to fly.
I spent about two months out of my year at every year down in Colorado at Loveland, the
Voice of Prophecy studio, because again, you know, originally that's where we recorded.
So I was on a plane frequently.
You know, you get talking to fellow passengers and they want to know what you do and you
(01:46):
want to know what they do.
And this is a normal conversation.
Well, I can always tell them I do media production.
Well, of course, right away they're thinking Hollywood.
Oh, what shows have you worked on?
Do I, you know, have I seen them on TV or whatever?
And it's like, well, maybe not.
But then I explain what I do and it's incredible how many people you think the world is a religious
and you don't have much interest in religion or spiritual things.
(02:09):
But it's shocking how many people said, that's really cool.
My kids, I think, would love that or my grandkids would love it.
And so I said, well, great.
I mean, if I if we're not on the plane, I'd fire up my phone.
I'd log on to discovery mountain dot com.
I'd show them the website and show them my caricature because I have a whole section
(02:29):
on the on the page where I do some behind the scenes stuff.
So they realize, yes, it is really him.
And I handed my card with all the information as to how they can log on.
And these people, oh, yeah, we're going to get our kids to listen.
We're going to get her.
And I would always explain to them saying, you know what?
It's a Christian Brace program.
We're not out there trying to convert your jam Bible principles down your throat.
(02:50):
But we want to present biblically based morals and moral situations where where kids can
be put into environments where they have to make some moral decisions.
And we try to teach positive, positive decision making, positive lifestyle.
I always acknowledge that it's a Christian broadcast because I don't want them to go
there and oh, I've been duped.
You know, I say I say what it is.
(03:11):
It's a you know, a Christian ministry broadcast.
Yeah, it's it's absolutely a way to reach people who otherwise would tell you to take
a hike.
This is Adventist Waves.
My name is Khan Elmas.
Thanks for listening to the show.
Today we will go behind the scenes of Discovery Mountain.
(03:32):
Buckle up.
Let's roll.
If you listen to one of the taglines that Gene reads with every introduction to the
show, you know, the air is clear enough to hear your imagination, right?
I miss Gene.
Join me on a trip to Discovery Mountain where the air is clear, clear enough to hear your
imagination.
(03:52):
And where every day is an exercise in faith.
Join me for today's expedition.
You can almost hear imagination.
That's kind of weird.
Like you can almost hear your imagination, but like isn't imagination a visual thing,
but you're so it's like this interesting kind of cognitive dissonance that just works,
right?
Discovery Mountain.
(04:17):
It just always seems to pop up whenever I think of audio podcasts for kids.
I sat down and discussed with Gene Boonstra.
She is the lead executive producer and creator of the podcast.
She and her husband Sean joined the ministry there in 2013.
Here she is describing how she got involved.
(04:40):
We had recently joined the team here at Voice of Prophecy.
That was in 2013.
And I was doing a couple of different roles in the ministry at that time, helping primarily
with the PR and the fundraising part.
And I really enjoyed that.
But I had a burden on my heart to do something for kids.
And I thought about it and I prayed about it.
(05:01):
And I thought, you know, here we are at the Voice of Prophecy.
It's this radio ministry that was started by HMS Richard so long ago.
I thought, what better type of ministry to start for kids than something audio?
It was the mid 2010s and podcasts were exploding in popularity.
And Gene saw it as a providential opportunity to reach children for Jesus.
(05:27):
And I remember saying to my co-workers, well, podcasts are like really popular right now.
And we kind of take the risk that if we start a podcast, maybe they'll fade and not be as
popular in a couple of years.
But you know what?
I'm willing to take that risk.
I think that's a good format.
And we chose the audio format.
And my passion to create something for kids was really based on what I was looking for
(05:52):
when I was raising my daughters.
And I really love the idea of not having a screen involved.
You know, kids are around screens so much.
And that just seems to be increasing as time goes on.
But I also knew there was another demographic, which was kids maybe who never went to church,
who would hear kind of an interesting story that would be engaging enough to capture their
(06:15):
attention too.
And we could completely introduce to these beautiful stories of the Bible.
So it was really intended from the beginning to be evangelistic.
So to minister to church families, but to minister to people of other faiths, to people
of no faith, and just be so welcoming that any child from any background would want to
(06:39):
stop and listen.
In 2016, Ruben Gomez, a media professional at Voice of Prophecy, joined Gene on this
journey.
With a background in news production, Ruben brought a unique perspective and a passion
for crafting engaging stories.
Ruben really had a burden for doing something for the kiddos.
And she came to me and she said, I was thinking about this, I'm totally paraphrasing here,
(07:03):
the general idea was like, I was thinking about, you know, something like an audio drama.
I'm like, really?
Audio only?
And this is back in 2015, 2016.
And I am like a huge proponent of video content creation and things like that.
Even though I come from a radio background, I was like, really interesting.
Is that going to work?
Let's think about that.
And so, you know, and in my head, I'm kind of like struggling with that.
(07:24):
I was like, that's a cool idea.
But people really listen to audio only stuff in 2015, 2016.
And there had been podcasts, there had been audio dramas for kids outside of Discovery
Mountain before this.
There wasn't really anything that kind of talked to kids the way that Gene wanted to
talk to kids about life and about God and faith and spiritual matters and things like
(07:49):
that, right?
Jason's enthusiasm for the project was infectious, and it wasn't long before he became an integral
part of the Discovery Mountain team.
But the transition from news to audio drama presented its own set of challenges.
So we all got really excited about it, decided to let's figure this out.
We don't know how to do audio drama.
(08:10):
So I come from a background of news, both television and radio news.
I know how to do that.
I feel really comfortable in that element.
I feel real comfortable in story creation when it comes to news.
But it's all based in reality, like in fact, right?
Not fiction, right?
Whereas Discovery Mountain, we're creating this universe.
I don't know how to write fiction and all these things.
(08:31):
And so how do we do this?
So we start putting together ideas and said, we're going to need a team.
We're going to need people who can help us and lean into this because everybody has strong
suits, right?
And some of these things are not our strong suits.
And so that's kind of how Discovery Mountain got started.
We got a team of people together.
Rubin recognized that collaboration was key.
(08:52):
Doug Bruce, with his background in television, was brought on board as the podcast's director,
bringing his visual storytelling skills to the audio realm.
We reached out and contracted with Doug Bruce.
He's been with us on this journey from the very beginning.
So his background was in television.
That's how I'd worked with him a little bit in the past was in television.
(09:14):
And after I described this idea, he thought about it and he said, okay, so it's basically
TV without the pictures.
I think I can do that.
So we sort of gathered our team and off we went.
Doug remembers this conversation with Rubin clearly.
And so I had a connection with them, with their ministry.
And Rubin gave me a call, like I say, probably about eight years, maybe even eight and a
(09:37):
half years ago now, and said, do you have any contractors that you work with, any freelancers
that you work with that produce audio dramas?
And at the time I had not done any audio drama, basically doing television.
And I said, audio drama doesn't just anybody actually do that stuff.
(09:57):
So I said, listen, I'll call around to some of the people that I use and see what you
know what they say, because VOP was looking, obviously we know now for someone to produce
this for them.
And called around, none of them had any experience with it, didn't know of anybody that was
actively producing any audio dramas of any sort, and basically had, you know, weren't
(10:21):
interested in even trying.
So well, at that time, I thought, well, how hard can it be?
I think, you know, it's basically television without the picture.
Doug reached out to Danny Colombi, his composer for many years, and told him about the project.
I basically said, listen, you know, Voice of Prophecy is asking us about audio drama.
(10:42):
And, you know, if we know of anybody that can do it, I said, you know, what do you think?
Should we give it a shot?
And he said, well, sure, I'm interested.
He said, I'd love to do it sounds like fun.
So I called Ruben back and I said, listen, I don't have any contractors, any freelancers
that I work with that are that are working on this stuff.
I said, but if you're interested, you know, Danny and I would like to give it a go, you
(11:07):
know, give us, give us a script.
So let's take a look at it.
I can direct it and Danny can do the music and some of the mixed down work.
In a leap of faith, the Voice of Prophecy team agreed to let Doug and Danny take the
reins for the first five episodes.
Little did they know that this initial collaboration would lay the groundwork for a podcast that
(11:27):
would touch countless lives.
And that very first season that we did of Discovery Mountain, we did the Bible story
portion of it.
So in every season of Discovery Mountain, there's always a Bible story we tell.
That one we did really in a simple way.
I dreamed and envisioned doing it bigger, but I wanted to do it simple to start with
because I didn't know how much we could do or what we could manage.
(11:50):
And we did just great.
And then before I could even describe my bigger vision for those Bible stories, Doug talked
to me and said, hey, you know, with the Bible story, why don't we try this, this and this
and this and this.
And I said, that's exactly what I was picturing.
I just had no idea if we could pull it off.
And he said, it's going to be tough, but we can pull it off.
(12:12):
So praise the Lord.
We move forward in faith.
Early on, the team worked out of the VOP studio in Colorado.
Doug would travel from Canada there to record their first episodes.
And like I said, recorded in January of 2017, brought the stuff back here to my facility.
I did the dialogue assembly, basically taking all the takes, assembling it into complete
(12:32):
scenes.
