November 13, 2025 • 49 mins
#190 - What if you could trade flat maps and footnotes for sunrise on Sinai and sea spray in your face as you approach a harbor Paul once saw? That’s the world filmmaker Craig Dehut invites us into—where sacred places become cinematic classrooms and faith is strengthened by seeing.
Craig shares how Appian Media grew from a coffee-shop idea to a nonprofit producing free, high-quality Bible documentaries viewed more than 20 million times in over 160 countries. We dig into the nuts and bolts: small teams hauling Sony rigs, drones, and audio kits through Israel, Egypt, Turkey, and Greece; the scramble for permits that can change by sunset; and the art of capturing clean, honest moments among crowds at sites like the Church of the Nativity. Craig explains why their films lean into archaeology, geography, and culture—so viewers can picture Capernaum’s streets, feel the Valley of Elah’s creek bed, and re-read Scripture with sharper eyes.
Beyond craft, we talk impact. Homeschool families use the series as living curriculum. Skeptics come for history and stay for the evidence. Teachers cue clips, kids ask to binge-read First Samuel, and lifelong believers say they finally “saw” Jerusalem. Craig opens up about the editing grind, the joy and exhaustion of 16-hour field days, and a bold ten-year plan to build a Genesis-to-Revelation visual journey. The goal is simple and ambitious: help people read better by helping them see better—turning the lands of the Bible into accessible, vivid learning for everyone.
Watch the documentaries on YouTube, explore resources at AppianMedia.org, and if the mission resonates, consider supporting monthly to fuel future trips and post-production. If this conversation moves you, follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a quick review—what place from Scripture do you most want to see brought to life?
Want to be a guest on Journey with Jake? Send me a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/journeywithjake
Give me a follow on Instagram @journeywithjakepodcast
Visit LandPirate.com to get your gear that has you, the adventurer, in mind. Use the code "Journey with Jake" to get an additional 15% off at check out.
Visit geneticinsights.co and use the code "DISCOVER25" to enjoy a sweet 25% off your first purchase.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Imagine walking the same paths where biblical
history unfolded, camera in handand faith as your guide.
That's the adventure of Craig D.
Hutt, filmmaker and co-founderof Appian Media.
Today on Journey with Jake,Craig shares how his team turns
sacred landscapes into cinematicstories that inspire and deepen
belief.
Welcome to Journey with Jake.
(00:21):
This is a podcast aboutadventure and how through our
adventures we can overcome thechallenges of life that come our
way.
While I expect you will learnsome things about different
adventures, this show willentertain you.
Each episode will featuredifferent guests or guests as
they share experiences andstories from the different
adventures they have been on.
Not only will you beentertained, but you'll also
(00:42):
hear the failures and trialseach guest faces and what they
have done or are doing toovercome the hardships that come
their way.
My goal is to take each of us ona journey through the
experiences of my guests withthe hope that you'll be
entertained and inspired toovercome your day-to-day
challenges.
After all, it's not all aboutthe destination as it is about
(01:02):
the year.
As always, welcome back toJourney with Jake.
I'm your host, Jake Bushman, andI'm so glad you're here for
(01:23):
another story where adventuremeets inspiration.
Before we dive in, don't forgetto follow the show wherever you
listen to podcasts and connectwith me on Instagram at Journey
with Jake Podcast.
It's the best way to stay up todate with new episodes, reels,
and behind-the-scenes clips.
If you enjoyed today'sconversation with Craig about
storytelling and faith, you'lldefinitely want to check out
bonus episode 8 with Dr.
(01:44):
Douglas Brouwer, where we talkabout what it means to live with
purpose and perspective, evenwhen life takes unexpected
turns.
All right, let's jump into myconversation with Craig D.
Hutt and hear how his passionfor film and faith turned into
an incredible adventure throughthe lands of the Bible.
I'm excited for this one becauseI kind of looked a little bit
about what you've done.
I've got Craig D.
(02:06):
Hutt with me on the show today.
Craig, welcome to Journey withJake.
SPEAKER_01 (02:09):
Well, thanks for having me, Jake.
SPEAKER_00 (02:10):
I'm excited to talk to you.
Like I said, I was kind oflooking at who you are a little
bit before.
I always do that a little bitbefore I talk to people.
It's kind of get a littlebackground who you are.
Watched a couple of your clipsand I saw a little video about
Appian Media, which you're partof.
And I was impressed.
It's got adventure written allover it.
First of all, we're talking theBible, which is adventurous in
and of itself.
(02:30):
The book by itself isadventurous.
But then as you go to theseplaces and you're bringing
things firsthand to people,that's even more adventure.
So we're going to dive intothat.
I'm excited to hear your storyabout that.
Before we do that though, Craig,I'd like to know a little bit
about who you are, kind of whereyou're from, where you grew up,
that sort of thing, if you don'tmind, before we get rolling.