I didn't at that point do any of the sound effects or any of the mix down.
I basically just assembled the dialogue into finished scenes.
Doug would then send them to Danny, who did the original sound design and mixing.
And it was a massive undertaking because we basically started with a clean sheet of paper.
There was nothing developed.
Like what does Trekkers sound like?
(12:54):
What does the hospital sound like?
What does Jamie's house sound like?
What does Blue Birdie sound like?
All these things had to be created from scratch at the time.
And Danny lives about four hours away from me, so I spent a few days at his facility
where we worked together on the original sound design and determine what are some of the
(13:16):
ambiences we will use.
Now we produce programs relatively quickly.
Back then, when we finished recording in January, we basically didn't complete the first episode
until probably a week before the first episode was due, which was I think mid-April in 2017.
(13:37):
So it just took us a long time to kind of develop what the thing would sound like, what
the environment would sound like.
And yeah, that was kind of basically what happened between the original recording and
the first episode.
They still faced their fair share of technical and creative challenges, particularly in the
early days of production.
(13:57):
And there were a couple of times where we deliver the show on Tuesday and it was posted
on Wednesday.
And so you got all the QC stuff going on at VOP.
And back in the early days as well, there was a lot more oversight, for lack of a better
word, from VOP where Ruben would listen to it, Gene would listen to it, Joel Baker, who
(14:19):
was another one of the producers, would listen to it, and they'd all fire off their comments
back to us.
And again, that was all kind of part of the process in kind of designing the sound feel
of the program because they had a whole lot of input and we would then modify the program
to kind of match their requests.
And so for the first year or so, it was very involved with this back and forth.
(14:44):
In the very beginning, we kind of picked the mountain town, which was inspired by the beautiful
state I live in, which is Colorado.
And we had our core kind of set of characters.
And our goal was to take Bible stories and tell them in a way that really turned the
(15:04):
Bible story into a modern day parable.
And so really the creative process, 99% of the time starts with a Bible story.
So I'll choose a Bible story that I think we want to tell.
And I really get familiar with that story.
I always read it straight from scripture first.
(15:27):
And then I will go and I'll find any and every podcast I can find about that Bible story.
And I'll listen.
I'll have the podcast going while I'm doing other things, driving usually.
And then I'll read and I'll keep studying, studying, studying until I feel like I know
that story inside and out.
And then what I'll do is I'm kind of old school in this way, pen and paper.
(15:51):
I will write a list of all the characters that are in that Bible story.
And then I'll draw a line, divide the page in half.
And then I will go through and I'll think about what's happening in the Discovery Mountain
universe where I want my characters to be growing, what they're experiencing based on
whatever happened in the last season.
(16:13):
And then I'll pick characters and then I will line up the character with the character in
the Bible story.
This personalized experience is part of what makes audio dramas so special.
Each listener brings their own unique perspective and imagination to the story, creating a deeply
personal connection with the characters and the world of Discovery Mountain.
(16:34):
I have characters in Discovery Mountain that actually parallel all the characters in that
Bible story.
And then the creativity, it's almost, you know, honestly, the Bible stories write my
seasons for me because I just follow, I just follow what's in that Bible story and I equate
(16:56):
it to Discovery Mountain and it all meshes so beautifully because the Bible stories are
so beautiful.
It works out so nicely.
The production team was mainly established at this point.
The team still had one thing missing though.
That was the voices of young people.
Right away we had, you know, the core team right there at the table.
(17:21):
But what we wanted to do as well was to make sure that we as, you know, I think the youngest
of us around the table was probably 32, 33.
So we wanted to make sure we involved young people so that we weren't just planning something
that we thought was cool and that would not resonate with them.
So we found a couple of teenagers who are actually children of some of our other employees
(17:46):
here at Voice of Prophecy.
And we had a little youth advisory group that we did for a while.
And we met with them every few weeks for several months and just talked about what we were
planning and they were awesome.
They would say, oh yeah, yeah, I like that idea.
But if they didn't like something, this was key, they would tell us.
They weren't just being nice and affirming.
(18:08):
This youth advisory group proved to be invaluable.
Their honest and candid feedback ensured that Discovery Mountain remained relevant and engaging
for its target audience long after its initial launch.
So it kind of became this really neat thing where the participants in the program could
give us feedback right away too.
Even sitting in the studio right here where I'm recording this podcast with you, they
(18:32):
would just sometimes be reading the script and we would very freely tell them, Director
Doug would tell them, you know, if a word on the page looks funny, just say it the way
you would say it.
And so right organically in the moment, they would change stuff and make it more relevant
to what they as a young person would say.
That was a really, really neat experience.
(18:54):
Jane's commitment to authenticity shines through in her characters, who often grapple with
real life issues and challenges.
One character in particular, Jake, stands out for his relatable struggles with anxiety
and worry.
For example, Jake, so he initially came into Discovery Mountain as like, like, I mean,
literally lost, like he was lost in the woods, kind of like he's walking through the woods
(19:18):
and he stumbled across the town.
And you know, it's a metaphor for, you know, he was, he thought he wanted to do something
in life.
He knew what he wanted to do.
He wanted to become a commercial airline pilot.
And he stumbles onto this town when he's going out for a hike in the woods and his life just
changed.
All of a sudden, that's his new home.
(19:38):
And this is like not what he had planned, but it's what God had planned.
But in the process, he wasn't happy about it.
He wasn't thrilled about it.
And that's clear when you listen to those episodes initially in the first couple of
seasons, like, you know, like, yeah, he's not clear.
And I talk about anxiety and worry because that's who Jake is.
I mean, he's an anxious person.
He's a worrywart.
(19:59):
And I don't say that to minimize people who have anxiety disorders and things like that.
I say it to validate that it's real, you know, and there's other themes that we talk about,
you know, with other characters and storylines and things like that.
And I think we can do that.
And we can teach kids that this is reality.
This is life.
And through all this, we can still be successful through God.
(20:23):
And so initially, you know, I tried a number of different voices.
You know, I tried doing like a southern US accent, which I love to do because I spend
a lot of time in the South, you know, and so I'd like have the southern drow.
Now I can't do it even though I'm trying.
But yeah, hey, y'all, you know, like, and I wanted Jake to kind of sound a little nerdy,
(20:44):
but also have a deep side to him at the same time.
So it wasn't just all silly.
And that kind of was in my head initially.
And you have to understand the other part of this is is Jean writing and she knows me.
So she plays to my strengths, like in real life.
And she'll do that to a lot of the characters, you know.
(21:05):
And so it just makes it easier.
Oh, I hope that guy didn't see me.
I better get back behind those trees.
Hey, it looks like there's a store on that little lake.
Wonder if they have organic trail mix.
Well, my supplies are running low and my stomach sure is growling.
(21:26):
Who's there?
Oh, it's just you again, Moosey.
You know, you've got to quit sneaking up on me like that.
All right, Jake, you're officially out of your tree.
Now get moving.
That Whistler's coming your way.
Watch yourself, Jake, or he'll spot you.
Quick.
I think I was still finding my voice.
Jake was still finding his voice.
(21:46):
But if you like fast forward to season two, like it's just completely different.
So it's like, oh, my goodness, this is a disaster.
You're speechless.
I am.
Let's begin with your vows.
Jake, you ready?
I am.
Jacob Preston Donovan, do you take this woman to be your wife, to have and to hold in sickness
(22:14):
and in health till death do you part?
I do.
And Natasha Marie Simon, do you take this man to be your husband, to have and to hold
in sickness and in health till death do you part?
I do.
Then I now pronounce you husband and wife.
(22:35):
Yippee.
Chaplain Jake, you're not supposed to yell yippee.
Oh, sorry.
Should we start over?
Never.
That was perfect.
Jake?
You know, and that's Jake today, right?
This high pitched kind of worry wart.
He's overly dramatic.
(22:57):
And he's just fun.
And he hurts my lungs a lot.
The voice of Jake, the show's main character, is instantly recognizable to fans.
Ruben shares how he developed this unique voice and the challenges and joys of bringing
Jake to life.
Honestly, it was kind of like, you know, I would sit there and kind of listen to myself
(23:18):
as I was as I was voicing season one.
And I would go back and listen to some of the raw files.
I'm like, that's not, no, it needs something different.
And just kept on like trying.
And there were some things I liked that maybe not everybody on the team liked here.
And so I was like, I can't do that.
No.
Okay, fine.
So let's try something else.
(23:38):
Eventually.
Well, this high pitched shrill kind of worry wart, easily excitable voice, right?
Kind of just settled.
I don't think everybody here was sold on it by the time I hit that in season two.
We started getting a lot of feedback from the kids and they loved it.
And so I was stuck with it.
(24:00):
Jake not only adds a touch of humor, but also serves as a way to keep young listeners engaged
and invested in the story.
So initially, Gene's kind of vision was, you know, we got to come up with some like some
Jake isms, some things that he says that that just kind of stick, right?
Oh, there's Jake again saying that, right?
And we tried a number of them, but they just never really stuck.
(24:21):
Right?
Like one of them was like, oh, come on, Jake, pull up your socks.
You know, and it's just a I don't even know fully what it means, but it's kind of a thing.
It's like, you know, when Jake gets worried or he's he's like talking himself out of something,
he's like, come on, Jake, you can do this.
Right?
It's like this positive self encouragement, right?
(24:41):
That just never really stuck for some reason.
And what did end up sticking was things that I just came up with on the fly mostly, right?
As we were doing this and I would add lib and improvise and people would like, do that,
do that again.
And so so so for example, you know, that's how, as I told you, Jake worries about a lot
of things.
That's kind of cool.
We can talk about that later.
(25:02):
Character development, because it's just people worry.
And so, you know, how do we want to relate with people and being real?
Anxiety is real.
But one of the things that he would say, if something's not going right, let's say so
I told you earlier that he loves trail mix, right?
He's just he loves is like an understatement.
He just is obsessed with trail mix and he knows everything about trail mix.
(25:25):
He's a trail mix connoisseur.
Jamie, Ben didn't just buy all the trail mix, did he?
No, there's still some on the shelf.
But don't you have a stash in your cabin?
I do.
But that's for emergencies.
What kind of emergencies?
You know, like say there's a big storm and we all get trapped in the cabin for a few
days.
Jake, that wouldn't happen in the summer.
Maybe in a big snowstorm, but not in the summer.
(25:47):
Well, there are other emergencies like the camp running out of food.
They don't run out of food.
And so if the trail mix shipment didn't arrive to trekkers, oh, no, the trail mix didn't
arrive.
Oh, it's a disaster.
You know, that's that's what he does.
(26:07):
Discovery Mountain stories are crafted to impact their listeners.
This is one example of how Gene purposefully creates these characters.
They needed to connect with their audience and real life stories proved to resonate with
them well.
Not all the families in our town are, you know, the two parent kind of traditional family.
(26:32):
We have single moms, we have single dads, we have widows who are still raising kids.
We have one character whose dad was in jail and things like that.
Early on, we had a character named Wyatt, who for a while we heard a little bit about
his mom, but we didn't hear about his dad.
And then we started to hear about how he didn't want to talk about his dad.
(26:56):
And then slowly, you know, the story evolved where kids found out that his dad was in jail.
So then we did a whole season.
It was a holiday season where his dad gets released from jail and he but he kind of plays
a trick on some visitors to town.
(27:17):
And it's not a good trick.
And so here we have young Wyatt, who is so excited his dad's being free from jail.
But we see his dad is still a very flawed man.
And the way we tied that to the Bible story was the story of Zacchaeus.
And as we all know, Zacchaeus or Zacchaeus, he's a flawed man.
But he's a man who's open to being changed by Jesus.
(27:41):
And he is changed by Jesus.
And in this story, Wyatt's dad is changed.
He gives his heart to God.
Oh, well, I apologize.
Guy, you're a changed man.
I just witnessed your baptism, brother.
Yeah, I am a new man.
God knew that my family and I needed this experience here in Discovery Mountain.
He brought us here.
Yes, God did use my mistake for your good.
(28:04):
Guy, here, take this envelope.
No, now wait a minute.
You didn't have to repair us fourfold.
That son of yours has a bright future ahead of him.
And at the end of that season, Wyatt does too, and he's baptized.
Director Doug's talent is to take Gene's creative ideas and then bring them to life.
(28:27):
His ability to direct voice actors is another key element in their productive process.
Yeah, my approach to this is relatively minimalistic.
I'm working with amateurs who have, for the most part, a relatively limited range.
When we first started, we basically could only use actors that were in the Loveland,
(28:51):
Colorado area, because that's where the studio was.
And there was no budget to find an actor in Calgary, Alberta and say, we'll fly you down
to the studio because we like your audition.
It just wasn't in the budget.
So I would say by even halfway through the first year, we're getting, I think we have
(29:14):
a, we call seasons are basically series, but I think we have four seasons a year.
So halfway through the first year, once we got through the second season, going into
the third season, we ran into a bit of a brick wall.
It was actually a minor disaster for the podcast because we were running out of amateur actors
in the Loveland area that could actually perform.
(29:36):
Each new series that Gene would write, she would introduce a new character too.
And I'd start pulling my hair out and saying, Gene, we're at the bottom of the barrel here.
I mean, there's, you know, we're calling out for auditions.
We're not getting any responses or we've had actors that we, you know, pulled from high
school, the local high school there and they've graduated.
(29:57):
They're graduating from grade 12 and they're no longer available.
And it got to be a real problem for the next, oh, I guess three years or so.
Voice actors seems to be a reoccurring problem of the podcast.
Even today, they are still in need of voice actors.
Have you got what it takes?
(30:18):
Why not sign up for an audition?
Links are in the show notes below.
One time Doug was surprised with the unexpected talent of one of their actors.
And she brought her son in to audition and we auditioned him and we ended up using him
for a role and have used him intermittently since then.
And she's sitting out in the waiting room and I walk out with her son when we finished
(30:39):
the audition and I said, well, why don't you audition?
She says, no, no, I don't do this.
I don't do this sort of thing.
I said, well, come on.
What can it hurt?
I mean, just come in.
We have a script for you.
You can read it and you know, you don't have to do it.
I mean, you may decide this is just a horrible thing.
You don't want to do it, but why don't you come in and read?
So she says, okay, okay, okay, I'll come in.
(31:02):
So she came in, read for us, was absolutely brilliant.
I would say she's one of our premium actors as far as our amateur actors are concerned.
We started her off with this, which is what we often do.
We'll start a new actor off in a non-recurring role.
So it's a guest role.
In her particular case, we did a season where we talked about the women pilots that flew
(31:23):
that ferried planes back and forth between bases in World War II.
And she was one of the young women who was training to be a pilot.
And that was the character she played.
We liked her so much.
We said, we got to find a permanent role for her.
And about three or four or five seasons after that, Jean wrote in the Natasha Simon character.
(31:44):
And the first person I thought of was like, boom, we got to get Liesl in there to record
the Natasha character for it.
Granddad, the roads are going to be closed tomorrow, aren't they?
I'm afraid so.
My wedding.
It's not going to happen, is it?
I, you never know, honey.
(32:05):
Things can turn around quickly.
I'm going to go curl up in a quilt and cry a little.
Natasha.
No, dad, granddad, just, just let me go cry, okay?
Okay, honey.
And she's been doing a fantastic job ever since.
Discovery Mountain has faced many challenges as we have seen so far.
(32:28):
Could it be that their production has helped to overcome in some degree?
They've made a commitment to create high quality, immersive audio for its listeners.
Discovery is important, but equally so is sound design and music.
Ruben Gomez, one of Discovery Mountain's executive producers, shares his insight on how the team
(32:50):
crafts this theater of the mind.
If you were to sit down to talk to person A and person B and talk to me about like,
what does Discovery Mountain look like if I'm walking through it in my mind, my imagination
and this kind of thing, like we're all going to have a slightly different picture of it.
And that's the cool part of it, because you get to be active in creating that story, that
(33:10):
visual landscape that you're in, that you're seeped in.
And that's something that video and television don't really offer.
They just give it to you, right?
You see it.
But audio drama, you get to create things in your mind.
And that's super exciting, right?
You get to create things.
But our job as a production team is to prompt your mind into creating these visuals and
(33:35):
the scenery for you as you listen to the storylines, right?
So that was kind of my big thing is like we want to create an immersive experience for
the listener, for the kids.
We want them to be able to close their eyes and just like see what's happening in their
eyes, right?
If you listen to one of the taglines that Gene reads with every introduction to the
show, you know, the air is clear enough to hear your imagination, right?
(33:59):
You can almost hear imagination.
That's kind of weird.
Like you can almost hear your imagination.
Like isn't imagination a visual thing?
But you're like, so it's like this interesting kind of cognitive dissonance that just works,
right?
So we just really, really harped on that.
Like we've got to create theater of the mind and like we've got to get the kids like actively
imagining things and using those skills to like visualize things in their heads.
(34:22):
This theater of the mind concept is central to Discovery Mountain's appeal.
By using music, sound effects and evocative language, the team paints a rich auditory
landscape that encourages listeners to actively participate in the storytelling process, imagining
the sights, sounds and emotions of each scene.
Doug's approach to sound design is evident in every episode of Discovery Mountain.
(34:45):
Each audio element is thoughtfully chosen to bring listeners into the story.
One of the things we realized very quickly was the importance of actually setting the
atmosphere.
Our process for that is the first thing we try to do is what does the room sound like?
Because believe it or not, and people don't, you probably don't even realize this, that
(35:09):
when you're listening to Discovery Mountain, there's a base level ambience in there that
was not part of the recording.
The dialogue tracks are absolutely silent.
There's like nothing.
And so the first thing we do is we will either create by going out recording, you know, I
say, well, I like the sound of this room, we'll record five minutes of that room.
And that now becomes our base layer.
(35:31):
That's the very bottom layer.
And that's just basically the sound of the empty room, because rooms have a sound.
You know, if your listeners take their headphones off from listening, they listen to the room
and they, people don't even realize it.
You know, you'll hear a fan running in the way in the background.
You hear the fridge running.
(35:55):
There's an ambience to the room that actually has, you know, it's what makes it real.
So that's how we start.
We start with a base ambience.