SPEAKER_01 (02:47):
Yeah, so I'm uh I'm Craig De Hutt.
I'm uh live in the Midwest withmy wife Karen and our three
kiddos.
Let's see, they are 11, 9, and 7years old.
Uh Karen homeschools them, anduh, which means she's superhuman
and appreciate her so much forthat.
I I do work from home uh whenI'm not out uh shooting video.
The work that I do for Appy andMedia takes up most of my time,
(03:10):
but I still still work as afreelance video producer for
clients around the country.
Yeah, I've had a love for videoand storytelling and creative
things since I was in highschool.
It took different forms.
There was a time when I wantedto be like a cartoonist, uh like
comic strips, back in newspaperswhen people actually subscribed
to those things, and uh I wasgonna be the next Jim Davis, you
(03:31):
know, make uh Calvin and Hobbesor something like that.
Eventually fell in love withphotography and computers and
storytelling and realized thatkind of filmmaking let me do a
lot of those things all in one.
Went to film school, graduatedafter a couple of years, and
I've worked in television news,I've uh worked in radio, I have
(03:51):
done some short films, and thenuh over the last decade or so
really kind of fallen in lovewith documentary.
And that's that's what's takenus uh, you know, the creation of
Appian Media about 10 years ago,and it's taken us uh around the
world.
We've filmed in Israel andTurkey and Greece and Egypt and
Jordan and all over, reallyusing my my love for
(04:12):
storytelling and my love for theBible and combining those things
together in a in a fun visualformat.
SPEAKER_00 (04:17):
Amazing.
How did that come about?
How did the whole idea of like,hey, let's do some documentaries
about you know the Bible, AppiumMedia, basically how was Appian
Media born, I guess, is what I'masking.
SPEAKER_01 (04:27):
Right.
I mean, I wish I could say itwas my plan all along, and it
really wasn't.
Uh, you know, a friend of mine,uh Stuart Peck, was a fellow
creative.
He and I both had kind of movedto the Indianapolis area around
the same time, and so didn'tknow each other, but you hear of
another Christian who works inthis industry, and obviously you
have to meet for coffee.
We met several times and kind oftalked about the work that we
(04:49):
were doing.
He was working for HD TV at thetime.
Both of us were kind ofcomplaining about the lack of
this type of material.
High quality, accurate,biblically accurate,
historically accurate, and freevideos shot over in the Lands of
the Bible.
And we kept kind of thinking,like, surely someone's already
doing this, we just haven'tfound it.
(05:09):
You know, we just maybe justdon't know where to look.
And what we were finding, atleast at the time, it was either
not free or very low productionquality that we wouldn't want to
watch and our students wouldn'twant to watch.
Or we always kind of had to siftthrough it and give caveats,
like, hey, I want you to seethis because it shows you
Jerusalem, but they're coming atthis from a particular type of
(05:32):
slant, which we don't think isaccurate.
And we were just like, surely wecould we could find someone who
uh we don't have to do any ofthat.
You know, after complainingabout it so long, it was Stewart
who actually said, you know, howhard could it possibly be for us
as creatives to go over thereand do that?
That uh idea was born the end of2015.
Uh we launched a Kickstartercampaign actually to get this
(05:54):
thing going in the spring of2016 and took our first trip to
Israel that summer to create aseries on the life of Jesus,
thinking, you know, this isprobably the only shot we'll
get.
This is going to be harder thanwe think, and this may be the
only time that we can do it.
People keep coming back andsupporting the work, donating to
it, and asking us to createmore.
(06:14):
And so we do and and have forthe last 10 years.
SPEAKER_00 (06:18):
Wow.
So 10 years now in the making,it's still going, still
continuing on.
Still going, which is amazing.
Uh you mentioned the I think itwas like three things that you
said, because I think you'reright.
I think production quality, youknow.
I think we've all seen it, youknow, especially me as a kid and
Christian as well, you know, andyou you see these videos,
they're just so poor theproduction quality.
(06:39):
Then if you get good productionquality, then you're paying for
it.
You know, there's just so thosethose different aspects of of
getting all those.
You provide these resources forfree.
SPEAKER_01 (06:49):
Yes.
And it certainly raises eyebrowsin our industry.
They're like, How do you dothat?
How can we do that?
And it was our desire from thevery beginning uh to be a
non-for-profit, to allow peopleto donate on the front end.
And so we we raise the funds forthe production and the
post-production, and then wecreate the content so that when
we release it, we're not, youknow, desperately trying to find
(07:12):
those distribution deals torecoup some of the costs.
It's already been paid for bypeople who want to see more of
this content made.
You know, we we've done avariety of of things.
Like I said, we started with aKickstarter campaign, but as a
non-for-profit, you get scrappyand you do different things, you
know, different types offundraisers.