And then we figure out, okay, so what's happening in this particular scene?
Doug's commitment to capturing authentic sounds goes beyond just recording ambient noises.
(36:17):
He also works with local school children to create a lively chatter and reactions that
bring classroom scenes to life.
So what we literally do is, I go to a local elementary school.
I work with, in this particular case, generally speaking, I work with a fifth grade class.
It's like conducting a choir, because I can't speak to say, do this, do this, do this.
(36:42):
Basically I line the kids up and I say, okay, so to begin with, I just want some normal
conversation like you guys would be doing before the teacher walks into the room.
When I raise my hand, I need you to be quiet as if she said, okay, class, come to attention.
You know, we're going to have prayer now or whatever, or we need to start our lessons
or whatever.
(37:02):
And so without me saying a word to them, I say, okay, you now may begin and they just
start their conversation.
I put my hand up, they go more quiet or start whispering or completely silent.
And in some cases, I may have three or four directions.
Hands up the first time, you go silent.
Hand up the second time, you go, oh, really, is that true?
And you know, hand up goes up the third time and then you laugh.
(37:23):
And so that's basically how we create all those group reactions.
You can see more than 20 layers of rocks, like stacks of pancakes.
Don't talk about pancakes.
You'll make Harold hungry again.
No pancake talk.
Do you have a batter idea?
(37:45):
Did my joke fall flat as a-
Just say pancake.
Well, getting back to the Grand Canyon.
And for me, without that, there would be no reality to this thing at all.
I mean, I have to have those reactions.
And of all the things I have to do, that is almost the most work intensive to get those
(38:09):
crowd responses or group responses are difficult to actually get time properly.
You know, and have the appropriate response.
By capturing these genuine reactions, Doug ensures that even the most mundane scenes
feel vibrant and real.
He also uses Foley and reverb, immersing listeners in the world of Discovery Mountain.
(38:33):
And to me, that's so important to make our show sound real, is all these different layers.
And then of course, there's the physical effects, the footsteps, you know, the putting the kettle
on the stove, pouring the water.
(38:53):
I mean, those are all pretty basic sound effects, but absolutely critical to make the whole
scene come alive.
The dialogue tracks are just that, just the dialogue, absolutely nothing else.
So if you're hearing something in the scene, it was put in there on purpose.
And that's what takes a great deal of time.
We also use a lot of reverbs, especially a reverb called convolution reverb, which allows
(39:18):
me to give the sound to the dialogue like it has some presence in a room.
We don't use that much for close dialogue between characters.
But for example, someone walks in the door and their point of view is them at the door.
They walk through the door and they go, Mom, I'm home.
(39:38):
And you hear the mom yell, I'm in the kitchen, honey.
And that now needs a special reverb.
We pan it off to one side, we give it a special reverb to make it sound like she's very ambient
a long ways away.
And all those things come together just to give us that sense of reality, which quite
frankly, like I said, surprised us when we really got into this said, this sounds awful.
(40:03):
We really need to, you know, we need to build this environment to make it sound real.
And without the picture, we absolutely had to do that.
That occupies a big part of my time in bringing all that reality to you.
Jean's voice fills with emotion as she recounts the stories of children whose lives have been
(40:24):
touched by Discovery Mountain.
One thing that I miss that I don't get to do enough is I don't get to see the kids.
And so when I get to do that, when I see them at a live event, whether I'm speaking for
a camp meeting or I just happen to be at a church somewhere and talking to kids, I love
(40:46):
that because they are always so open in sharing with me what Discovery Mountain means for
them and how it has impacted their faith.
Many kids have told us that they've made decisions to be baptized because of certain programs,
that they first prayed along with a character.
I mean, I'm getting emotional just thinking about it.
That they first offered a prayer while they were listening and they were praying with
(41:10):
a character that was praying.
It's amazing to just be able to hear the impact that these words on a page that come to life
through a voice and then the beautiful music is added to it through the post-production
process.
And it really is a living thing for them.
So that's extremely rewarding.
(41:31):
What I also find really fun is when we're at events, particularly, the listeners, the
kids, they usually are quite open to talk to me.
They're not shy talking to me because I'm Miss Jean, I'm the narrator.
They just love chatting with me, which is great.
But as soon as Ruben Gomez, who's the voice of Jake, the main character, walks into the
room, it is hilarious because they will look at him and they will freeze.
(41:56):
They are like blown away.
They just can't even talk to him because they just love Jake so much.
And so it's really, really cute just to watch that.
I just adore it.
They're starstruck.
That's exactly what they are.
I think it's natural for kids to meet people on our cast.
(42:19):
And it's not just with me, other cast members.
And they meet Miss Jean and they meet Mr. Simon and other people.
It's natural for them to be surprised.
And they think it's cool and all this kind of stuff.
And so we like to engage with them.
And so we like to talk to them and find out who they are.
And what do you like to listen to?
What's your favorite episode?
What do you like most about this character, this kind of thing?
(42:40):
We just have a conversation with them.
And because I'm Jake, I'm also silly.
And so I'll probably throw in some silliness in there.
That's who I am, by the way.
You know, like my kids, I'm just silly dad.
My kid used to call me silly dada.
That's who I am.
So that's why I like being Jake.
He's just silly sometimes.
And I just like to make the kids laugh and smile and give them a positive experience
(43:04):
and make them feel valued.
What about Doug?
How hard does he see himself playing in fulfilling the show's mission, his commitment to excellence
and his dedication to using his skills for a greater purpose?
Surely not done in vain.
I've given this a little bit of thought recently.
And my son who just turned 30, we had a conversation the other day.
(43:26):
And he said, you have no idea how lucky you are with the job you were in, or you've taken
on over the past number of years.
And I said, how so?
And he said, you've been able to do something you enjoy.
You've been able to do it well, and his comments.
And he said, on top of it all, you've been able to have a positive impact on people's
(43:54):
lives.
My role has been purely technical from day one, like in any of the projects I'm on.
I don't plan the outreach aspects of it.
I don't plan how the Bible studies will be written or interact with people who are taking
the Bible studies.
That's not my role.
My role has been a technical role, which someone would say, well, has nothing to do with the
(44:16):
soul winning or the positive impact on people's lives.
But my son's question to me really made me rethink that and said, no, there's roles for
everybody that can still have a tremendous impact in ministry.
And I've been very fortunate to have been able to do this, and it has had a big impact,
(44:41):
I feel.
Gene, Ruben, and Doug all agree on one thing.
The podcast has made an impact on the lives of others.
And this is the impact of audio storytelling.
It's not just about relaying information.
It's about reaching the heart, building relationships, and even winning souls for Christ.
(45:03):
I challenge you to consider how you can support this project or even start one yourself.
So yes, the best way to find Discovery Mountain is discoverymountain.com.
And right there under each episode, there's a way to share a specific episode.
You can copy the link or you can share it on social media if you want.
(45:24):
So that's a nice way.
They kind of some of your listeners maybe are grandparents.
And maybe as grandparents, they don't have their grandchildren are not being raised in
any kind of a faith.
And they want to share something that's kind of non-threatening, light with their grandkids.
They can text the parents a link right to a specific episode or even text their grandkids.
(45:46):
And anyone can do that.
A young person listening can just share it with a friend.
It's a nice, easy witnessing tool that's very non-threatening.
There's a way to also get involved and support us at Voice of Prophecy.
If someone is inspired to do that, there's a way right on the website to donate.
We also have a Discovery Mountain Club that we started a couple of years ago.
(46:09):
And this is a subscription based part of the program.
We have some bonus content basically there, some additional programming there.
The main program has always been free and always will be free.
We want it to be evangelistic.
But this additional programming, if a person wants to support Discovery Mountain, often
I encourage them to sign up for the club because it helps support us and it helps us to keep
(46:32):
the main program free for everyone.
So those are a couple of ways folks can get involved if they feel so inclined.
Thank you for joining us on this journey behind the scenes of Discovery Mountain.
We hope that you've been inspired by the dedication, passion and creativity of the team behind
this remarkable podcast.
Remember you can find Discovery Mountain and all its resources at DiscoveryMountain.com.
(46:57):
Until next time, this is Adventist Waves.
We hope this episode has given you a fresh perspective on how media can be a powerful
tool for ministry.
If you enjoyed today's conversation, don't forget to subscribe, leave a review and connect
with us on social media.
You can also support our work directly by becoming a patron at patreon.com forward slash
(47:22):
Adventist underscore waves.
Your generosity enables us to produce more high quality content and reach a wider audience.
Special thanks to our production team at Blue Vineyard Audio and our producer, editor, mixer
and sound designer, Khan Elmuz.
We'll see you next week as we continue to explore the art of sharing the gospel through
(47:45):
sound.
Welcome to Adventist Waves.
(00:18):
Hey guys, you're listening to Adventist Waves.
This is the very first episode of Season 2.
Audio storytelling certainly isn't new, and believe it or not, someday Adventists have
been on the front line of this medium.
And Ruben Gomez has witnessed the impact that this has made firsthand.
He's the executive producer of Discovery Mountain.
(00:39):
I would hope that they get a sense of security and identity in Jesus ultimately, right?
I'm the kind of person who believes a program like this is one of many tools that can help
do that.
And so we are just pointing the way to Jesus, right?
That's our job.
We want them to see life, real life.
(01:00):
We want them to have fun for sure.
But we want you to learn to walk your journey with Jesus.
This is the power of audio stories to introduce people to Jesus, to help them have a relationship
with Him.
Doug Bruce, also known as Director Doug, knows the power of the medium.
(01:23):
He shares the podcast while he travels on planes.
So let me give you an example.
I don't fly down there a lot, but I used to fly.
I spent about two months out of my year at every year down in Colorado at Loveland, the
Voice of Prophecy studio, because again, you know, originally that's where we recorded.
So I was on a plane frequently.
You know, you get talking to fellow passengers and they want to know what you do and you
(01:46):
want to know what they do.
And this is a normal conversation.
Well, I can always tell them I do media production.
Well, of course, right away they're thinking Hollywood.
Oh, what shows have you worked on?
Do I, you know, have I seen them on TV or whatever?
And it's like, well, maybe not.
But then I explain what I do and it's incredible how many people you think the world is a religious
and you don't have much interest in religion or spiritual things.
(02:09):
But it's shocking how many people said, that's really cool.
My kids, I think, would love that or my grandkids would love it.
And so I said, well, great.
I mean, if I if we're not on the plane, I'd fire up my phone.
I'd log on to discovery mountain dot com.
I'd show them the website and show them my caricature because I have a whole section
(02:29):
on the on the page where I do some behind the scenes stuff.
So they realize, yes, it is really him.
And I handed my card with all the information as to how they can log on.
And these people, oh, yeah, we're going to get our kids to listen.
We're going to get her.
And I would always explain to them saying, you know what?
It's a Christian Brace program.
We're not out there trying to convert your jam Bible principles down your throat.
(02:50):
But we want to present biblically based morals and moral situations where where kids can
be put into environments where they have to make some moral decisions.
And we try to teach positive, positive decision making, positive lifestyle.
I always acknowledge that it's a Christian broadcast because I don't want them to go
there and oh, I've been duped.
You know, I say I say what it is.
(03:11):
It's a you know, a Christian ministry broadcast.
Yeah, it's it's absolutely a way to reach people who otherwise would tell you to take
a hike.
This is Adventist Waves.
My name is Khan Elmas.
Thanks for listening to the show.
Today we will go behind the scenes of Discovery Mountain.
(03:32):
Buckle up.
Let's roll.
If you listen to one of the taglines that Gene reads with every introduction to the
show, you know, the air is clear enough to hear your imagination, right?
I miss Gene.
Join me on a trip to Discovery Mountain where the air is clear, clear enough to hear your
imagination.
(03:52):
And where every day is an exercise in faith.
Join me for today's expedition.
You can almost hear imagination.
That's kind of weird.
Like you can almost hear your imagination, but like isn't imagination a visual thing,
but you're so it's like this interesting kind of cognitive dissonance that just works,
right?
Discovery Mountain.
(04:17):
It just always seems to pop up whenever I think of audio podcasts for kids.
I sat down and discussed with Gene Boonstra.
She is the lead executive producer and creator of the podcast.
She and her husband Sean joined the ministry there in 2013.
Here she is describing how she got involved.
(04:40):
We had recently joined the team here at Voice of Prophecy.
That was in 2013.
And I was doing a couple of different roles in the ministry at that time, helping primarily
with the PR and the fundraising part.
And I really enjoyed that.
But I had a burden on my heart to do something for kids.
And I thought about it and I prayed about it.
(05:01):
And I thought, you know, here we are at the Voice of Prophecy.
It's this radio ministry that was started by HMS Richard so long ago.
I thought, what better type of ministry to start for kids than something audio?
It was the mid 2010s and podcasts were exploding in popularity.
And Gene saw it as a providential opportunity to reach children for Jesus.
(05:27):
And I remember saying to my co-workers, well, podcasts are like really popular right now.
And we kind of take the risk that if we start a podcast, maybe they'll fade and not be as
popular in a couple of years.
But you know what?
I'm willing to take that risk.
I think that's a good format.
And we chose the audio format.
And my passion to create something for kids was really based on what I was looking for
(05:52):
when I was raising my daughters.
And I really love the idea of not having a screen involved.
You know, kids are around screens so much.
And that just seems to be increasing as time goes on.
But I also knew there was another demographic, which was kids maybe who never went to church,
who would hear kind of an interesting story that would be engaging enough to capture their
(06:15):
attention too.
And we could completely introduce to these beautiful stories of the Bible.
So it was really intended from the beginning to be evangelistic.
So to minister to church families, but to minister to people of other faiths, to people
of no faith, and just be so welcoming that any child from any background would want to
(06:39):
stop and listen.
In 2016, Ruben Gomez, a media professional at Voice of Prophecy, joined Gene on this
journey.
With a background in news production, Ruben brought a unique perspective and a passion
for crafting engaging stories.
Ruben really had a burden for doing something for the kiddos.
And she came to me and she said, I was thinking about this, I'm totally paraphrasing here,
(07:03):
the general idea was like, I was thinking about, you know, something like an audio drama.
I'm like, really?
Audio only?
And this is back in 2015, 2016.
And I am like a huge proponent of video content creation and things like that.
Even though I come from a radio background, I was like, really interesting.
Is that going to work?
Let's think about that.
And so, you know, and in my head, I'm kind of like struggling with that.
(07:24):
I was like, that's a cool idea.
But people really listen to audio only stuff in 2015, 2016.
And there had been podcasts, there had been audio dramas for kids outside of Discovery
Mountain before this.
There wasn't really anything that kind of talked to kids the way that Gene wanted to
talk to kids about life and about God and faith and spiritual matters and things like
(07:49):
that, right?
Jason's enthusiasm for the project was infectious, and it wasn't long before he became an integral
part of the Discovery Mountain team.
But the transition from news to audio drama presented its own set of challenges.
So we all got really excited about it, decided to let's figure this out.
We don't know how to do audio drama.
(08:10):
So I come from a background of news, both television and radio news.
I know how to do that.
I feel really comfortable in that element.
I feel real comfortable in story creation when it comes to news.
But it's all based in reality, like in fact, right?
Not fiction, right?
Whereas Discovery Mountain, we're creating this universe.
I don't know how to write fiction and all these things.
(08:31):
And so how do we do this?
So we start putting together ideas and said, we're going to need a team.
We're going to need people who can help us and lean into this because everybody has strong
suits, right?
And some of these things are not our strong suits.
And so that's kind of how Discovery Mountain got started.
We got a team of people together.
Rubin recognized that collaboration was key.
(08:52):
Doug Bruce, with his background in television, was brought on board as the podcast's director,
bringing his visual storytelling skills to the audio realm.
We reached out and contracted with Doug Bruce.
He's been with us on this journey from the very beginning.
So his background was in television.
That's how I'd worked with him a little bit in the past was in television.
(09:14):
And after I described this idea, he thought about it and he said, okay, so it's basically
TV without the pictures.
I think I can do that.
So we sort of gathered our team and off we went.
Doug remembers this conversation with Rubin clearly.
And so I had a connection with them, with their ministry.
And Rubin gave me a call, like I say, probably about eight years, maybe even eight and a
(09:37):
half years ago now, and said, do you have any contractors that you work with, any freelancers
that you work with that produce audio dramas?
And at the time I had not done any audio drama, basically doing television.
And I said, audio drama doesn't just anybody actually do that stuff.
(09:57):
So I said, listen, I'll call around to some of the people that I use and see what you
know what they say, because VOP was looking, obviously we know now for someone to produce
this for them.
And called around, none of them had any experience with it, didn't know of anybody that was
actively producing any audio dramas of any sort, and basically had, you know, weren't
(10:21):
interested in even trying.
So well, at that time, I thought, well, how hard can it be?
I think, you know, it's basically television without the picture.
Doug reached out to Danny Colombi, his composer for many years, and told him about the project.
I basically said, listen, you know, Voice of Prophecy is asking us about audio drama.
(10:42):
And, you know, if we know of anybody that can do it, I said, you know, what do you think?
Should we give it a shot?
And he said, well, sure, I'm interested.
He said, I'd love to do it sounds like fun.
So I called Ruben back and I said, listen, I don't have any contractors, any freelancers
that I work with that are that are working on this stuff.
I said, but if you're interested, you know, Danny and I would like to give it a go, you
(11:07):
know, give us, give us a script.
So let's take a look at it.
I can direct it and Danny can do the music and some of the mixed down work.
In a leap of faith, the Voice of Prophecy team agreed to let Doug and Danny take the
reins for the first five episodes.
Little did they know that this initial collaboration would lay the groundwork for a podcast that
(11:27):
would touch countless lives.
And that very first season that we did of Discovery Mountain, we did the Bible story
portion of it.
So in every season of Discovery Mountain, there's always a Bible story we tell.
That one we did really in a simple way.
I dreamed and envisioned doing it bigger, but I wanted to do it simple to start with
because I didn't know how much we could do or what we could manage.
(11:50):
And we did just great.
And then before I could even describe my bigger vision for those Bible stories, Doug talked
to me and said, hey, you know, with the Bible story, why don't we try this, this and this
and this and this.