But on the whole, it's it's uhprimarily individuals who want
(07:33):
to see this content made, whobelieve in the mission, and want
to make sure that more and morepeople have access to it.
And so we're we're thankful forit.
SPEAKER_00 (07:41):
That's amazing.
I love that.
And I love the fact that you'vegot the people who are willing
to to put money forward forthat, for this good quality
content.
People are amazing, yeah.
Absolutely.
This is an adventure podcast.
Journey with Jake's all aboutadventure.
Like I said, I think the Biblein and of itself is full of
adventure.
You take it and you actually goto these places.
(08:02):
I gotta hear some some stories,kind of what was it like when
you like maybe the first timeyou left.
Yeah.
I I just need to hear a littlebit of a glimpse of what it's
like to actually go to placeslike Israel and Jordan, places
like that to actually film.
Because there's languagebarriers, there's custom issues.
I mean, there's all kinds ofdifferent things.
So maybe just uh two or threelittle examples of some things
(08:24):
that you could share with us.
SPEAKER_01 (08:25):
Yeah, I mean, so we're not the first people to
travel over there and makedocumentaries, but one of the
things we wanted from thebeginning was we we didn't want
just someone being there withthe land kind of behind them in
the distance.
We wanted our team to get intoit.
So we're gonna go into thestreets, we're gonna talk to the
locals, we're gonna eat thefood.
In one particular instance, wedid the series on the Exodus.
(08:47):
So we're in Egypt.
We're gonna go out into therural areas and get our host
knee deep in mud so that he canmake handmade mud bricks in a
similar fashion than theIsraelites would have when they
were in captivity.
It's about, you know, it's aboutthe adventure.
We're not trying to play it upor or overly dramatize it, but
the Bible is exciting, and wedon't have to manufacture
(09:10):
something artificial in order toget people to realize that.
And so we will oftentimes, withgear on our backs, hike up to
where we need to go to get theperspective that we need.
Uh again, but our series that wedid with uh with the Exodus, we
called it out of Egypt.
There's there's a lot of debateover where exactly Mount Sinai
is.
I didn't realize, but there's 12or more different supposed
(09:34):
sites.
There's probably two mostprominent, and uh, the one that
we chose to film at for a coupleof different reasons was the one
in the Sinai Peninsula, uh JabelMusa.
That involved spending the nighton top of this mountain.
You know, there's no hotel upthere.
We, you know, loaded gear on ourbacks and hiked up that and and
filmed the whole experience.
(09:54):
We really kind of broke thefourth wall and helped the
viewers understand like it's ateam going up here.
We got to sleep out, you know,under the stars in the freezing
cold night and wake up to thesunrise on the top of this
mountain as we considered whatGod brought to his servant
Moses.
But then there are other, youknow, other exciting things that
we can do.
Uh, in fact, we just our teamjust came back about uh a week
(10:15):
or so ago.
We're doing uh a series on thethe book of Acts and Paul's
missionary journeys.
So starting in Jerusalem, butthen venturing out into places
like Turkey and Greece, gettingon a boat and seeing what it
would have been like, you know,as as Paul approached the harbor
to some of these cities, andkeeping the cameras wrapped in
plastic as the sea, you know, isis getting in our eyes, and salt
(10:36):
water, obviously, andelectronics do not mix.
Apparently, salt water and hostsdo not mix either.
We got them completely drenched.
But uh our team, they're they'reso they're so up for a
challenge, just really excitedto have the people along for
trips like that.
But you're right, there arethere are customs issues, there
are language barriers.
Uh I only speak English andbarely.
(10:57):
And so when we're over there,you know, we've got local fixers
who can speak uh, you know, amultiplicity of languages,
helping us understand thecultural differences, helping us
understand.
I mean, we we happened toschedule a trip in in Israel
just a couple of weeks ago thathappened to arrive during the
Jewish New Year.
And like, I wasn't thinkingabout that, the end of
(11:17):
September, beginning of October.
And then that you know was righton the heels of their feast of
booths.
I didn't realize, but the firstcouple of days of the Feast of
Booths is a day when familiesoftentimes will do their bar
mitzvahs.
And so Jerusalem was just fullof you know Israeli families you
know, bringing out their teenagesons, uh, doing their bar
mitzvahs, which again, in someinstances, you might what's
(11:40):
like, oh, well, this is not whatwe expected.
We're not gonna film that forus.
We love that kind of stuff.
So we're like, hey, the streetsare full of families and music
and dancing, and so rollcameras, send the hosts out into
that and have them engage withthese people, ask them to blow
the chaufar and you know, thingslike that.
It's all about getting peoplewho are unfamiliar with the
(12:03):
culture, and I very much was toto appreciate, you know, this
this long history of of uhincredible culture and and
happenings that God chose uh todo with his people and among his
people over the last thousandsof years.
And so trying to bring some ofthat home, uh at least for those
of us who who live in America,our content is is viewed
(12:24):
worldwide.