And I said, that's exactly what I was picturing.
I just had no idea if we could pull it off.
And he said, it's going to be tough, but we can pull it off.
(12:12):
So praise the Lord.
We move forward in faith.
Early on, the team worked out of the VOP studio in Colorado.
Doug would travel from Canada there to record their first episodes.
And like I said, recorded in January of 2017, brought the stuff back here to my facility.
I did the dialogue assembly, basically taking all the takes, assembling it into complete
(12:32):
scenes.
I didn't at that point do any of the sound effects or any of the mix down.
I basically just assembled the dialogue into finished scenes.
Doug would then send them to Danny, who did the original sound design and mixing.
And it was a massive undertaking because we basically started with a clean sheet of paper.
There was nothing developed.
Like what does Trekkers sound like?
(12:54):
What does the hospital sound like?
What does Jamie's house sound like?
What does Blue Birdie sound like?
All these things had to be created from scratch at the time.
And Danny lives about four hours away from me, so I spent a few days at his facility
where we worked together on the original sound design and determine what are some of the
(13:16):
ambiences we will use.
Now we produce programs relatively quickly.
Back then, when we finished recording in January, we basically didn't complete the first episode
until probably a week before the first episode was due, which was I think mid-April in 2017.
(13:37):
So it just took us a long time to kind of develop what the thing would sound like, what
the environment would sound like.
And yeah, that was kind of basically what happened between the original recording and
the first episode.
They still faced their fair share of technical and creative challenges, particularly in the
early days of production.
(13:57):
And there were a couple of times where we deliver the show on Tuesday and it was posted
on Wednesday.
And so you got all the QC stuff going on at VOP.
And back in the early days as well, there was a lot more oversight, for lack of a better
word, from VOP where Ruben would listen to it, Gene would listen to it, Joel Baker, who
(14:19):
was another one of the producers, would listen to it, and they'd all fire off their comments
back to us.
And again, that was all kind of part of the process in kind of designing the sound feel
of the program because they had a whole lot of input and we would then modify the program
to kind of match their requests.
And so for the first year or so, it was very involved with this back and forth.
(14:44):
In the very beginning, we kind of picked the mountain town, which was inspired by the beautiful
state I live in, which is Colorado.
And we had our core kind of set of characters.
And our goal was to take Bible stories and tell them in a way that really turned the
(15:04):
Bible story into a modern day parable.
And so really the creative process, 99% of the time starts with a Bible story.
So I'll choose a Bible story that I think we want to tell.
And I really get familiar with that story.
I always read it straight from scripture first.
(15:27):
And then I will go and I'll find any and every podcast I can find about that Bible story.
And I'll listen.
I'll have the podcast going while I'm doing other things, driving usually.
And then I'll read and I'll keep studying, studying, studying until I feel like I know
that story inside and out.
And then what I'll do is I'm kind of old school in this way, pen and paper.
(15:51):
I will write a list of all the characters that are in that Bible story.
And then I'll draw a line, divide the page in half.
And then I will go through and I'll think about what's happening in the Discovery Mountain
universe where I want my characters to be growing, what they're experiencing based on
whatever happened in the last season.
(16:13):
And then I'll pick characters and then I will line up the character with the character in
the Bible story.
This personalized experience is part of what makes audio dramas so special.
Each listener brings their own unique perspective and imagination to the story, creating a deeply
personal connection with the characters and the world of Discovery Mountain.
(16:34):
I have characters in Discovery Mountain that actually parallel all the characters in that
Bible story.
And then the creativity, it's almost, you know, honestly, the Bible stories write my
seasons for me because I just follow, I just follow what's in that Bible story and I equate
(16:56):
it to Discovery Mountain and it all meshes so beautifully because the Bible stories are
so beautiful.
It works out so nicely.
The production team was mainly established at this point.
The team still had one thing missing though.
That was the voices of young people.
Right away we had, you know, the core team right there at the table.
(17:21):
But what we wanted to do as well was to make sure that we as, you know, I think the youngest
of us around the table was probably 32, 33.
So we wanted to make sure we involved young people so that we weren't just planning something
that we thought was cool and that would not resonate with them.
So we found a couple of teenagers who are actually children of some of our other employees
(17:46):
here at Voice of Prophecy.
And we had a little youth advisory group that we did for a while.
And we met with them every few weeks for several months and just talked about what we were
planning and they were awesome.
They would say, oh yeah, yeah, I like that idea.
But if they didn't like something, this was key, they would tell us.
They weren't just being nice and affirming.
(18:08):
This youth advisory group proved to be invaluable.
Their honest and candid feedback ensured that Discovery Mountain remained relevant and engaging
for its target audience long after its initial launch.
So it kind of became this really neat thing where the participants in the program could
give us feedback right away too.
Even sitting in the studio right here where I'm recording this podcast with you, they
(18:32):
would just sometimes be reading the script and we would very freely tell them, Director
Doug would tell them, you know, if a word on the page looks funny, just say it the way
you would say it.
And so right organically in the moment, they would change stuff and make it more relevant
to what they as a young person would say.
That was a really, really neat experience.
(18:54):
Jane's commitment to authenticity shines through in her characters, who often grapple with
real life issues and challenges.
One character in particular, Jake, stands out for his relatable struggles with anxiety
and worry.
For example, Jake, so he initially came into Discovery Mountain as like, like, I mean,
literally lost, like he was lost in the woods, kind of like he's walking through the woods
(19:18):
and he stumbled across the town.
And you know, it's a metaphor for, you know, he was, he thought he wanted to do something
in life.
He knew what he wanted to do.
He wanted to become a commercial airline pilot.
And he stumbles onto this town when he's going out for a hike in the woods and his life just
changed.
All of a sudden, that's his new home.
(19:38):
And this is like not what he had planned, but it's what God had planned.
But in the process, he wasn't happy about it.
He wasn't thrilled about it.
And that's clear when you listen to those episodes initially in the first couple of
seasons, like, you know, like, yeah, he's not clear.
And I talk about anxiety and worry because that's who Jake is.
I mean, he's an anxious person.
He's a worrywart.
(19:59):
And I don't say that to minimize people who have anxiety disorders and things like that.
I say it to validate that it's real, you know, and there's other themes that we talk about,
you know, with other characters and storylines and things like that.
And I think we can do that.
And we can teach kids that this is reality.
This is life.
And through all this, we can still be successful through God.
(20:23):
And so initially, you know, I tried a number of different voices.
You know, I tried doing like a southern US accent, which I love to do because I spend
a lot of time in the South, you know, and so I'd like have the southern drow.
Now I can't do it even though I'm trying.
But yeah, hey, y'all, you know, like, and I wanted Jake to kind of sound a little nerdy,
(20:44):
but also have a deep side to him at the same time.
So it wasn't just all silly.
And that kind of was in my head initially.
And you have to understand the other part of this is is Jean writing and she knows me.
So she plays to my strengths, like in real life.
And she'll do that to a lot of the characters, you know.
(21:05):
And so it just makes it easier.
Oh, I hope that guy didn't see me.
I better get back behind those trees.
Hey, it looks like there's a store on that little lake.
Wonder if they have organic trail mix.
Well, my supplies are running low and my stomach sure is growling.
(21:26):
Who's there?
Oh, it's just you again, Moosey.
You know, you've got to quit sneaking up on me like that.
All right, Jake, you're officially out of your tree.
Now get moving.
That Whistler's coming your way.
Watch yourself, Jake, or he'll spot you.
Quick.
I think I was still finding my voice.
Jake was still finding his voice.
(21:46):
But if you like fast forward to season two, like it's just completely different.
So it's like, oh, my goodness, this is a disaster.
You're speechless.
I am.
Let's begin with your vows.
Jake, you ready?
I am.
Jacob Preston Donovan, do you take this woman to be your wife, to have and to hold in sickness
(22:14):
and in health till death do you part?
I do.
And Natasha Marie Simon, do you take this man to be your husband, to have and to hold
in sickness and in health till death do you part?
I do.
Then I now pronounce you husband and wife.
(22:35):
Yippee.
Chaplain Jake, you're not supposed to yell yippee.
Oh, sorry.
Should we start over?
Never.
That was perfect.
Jake?
You know, and that's Jake today, right?
This high pitched kind of worry wart.
He's overly dramatic.
(22:57):
And he's just fun.
And he hurts my lungs a lot.
The voice of Jake, the show's main character, is instantly recognizable to fans.
Ruben shares how he developed this unique voice and the challenges and joys of bringing
Jake to life.
Honestly, it was kind of like, you know, I would sit there and kind of listen to myself
(23:18):
as I was as I was voicing season one.
And I would go back and listen to some of the raw files.
I'm like, that's not, no, it needs something different.
And just kept on like trying.
And there were some things I liked that maybe not everybody on the team liked here.
And so I was like, I can't do that.
No.
Okay, fine.
So let's try something else.
(23:38):
Eventually.
Well, this high pitched shrill kind of worry wart, easily excitable voice, right?
Kind of just settled.
I don't think everybody here was sold on it by the time I hit that in season two.
We started getting a lot of feedback from the kids and they loved it.
And so I was stuck with it.