Many people just don'tunderstand.
They don't understand what itlooks like over there.
I know as a kid I imaginedIsrael was just sand dunes.
Right.
You know, that's not the case.
You know, some parts of Israelare incredibly green and lush,
and uh there are cities overthere now that are incredibly
modern cities, Tel Aviv orplaces, even parts of Jerusalem,
are usually just trying to helppeople visualize it differently,
(12:47):
kind of change the stereotypesmaybe they have in their mind or
the preconceived ideas they havein their mind, so that when they
read the text of scripture, theycan go, okay, now I can
visualize Jericho.
Okay, the Sea of Galilee is notan ocean, it's a small lake.
You can see from one side to theother.
And we're trying to help catchpeople up to have the same kind
(13:09):
of understanding of the history,the geography, and the culture
that that the originalrecipients of those books had.
SPEAKER_00 (13:16):
Kind of going back to that mountaintop in Egypt,
you're staying overnight.
You mentioned a couple things.
You mentioned your team and youmentioned gear.
When you say gear, what doesthat consist of?
I mean, I think camera, but whatI mean, there's probably more
than that.
There's probably all kinds ofthings.
So what's gear and then theteam?
What does your team consist of,roughly?
And I know it probably varies,but kind of give me a little
bit.
SPEAKER_01 (13:36):
It does vary.
We've had different team membersover uh over the course of
different projects, buttypically we're somewhere
between seven and ten people,and that's going to consist of
usually one or two differenthosts.
Three or four of us.
Uh we're all wearing amultiplicity of hats, but three
or four of us are usually theones with cameras in our hands.
But you've got camera operators,you usually have someone
(13:57):
dedicated to sound recording.
So they're the guy with the boompole, the headphones on, trying
to keep things quiet.
Sometimes we're lucky to have acouple of production assistants.
Oftentimes those are eitherteenagers of some of the hosts
or other team members.
We like to kind of helpencourage and teach the next
generation.
And then, you know, there's aproducer and a director, and uh,
(14:19):
sometimes that's the sameperson.
In the case of this lastproduction, that was me.
I was a producer and directorand pulled out a camera from
time to time and shot as well.
And then the the gear, you know,you're talking not just a
camera, you're talking three orfour main cameras.
We've shot with a variety ofthings, cannons over the years.
The last few years we've beenusing Sony's, uh, things like
(14:42):
the FX6 and FX3.
But then there's GoPros that weuse and 360 cameras.
There's usually a droneoperator.
Sometimes that's one of us orsomeone local, because getting
to see the Bible lands from theair is just spectacular.
So that's cameras, it's lights,it's microphones, it's
reflectors, it's cables, it'stripods.
(15:02):
We do try to pack light.
We're not going to have the kindof stuff that we would use if we
were shooting something in thestudio.
But it's still, you know, seven,eight, nine large pelican cases
that come with us on thoseairplanes and get lugged around
as we film what we need to film.
SPEAKER_00 (15:20):
And then you're going up a mountain in Egypt
with all this stuff.
SPEAKER_01 (15:22):
And then we're strapping it on our back and
going, okay, what can possiblystay at the hotel?
SPEAKER_00 (15:27):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (15:28):
I do not want to take this up on a mountain.
And then inevitably you get upon the mountain and go, I I wish
I had brought fill in the blank.
SPEAKER_00 (15:35):
Well, kind of in those same lines then, maybe
paint us a picture when you knoweverything kind of seemed to go
wrong.
You know, maybe a broken camera,maybe, you know, language.
I don't know, whatever.
I I think there's at one pointthat you had a guard demanding a
bribe.
I don't know.
I've I've read different thingsor heard different things.
So paint a picture when thingsare going wrong, and how do you
how do you kind of overcomethat?
(15:56):
Sure.
SPEAKER_01 (15:57):
It happens every trip.
We spend months and months inpre-production and development
planning for these trips.
We do not just show up and startfilming.
You have to acquire filmpermits, you've got to get all
the permissions.
Uh, we do this legally, we dothis safely.
All those things you take intoconsideration.
And yet, inevitably, you show upand things don't go the way that
(16:19):
you expect.
Sometimes in a good way,sometimes we are blessed with
things more than what wethought.
And then sometimes it's likethis this is not how I thought
the day was gonna go.
We've got to make the most ofit.
You know, there's no coming backand uh oh, we'll just come back
tomorrow and do it again.
No, you you're moving on to thenext location.
So, yeah, there are film permitsthat are required.
(16:39):
And in some instances, this wasat the at the base of Jabel
Musa, their Sinai.
It's in the video, veryexpensive film permit.
They usually, you know, in Egyptand Jordan will uh in in many
ways kind of take advantage ofthose that that want to film
these types of things and do itlegally.
And we showed up, we had thepermit in hand, and it was
(17:00):
something as silly as, well,your permit is only good for a
day, and we constitute that assunset.
So we'd shown up at 10 a.m.
thinking a day equaled 24 hours,and they said, no, that the rest
of today.
And so you need to get anotherfilm permit for the sunrise.
So you can either go up thereand film, but as soon as the sun
(17:23):
sets, you can't film any of therest.
And so they they kept us kind ofhigh and dry for two hours,
three hours, waiting, you know,for the response and seeing how
we were going to do that, sothat when we finally did pay
what we needed to pay and starthiking, we were three hours
behind, the sun was was startingto set.
You know, we didn't want toshoot in the dark, completely in
(17:43):
the dark.
And so we made a hike thatnormally takes three or four
hours, and we kind of had topush and do it in less than two.
With all your with all your gearand everything else.
With all the gear, right?
And uh so we're we're huffingand puffing and getting up there
and and very thankful.
We got there as the sun was inthat kind of golden hour moment,
(18:04):
so it was a beautiful scene, andwe're very thankful for it.
We like I said, we just cameback from from Israel and Turkey
and Greece.
There were a couple of siteswhere you know we got the
permits, but that morning we'retold actually that particular
site has been closed forconstruction for the last two
months.
We forgot to tell you.
Oops.
So, okay, well, we can shoot itin this way.
(18:26):
We can get the drone in there,and it can, I mean, nearly touch
the ground.
It can start shooting and almostlook like you've got someone
there, but a human can't get inthere.
And so finding different ways toto accomplish what we need to
accomplish, to bring home thevisuals, keeping everyone safe
and healthy, keeping ourselveson schedule as best as possible.
(18:47):
And that's that's the primaryjob of a producer.
And so the producer's job is aproblem solver.
And so you're you're talkingwith those fixtures and those
locals, you're managing thepermits and the payments and
readjusting things when thingsdon't go uh according to
schedule.
SPEAKER_00 (19:04):
How long do each of these projects take roughly?
I mean, I know they probablyvary again, but from the first
time you went to this mostrecent one, what are kind of the
how many days are you goneroughly?
Sure.
SPEAKER_01 (19:15):
The completion of a project from concept to
completion, it's anywherebetween 18 to 24 months.
Believe it or not, of those 18or 24 months, we're only
overseas for a couple of weeks.
Gotcha.
SPEAKER_00 (19:27):
Okay, so two weeks.
SPEAKER_01 (19:28):
In this particular instance, it was about 18 days
and was the longest trip we'dever taken.
It's not long, but we pack thosedays.
And then you come home withterabytes and terabytes of
footage, hours of footage.
It's it's my job and and othersto uh to edit it together into
something that's reasonable andwatchable, and that that process
(19:48):
takes the bulk of the time,months, to edit all that
together.
SPEAKER_00 (19:52):
Wow.
Okay.
And you said, you know, thosetwo weeks that you're on
location filming, you pack thosedays.
What does a typical day looklike?
SPEAKER_01 (20:00):
If it's a good day, we get breakfast at the hotel
before we leave.
Not every day we get thatluxury.
Sometimes we're eating in thevans as we're heading to that
first location.
But typically it's uh, you know,you're getting up between six
and six thirty in the morning.
Ideally, you're getting to theselocations either before the
public has access to them orwhen the lighting is best.
(20:22):
You're filming uh depending onwhat you're what you're shooting
and and what's involved, two tofour hours at a location, and
then you're packing all that upand going to the next location
and shooting for two to fourhours.
Typically, depending on howclose the locations are, you
might be able to do two or threeof those in a day.
Again, a good day is when youhave lunch at lunchtime.
(20:44):
And then usually we're notgetting back to the hotel until
seven or eight o'clock in theevening.
But for many of us, the workisn't finished.
You know, the the crew is comingback, they're cleaning cameras,
charging batteries.
Uh, for those of us, uhtypically I'm in charge of
what's called DIT.
It's the person in handling allthe media, backing up all the
footage at the end of the day,uh, which takes, you know, a
(21:05):
long time.
And then uh uh hopefully gettinga shower and uh getting a good
night's rest because you're upat six o'clock the next morning
to to do it all over.
SPEAKER_00 (21:14):
Do it all over again.
I'm guessing when these twoweeks are over, you gotta be
just exhausted.
SPEAKER_01 (21:49):
Absolutely.
In fact, if you had tried to doa podcast with me last week, I
don't know that I could havestrung two sentences together.
Um I'm still recovering aboutgetting over the jet lag.
So it's worth it.
Like I I live for that.
It is so exciting and exhaustingand stressful and wonderful, and
I'm thrilled to go.
(22:10):
I'm blessed to go.
You know, I've been able totravel to places that that most
people will not get to see intheir lifetime.
And I've been able to, you know,for for Israel, I I've been
there now four different times,and that's such a blessing.