(24:00):
Jake not only adds a touch of humor, but also serves as a way to keep young listeners engaged
and invested in the story.
So initially, Gene's kind of vision was, you know, we got to come up with some like some
Jake isms, some things that he says that that just kind of stick, right?
Oh, there's Jake again saying that, right?
And we tried a number of them, but they just never really stuck.
(24:21):
Right?
Like one of them was like, oh, come on, Jake, pull up your socks.
You know, and it's just a I don't even know fully what it means, but it's kind of a thing.
It's like, you know, when Jake gets worried or he's he's like talking himself out of something,
he's like, come on, Jake, you can do this.
Right?
It's like this positive self encouragement, right?
(24:41):
That just never really stuck for some reason.
And what did end up sticking was things that I just came up with on the fly mostly, right?
As we were doing this and I would add lib and improvise and people would like, do that,
do that again.
And so so so for example, you know, that's how, as I told you, Jake worries about a lot
of things.
That's kind of cool.
We can talk about that later.
(25:02):
Character development, because it's just people worry.
And so, you know, how do we want to relate with people and being real?
Anxiety is real.
But one of the things that he would say, if something's not going right, let's say so
I told you earlier that he loves trail mix, right?
He's just he loves is like an understatement.
He just is obsessed with trail mix and he knows everything about trail mix.
(25:25):
He's a trail mix connoisseur.
Jamie, Ben didn't just buy all the trail mix, did he?
No, there's still some on the shelf.
But don't you have a stash in your cabin?
I do.
But that's for emergencies.
What kind of emergencies?
You know, like say there's a big storm and we all get trapped in the cabin for a few
days.
Jake, that wouldn't happen in the summer.
Maybe in a big snowstorm, but not in the summer.
(25:47):
Well, there are other emergencies like the camp running out of food.
They don't run out of food.
And so if the trail mix shipment didn't arrive to trekkers, oh, no, the trail mix didn't
arrive.
Oh, it's a disaster.
You know, that's that's what he does.
(26:07):
Discovery Mountain stories are crafted to impact their listeners.
This is one example of how Gene purposefully creates these characters.
They needed to connect with their audience and real life stories proved to resonate with
them well.
Not all the families in our town are, you know, the two parent kind of traditional family.
(26:32):
We have single moms, we have single dads, we have widows who are still raising kids.
We have one character whose dad was in jail and things like that.
Early on, we had a character named Wyatt, who for a while we heard a little bit about
his mom, but we didn't hear about his dad.
And then we started to hear about how he didn't want to talk about his dad.
(26:56):
And then slowly, you know, the story evolved where kids found out that his dad was in jail.
So then we did a whole season.
It was a holiday season where his dad gets released from jail and he but he kind of plays
a trick on some visitors to town.
(27:17):
And it's not a good trick.
And so here we have young Wyatt, who is so excited his dad's being free from jail.
But we see his dad is still a very flawed man.
And the way we tied that to the Bible story was the story of Zacchaeus.
And as we all know, Zacchaeus or Zacchaeus, he's a flawed man.
But he's a man who's open to being changed by Jesus.
(27:41):
And he is changed by Jesus.
And in this story, Wyatt's dad is changed.
He gives his heart to God.
Oh, well, I apologize.
Guy, you're a changed man.
I just witnessed your baptism, brother.
Yeah, I am a new man.
God knew that my family and I needed this experience here in Discovery Mountain.
He brought us here.
Yes, God did use my mistake for your good.
(28:04):
Guy, here, take this envelope.
No, now wait a minute.
You didn't have to repair us fourfold.
That son of yours has a bright future ahead of him.
And at the end of that season, Wyatt does too, and he's baptized.
Director Doug's talent is to take Gene's creative ideas and then bring them to life.
(28:27):
His ability to direct voice actors is another key element in their productive process.
Yeah, my approach to this is relatively minimalistic.
I'm working with amateurs who have, for the most part, a relatively limited range.
When we first started, we basically could only use actors that were in the Loveland,
(28:51):
Colorado area, because that's where the studio was.
And there was no budget to find an actor in Calgary, Alberta and say, we'll fly you down
to the studio because we like your audition.
It just wasn't in the budget.
So I would say by even halfway through the first year, we're getting, I think we have
(29:14):
a, we call seasons are basically series, but I think we have four seasons a year.
So halfway through the first year, once we got through the second season, going into
the third season, we ran into a bit of a brick wall.
It was actually a minor disaster for the podcast because we were running out of amateur actors
in the Loveland area that could actually perform.
(29:36):
Each new series that Gene would write, she would introduce a new character too.
And I'd start pulling my hair out and saying, Gene, we're at the bottom of the barrel here.
I mean, there's, you know, we're calling out for auditions.
We're not getting any responses or we've had actors that we, you know, pulled from high
school, the local high school there and they've graduated.
(29:57):
They're graduating from grade 12 and they're no longer available.
And it got to be a real problem for the next, oh, I guess three years or so.
Voice actors seems to be a reoccurring problem of the podcast.
Even today, they are still in need of voice actors.
Have you got what it takes?
(30:18):
Why not sign up for an audition?
Links are in the show notes below.
One time Doug was surprised with the unexpected talent of one of their actors.
And she brought her son in to audition and we auditioned him and we ended up using him
for a role and have used him intermittently since then.
And she's sitting out in the waiting room and I walk out with her son when we finished
(30:39):
the audition and I said, well, why don't you audition?
She says, no, no, I don't do this.
I don't do this sort of thing.
I said, well, come on.
What can it hurt?
I mean, just come in.
We have a script for you.
You can read it and you know, you don't have to do it.
I mean, you may decide this is just a horrible thing.
You don't want to do it, but why don't you come in and read?
So she says, okay, okay, okay, I'll come in.
(31:02):
So she came in, read for us, was absolutely brilliant.
I would say she's one of our premium actors as far as our amateur actors are concerned.
We started her off with this, which is what we often do.
We'll start a new actor off in a non-recurring role.
So it's a guest role.
In her particular case, we did a season where we talked about the women pilots that flew
(31:23):
that ferried planes back and forth between bases in World War II.
And she was one of the young women who was training to be a pilot.
And that was the character she played.
We liked her so much.
We said, we got to find a permanent role for her.
And about three or four or five seasons after that, Jean wrote in the Natasha Simon character.
(31:44):
And the first person I thought of was like, boom, we got to get Liesl in there to record
the Natasha character for it.
Granddad, the roads are going to be closed tomorrow, aren't they?
I'm afraid so.
My wedding.
It's not going to happen, is it?
I, you never know, honey.
(32:05):
Things can turn around quickly.
I'm going to go curl up in a quilt and cry a little.
Natasha.
No, dad, granddad, just, just let me go cry, okay?
Okay, honey.
And she's been doing a fantastic job ever since.
Discovery Mountain has faced many challenges as we have seen so far.
(32:28):
Could it be that their production has helped to overcome in some degree?
They've made a commitment to create high quality, immersive audio for its listeners.
Discovery is important, but equally so is sound design and music.
Ruben Gomez, one of Discovery Mountain's executive producers, shares his insight on how the team
(32:50):
crafts this theater of the mind.
If you were to sit down to talk to person A and person B and talk to me about like,
what does Discovery Mountain look like if I'm walking through it in my mind, my imagination
and this kind of thing, like we're all going to have a slightly different picture of it.
And that's the cool part of it, because you get to be active in creating that story, that
(33:10):
visual landscape that you're in, that you're seeped in.
And that's something that video and television don't really offer.
They just give it to you, right?
You see it.
But audio drama, you get to create things in your mind.
And that's super exciting, right?
You get to create things.
But our job as a production team is to prompt your mind into creating these visuals and
(33:35):
the scenery for you as you listen to the storylines, right?
So that was kind of my big thing is like we want to create an immersive experience for
the listener, for the kids.
We want them to be able to close their eyes and just like see what's happening in their
eyes, right?
If you listen to one of the taglines that Gene reads with every introduction to the
show, you know, the air is clear enough to hear your imagination, right?
(33:59):
You can almost hear imagination.
That's kind of weird.
Like you can almost hear your imagination.
Like isn't imagination a visual thing?
But you're like, so it's like this interesting kind of cognitive dissonance that just works,
right?
So we just really, really harped on that.
Like we've got to create theater of the mind and like we've got to get the kids like actively
imagining things and using those skills to like visualize things in their heads.
(34:22):
This theater of the mind concept is central to Discovery Mountain's appeal.
By using music, sound effects and evocative language, the team paints a rich auditory
landscape that encourages listeners to actively participate in the storytelling process, imagining
the sights, sounds and emotions of each scene.
Doug's approach to sound design is evident in every episode of Discovery Mountain.
(34:45):
Each audio element is thoughtfully chosen to bring listeners into the story.
One of the things we realized very quickly was the importance of actually setting the
atmosphere.
Our process for that is the first thing we try to do is what does the room sound like?
Because believe it or not, and people don't, you probably don't even realize this, that
(35:09):
when you're listening to Discovery Mountain, there's a base level ambience in there that
was not part of the recording.
The dialogue tracks are absolutely silent.
There's like nothing.
And so the first thing we do is we will either create by going out recording, you know, I
say, well, I like the sound of this room, we'll record five minutes of that room.