That's incredible.
But I'm also uh I can't wait tocome home.
You know, there gets a point inevery trip where it's like, oh
man, I can, you know, chat withmy wife and we can FaceTime and
(22:34):
send messages.
You know, you're missing home uhpretty early on in those trips,
and then you go, I still havetwo more weeks to go.
So certainly not complaining.
It is uh it is an opportunitythat I I realize I am blessed to
have and I'm thankful for it.
There have been many people whowould say, Oh, I'd love to come
on a trip with you just to justto come along and experience it.
(22:54):
It's like you you actually don'tunderstand what you're
volunteering for.
This is not a vacation.
This is not a typical tour ofthe Bible lands.
This is work.
This is 16 to 18 hour days.
My watch tells me or my phonetells me that I'm walking
somewhere between 12 and 14miles a day.
Like those are just my my steps,you know, not counting the miles
(23:17):
that we drive.
It's work and it's fun and it'sit's absolutely worth it.
SPEAKER_00 (23:22):
You mentioned something about that I didn't
even think of, but you weretalking about a typical day, and
you said a lot of times you tryto get to these places before
the public does.
I didn't even think about that.
I mean, a lot of these placesyou're filming are places that,
yeah, these are like could beattractions because people are
like, oh, I want to see thisplace where the Bible you know
took place.
And what's that like when youget people involved?
How do you kind of manage that?
Because I'm sure people arecurious and want to kind of
(23:43):
looky look or whatever, kind ofwhat's the situation like that
when you get people involved?
SPEAKER_01 (23:47):
Yeah, you know, every every year is a different
challenge.
These are places, you know.
You talk about this is whereJesus grew up.
Here's Capernaum, here'sNazareth.
We are not the first people togo there, and we are certainly
not going to be the last, and weare not there by ourselves.
If we're lucky, we can havethose opportunities where the
film permit may allow us eitheraccess before the the crowds are
(24:12):
there or after.
But we've been blessed.
Uh, like there was anopportunity we went to
Bethlehem, and there's uhthere's a church called the
Church of the Nativity, and it'sa structure that's been built on
top of what very well could havebeen the area where Jesus was
born.
Not a barn manger, but likely acave is where they would have
kept the animals.
(24:33):
And so in the basement of thischurch, it is like a ride to
Disneyland, the line that isformed of people who want to go
down into this small area andlook and then come back up.
Our fixture knew a guy whoworked there and were able to
communicate with him, and theybasically said, We're cleaning
the site right now.
(24:53):
You have five minutes down thereby yourselves, and we can't hold
the crowds back any longer thanthat.
So we got to shoot a scene infive minutes, and then they
said, Okay, we're gonna let thecrowds in now, and we we kept
rolling, we kept kind ofshooting some b-roll and things,
and that space just filled upwith people.
We get those types ofopportunities.
(25:14):
Um, but then there are othertypes where we I have no control
over the space.
You know, it's a it's a publicspace and it's the middle of the
day, and we need to film it, andso where can we go and angle it
so that we don't have crowds,like you said, kind of peering
in the background, looking atthe hosts and being obnoxious.
There was literally an instancewhile we were in Greece where
I've got a camera in one hand,I'm holding a gimbal, the scene
(25:36):
is rolling, the hosts are doingtheir thing, and I can see a
tour group coming up, andthey're completely oblivious.
Or maybe they're not and they'rejust curious.
And with one hand I'm filming,and the other hand I'm you know
putting my hand up, motioningfor them to stop and hold back.
I can't call to them becausecameras are rolling, but I'm
literally like, you know, quiet,quiet, hold them back, and the
(25:59):
crowd thankfully saw it, stayedjust out of frame.
Then we yell cut and that placefills with people.
It's a challenge.
There have been times uh wedidn't make a trip to Turkey
during the year of COVID, soOctober of 2020.
Uh Turkey was one of the firstcountries to open back up.
There was a small window wherewe had had to postpone the trip
because of COVID, but it openedback up in October.
(26:22):
And so we went, you know, let'slet's take advantage of it,
let's go.
But the majority of the worldwas still afraid to travel.
And so we got to Turkey andthese sites that are typically
filled with people, no one wasthere.
We had Ephesus almost all toourselves, and it was um that
was quite a blessing where wecould kind of point in any
direction and go, yeah, there'sthere's no one here.
SPEAKER_00 (26:43):
As you're talking, you mentioned these places, you
know, Nazareth and Bethlehem andthese amazing historical places.
But not only for you know whatthey were, but because you know,
as as someone like me who whobelieves in Christ and follows
Christ, that's pretty important.
How does this affect you, likein your faith?
I mean, is this something that'simportant to you beforehand, and
(27:04):
and how does it affect it asyou've done these projects?
SPEAKER_01 (27:07):
I mean, I I've been very blessed.
I grew up in a Christian home,and uh my father is a preacher,
and so I I was familiar with thestories.
I I came to believe in themearly on.
I became a Christian when I wasabout 12 years old, uh, was
baptized into Christ, and so myfaith wasn't dependent on seeing
it with my own eyes.
I read it in the book and Ibelieved the book.
(27:28):
I believe the book.
It's God's inspired word, butthere's something about getting
to see it, and whether that'swith your own eyes, and if if
people have the opportunity, Iencourage them to do it, even
just once.
But even just seeing it througha video, seeing someone walk you
through the space, there'ssomething profoundly helpful to
(27:52):
your faith.
It it grounds it, it's not it'snot stories of a long time ago
in a in a land far away.
These are historical accounts ofreal people who lived in real
places.
The events are real, just as theBible describes them.
There have been times, I wasthankful, one of our hosts,
Barry Britnell, he actuallyleads tours over there on a
regular basis.
(28:12):
It's one of the reasons why he'she's part of our team.
But the very first trip, hesaid, I know you guys are going
to do your job, and I know thatyou guys are busy looking, you
know, through the cameras andand doing your work, but
everywhere we go, make sure thatat some point you put the camera
down and you don't just see theplace through a monitor, but you
see it with your own eyes, andjust take a breath and look
(28:35):
around and take a moment toconsider.
You're standing in the Garden ofGethsemane right now.
Think about what happened there.
Think about what Jesus chose todo and not do while he was
praying in that garden.
Like take a moment and thinkabout it.
That has affected my faith, thatthat has affected the way that I
teach.
(28:55):
Um when I get opportunity topreach, to be able to say,
listen, like to stand in thegarden and to see the city, and
to know that Jesus watched asthe torches came down that
valley and he could hear themob, he could he knew that they
were armed, he could see the thetorch lights, and yet he waited
a solid 15 minutes at leastwatching them come down and come
(29:18):
back up, and he stayed where hewas and let them come.
Having those types of moments,it happens every trip where it's
like, Can you can you believethat we're here?
We're here.
There are some sites where it'syou know, we don't know for
sure, somewhere in this areaJesus fed the 5,000.
But then there are some siteswhere it's like it could be
nowhere but here.
(29:38):
We are standing in the place,the valley of Elah, where David
fought Goliath, is just onevalley, and it narrows to a
point where there's a creek bed,where there's only one place he
could have gotten those stones.
And you're standing in thatcreek bed going, yeah, David
stooped down somewhere rightaround here.
And so I did, like any goodtourist would, I picked up five
smooth stones and took themhome.
(29:59):
But just doing that and andhaving that again, my faith is
not dependent on it, but I thinkGod in his wisdom provides the
evidence so that our faith doesnot necessarily have to be a
leap of faith, a blind leap intonothingness, but a a very
reasonable step where you followthe evidence, you look at what
God has provided, you look atthe the Bible and the fact that
(30:23):
it has stood the test of time,and then you go to these places,
and wouldn't you know it's justlike the Bible describes it?
Down to the position of thecreek that David got his stones
from, and you go, okay, for meto believe that God created the
world the way that Genesis 1describes it, yeah, I can do
that.
SPEAKER_00 (30:42):
I like that perspective.
Thank you.
As far as filming goes, too,because you're in these amazing
places.
How do you have find thatcorrect balance?
Because you want to capturegreat footage, but you also want
to, you know, you got thehistorical weight of the places
that you're in.
How do you do that?
How do you kind of find thatright balance?
SPEAKER_01 (30:58):
Hmm.
You know, keeping the properperspective of what it is that
we're doing.
We are not merely entertaining.
We could go to these places andmake it very entertaining for
you and give you very littlevalue.
We could also go and lecture toyou and just give you
information, kind of brain dumpon you and happen to be in the,
(31:19):
but we aren't going to want towatch that either.
Finding the right combination,and sometimes that's easy and
sometimes it's more challenging.
We have found that that ourapproach, the more we make it
feel like the viewer is simplythere with us on the trip with
us, the more we find our workresonates with people.
What we call in the industrybreaking the fourth wall.
(31:42):
There are occasions whereinstead of just seeing the two
hosts, we'll show you the crewfilming the two hosts.
Or something might be happeningwhere a camera operator happens
to be engaging with one of thelocals and buying something at
one of the local shops, and wemay show you that.
We want the viewers to feel likethey're there among us on the
(32:05):
trip with us.
And then that prevents us fromhaving to manufacture anything
artificial.
Fascinating things are happeningas we go and visit these places.
You know, as we got to the topof Jab El Musa, you know, we get
to the top of Mount Sinai andwe're exhausted and we're
shooting a scene.
And this reverend guy, you know,this older black gentleman, uh
(32:27):
starts singing and screaminghallelujah as he gets to the
top.
We could have said, cut, startagain.
You know, he kind of ruined thescene, and instead, cameras just
kind of flipped over to him.