And that now becomes our base layer.
(35:31):
That's the very bottom layer.
And that's just basically the sound of the empty room, because rooms have a sound.
You know, if your listeners take their headphones off from listening, they listen to the room
and they, people don't even realize it.
You know, you'll hear a fan running in the way in the background.
You hear the fridge running.
(35:55):
There's an ambience to the room that actually has, you know, it's what makes it real.
So that's how we start.
We start with a base ambience.
And then we figure out, okay, so what's happening in this particular scene?
Doug's commitment to capturing authentic sounds goes beyond just recording ambient noises.
(36:17):
He also works with local school children to create a lively chatter and reactions that
bring classroom scenes to life.
So what we literally do is, I go to a local elementary school.
I work with, in this particular case, generally speaking, I work with a fifth grade class.
It's like conducting a choir, because I can't speak to say, do this, do this, do this.
(36:42):
Basically I line the kids up and I say, okay, so to begin with, I just want some normal
conversation like you guys would be doing before the teacher walks into the room.
When I raise my hand, I need you to be quiet as if she said, okay, class, come to attention.
You know, we're going to have prayer now or whatever, or we need to start our lessons
or whatever.
(37:02):
And so without me saying a word to them, I say, okay, you now may begin and they just
start their conversation.
I put my hand up, they go more quiet or start whispering or completely silent.
And in some cases, I may have three or four directions.
Hands up the first time, you go silent.
Hand up the second time, you go, oh, really, is that true?
And you know, hand up goes up the third time and then you laugh.
(37:23):
And so that's basically how we create all those group reactions.
You can see more than 20 layers of rocks, like stacks of pancakes.
Don't talk about pancakes.
You'll make Harold hungry again.
No pancake talk.
Do you have a batter idea?
(37:45):
Did my joke fall flat as a-
Just say pancake.
Well, getting back to the Grand Canyon.
And for me, without that, there would be no reality to this thing at all.
I mean, I have to have those reactions.
And of all the things I have to do, that is almost the most work intensive to get those
(38:09):
crowd responses or group responses are difficult to actually get time properly.
You know, and have the appropriate response.
By capturing these genuine reactions, Doug ensures that even the most mundane scenes
feel vibrant and real.
He also uses Foley and reverb, immersing listeners in the world of Discovery Mountain.
(38:33):
And to me, that's so important to make our show sound real, is all these different layers.
And then of course, there's the physical effects, the footsteps, you know, the putting the kettle
on the stove, pouring the water.
(38:53):
I mean, those are all pretty basic sound effects, but absolutely critical to make the whole
scene come alive.
The dialogue tracks are just that, just the dialogue, absolutely nothing else.
So if you're hearing something in the scene, it was put in there on purpose.
And that's what takes a great deal of time.
We also use a lot of reverbs, especially a reverb called convolution reverb, which allows
(39:18):
me to give the sound to the dialogue like it has some presence in a room.
We don't use that much for close dialogue between characters.
But for example, someone walks in the door and their point of view is them at the door.
They walk through the door and they go, Mom, I'm home.
(39:38):
And you hear the mom yell, I'm in the kitchen, honey.
And that now needs a special reverb.
We pan it off to one side, we give it a special reverb to make it sound like she's very ambient
a long ways away.
And all those things come together just to give us that sense of reality, which quite
frankly, like I said, surprised us when we really got into this said, this sounds awful.
(40:03):
We really need to, you know, we need to build this environment to make it sound real.
And without the picture, we absolutely had to do that.
That occupies a big part of my time in bringing all that reality to you.
Jean's voice fills with emotion as she recounts the stories of children whose lives have been
(40:24):
touched by Discovery Mountain.
One thing that I miss that I don't get to do enough is I don't get to see the kids.
And so when I get to do that, when I see them at a live event, whether I'm speaking for
a camp meeting or I just happen to be at a church somewhere and talking to kids, I love
(40:46):
that because they are always so open in sharing with me what Discovery Mountain means for
them and how it has impacted their faith.
Many kids have told us that they've made decisions to be baptized because of certain programs,
that they first prayed along with a character.
I mean, I'm getting emotional just thinking about it.
That they first offered a prayer while they were listening and they were praying with
(41:10):
a character that was praying.
It's amazing to just be able to hear the impact that these words on a page that come to life
through a voice and then the beautiful music is added to it through the post-production
process.
And it really is a living thing for them.
So that's extremely rewarding.
(41:31):
What I also find really fun is when we're at events, particularly, the listeners, the
kids, they usually are quite open to talk to me.
They're not shy talking to me because I'm Miss Jean, I'm the narrator.
They just love chatting with me, which is great.
But as soon as Ruben Gomez, who's the voice of Jake, the main character, walks into the
room, it is hilarious because they will look at him and they will freeze.
(41:56):
They are like blown away.
They just can't even talk to him because they just love Jake so much.
And so it's really, really cute just to watch that.
I just adore it.
They're starstruck.
That's exactly what they are.
I think it's natural for kids to meet people on our cast.
(42:19):
And it's not just with me, other cast members.
And they meet Miss Jean and they meet Mr. Simon and other people.
It's natural for them to be surprised.
And they think it's cool and all this kind of stuff.
And so we like to engage with them.
And so we like to talk to them and find out who they are.
And what do you like to listen to?
What's your favorite episode?
What do you like most about this character, this kind of thing?
(42:40):
We just have a conversation with them.
And because I'm Jake, I'm also silly.
And so I'll probably throw in some silliness in there.
That's who I am, by the way.
You know, like my kids, I'm just silly dad.
My kid used to call me silly dada.
That's who I am.
So that's why I like being Jake.
He's just silly sometimes.
And I just like to make the kids laugh and smile and give them a positive experience
(43:04):
and make them feel valued.
What about Doug?
How hard does he see himself playing in fulfilling the show's mission, his commitment to excellence
and his dedication to using his skills for a greater purpose?
Surely not done in vain.
I've given this a little bit of thought recently.
And my son who just turned 30, we had a conversation the other day.
(43:26):
And he said, you have no idea how lucky you are with the job you were in, or you've taken
on over the past number of years.
And I said, how so?
And he said, you've been able to do something you enjoy.
You've been able to do it well, and his comments.
And he said, on top of it all, you've been able to have a positive impact on people's
(43:54):
lives.
My role has been purely technical from day one, like in any of the projects I'm on.
I don't plan the outreach aspects of it.
I don't plan how the Bible studies will be written or interact with people who are taking
the Bible studies.
That's not my role.
My role has been a technical role, which someone would say, well, has nothing to do with the
(44:16):
soul winning or the positive impact on people's lives.
But my son's question to me really made me rethink that and said, no, there's roles for
everybody that can still have a tremendous impact in ministry.
And I've been very fortunate to have been able to do this, and it has had a big impact,
(44:41):
I feel.
Gene, Ruben, and Doug all agree on one thing.
The podcast has made an impact on the lives of others.
And this is the impact of audio storytelling.
It's not just about relaying information.
It's about reaching the heart, building relationships, and even winning souls for Christ.
(45:03):
I challenge you to consider how you can support this project or even start one yourself.
So yes, the best way to find Discovery Mountain is discoverymountain.com.
And right there under each episode, there's a way to share a specific episode.
You can copy the link or you can share it on social media if you want.
(45:24):
So that's a nice way.
They kind of some of your listeners maybe are grandparents.
And maybe as grandparents, they don't have their grandchildren are not being raised in
any kind of a faith.
And they want to share something that's kind of non-threatening, light with their grandkids.
They can text the parents a link right to a specific episode or even text their grandkids.
(45:46):
And anyone can do that.
A young person listening can just share it with a friend.
It's a nice, easy witnessing tool that's very non-threatening.
There's a way to also get involved and support us at Voice of Prophecy.
If someone is inspired to do that, there's a way right on the website to donate.
We also have a Discovery Mountain Club that we started a couple of years ago.
(46:09):
And this is a subscription based part of the program.
We have some bonus content basically there, some additional programming there.
The main program has always been free and always will be free.
We want it to be evangelistic.
But this additional programming, if a person wants to support Discovery Mountain, often
I encourage them to sign up for the club because it helps support us and it helps us to keep
(46:32):
the main program free for everyone.
So those are a couple of ways folks can get involved if they feel so inclined.
Thank you for joining us on this journey behind the scenes of Discovery Mountain.
We hope that you've been inspired by the dedication, passion and creativity of the team behind
this remarkable podcast.
Remember you can find Discovery Mountain and all its resources at DiscoveryMountain.com.
(46:57):
Until next time, this is Adventist Waves.
We hope this episode has given you a fresh perspective on how media can be a powerful
tool for ministry.
If you enjoyed today's conversation, don't forget to subscribe, leave a review and connect
with us on social media.
You can also support our work directly by becoming a patron at patreon.com forward slash
(47:22):
Adventist underscore waves.
Your generosity enables us to produce more high quality content and reach a wider audience.
Special thanks to our production team at Blue Vineyard Audio and our producer, editor, mixer
and sound designer, Khan Elmuz.
We'll see you next week as we continue to explore the art of sharing the gospel through
(47:45):
sound.
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