And our host knew enough to justengage him in conversation and
had a great conversation withthis gentleman who uh was much
(32:48):
older than we were, and yet hadpushed himself to get up this
mountain to experience that.
We try to embrace that as oftenas we can, authentic moments
that that just happened.
SPEAKER_00 (32:58):
Your company, Appian Media, the the content that you
produce, for example, I thinkyou have you know you have the
life of Christ or kind of the weknow where Christ was with one
of your first ones that you did,but who would you say it's for?
Is it for families?
Can you know would a wholefamily enjoy this together?
I mean, what kind of who arethese really targeting?
SPEAKER_01 (33:17):
Absolutely.
I I know in our industry peopleare like, who is your target
audience?
And we say, everyone.
We are not simply making contentfor people who already believe
the Bible.
The vast majority of ouraudience probably already does,
at least to some degree.
That's that's why they end upstumbling across or even looking
for what we're creating.
(33:38):
But we want to make content thatan atheist could start watching
and go, listen, I don't believethis Bible stuff, but this is
compelling history.
This is shot well, those hostsare engaging, and maybe they can
learn something.
Uh, hopefully, they can learn toknow and and love God and his
son Jesus.
These videos are for the peoplewho may be doubting in their
(33:59):
faith.
Can I really trust what theBible says?
Is it actually real?
It's one of the reasons why welean into the archaeological
evidence of these stories.
So we'll interview experts andarchaeologists, we'll go to digs
as they're digging stuff up outof the ground to help those who
may be questioning their faith.
Maybe even they're they'reprofessing to be agnostic now.
(34:22):
Maybe they used to believesomething and don't.
And maybe our content isappealing to them to go, okay,
I'm gonna give this a secondlook.
But absolutely, they're forfamilies who want to teach their
children.
They're for preachers andteachers who are teaching
classes and want to engage inthat way.
This wasn't our original design,but it's no surprise to me that
(34:43):
the homeschool community eatsthis stuff up.
You know, you're talking aboutfree Bible videos, and now we've
got dozens and dozens of hoursof it.
So we we end up, and have beendoing this now for the last five
or six years, uh, frequentinghomeschool conventions.
We'll we'll come with a boothand and have our workbooks and
the videos and and uh engagewith families in that way.
(35:05):
The original idea of Appian wasprimarily focusing on a
disengagement that we wereseeing in high school age.
Kids were showing up at Bibleclass, bored with the resources
that were being made availableor no resources that were being
made available.
They were used to engagingthrough media at school in order
(35:26):
to help them learn, butoftentimes that media was not
available in Bible classes.
And so what started with adesire to re-engage teenagers,
we we realized that people ofall ages are falling into that
very similar category.
We are all visual learners, weall benefit from seeing what it
is that we're reading.
(35:46):
There's nothing that we havecreated that I would not
recommend for any age.
I mean, young and old.
I've got a seven-year-old, andhe's been watching our content.
We've been creating our contentsince before he was born.
And so I love it when I hearfamilies say, this was just told
to me just a few months back.
Uh, my kid was never interestedin our Bible studies.
We, you know, we're trying toengage them.
(36:08):
Then we showed them a few of theof your videos, and now they're
the ones engaging, saying, Canwe watch more?
Can we study more?
And now they're interested inthe story of David when before
that was just one more thing forthem to do.
They're excited about the Bibleagain, and that's uh that's a
win for us.
SPEAKER_00 (36:25):
I like it too, because if you think about it,
the Bible, it's exciting byitself.
You know, you don't really needall this other stuff.
However, I think what you'redoing though just brings it to a
whole new light and gets peopleexcited.
If I'm not mistaken, how many Idon't know, I don't want to call
them views, but how many peoplehave partaken of Appian Media
(36:46):
content?
It's been you're pushingmillion, right?
I mean, you're at those kind ofnumbers?
SPEAKER_01 (36:51):
It's something close to 20 million views across our
various platforms.
Wow, okay, even higher than Ithought.
So our analytics tell us thatpeople in over 160 countries
have seen the content.
So it's available on YouTube.
That's where our primaryaudience is.
But Vimeo as well, Facebook andInstagram, 20, 20 million views.
(37:11):
And we don't say that to bragabout our team.
We say that to to prove thepoint that people really are out
there searching and they'reinterested and they want to
engage with God's word.
They're just looking formechanisms that they're familiar
with.
Yeah, we're we're blown away.
We're incredibly humbled by thethe growth that we've seen.
SPEAKER_00 (37:33):
And you mentioned some feedback you got about, you
know, the the children wantingto kind of push it forward now
and say, hey, let's watch this.
Any other example of any kind ofyou know feedback you've got
from somebody who's eitherstumbled across your content or
wanted to look at it and thenkind of what it's done for them.
SPEAKER_01 (37:48):
It is so much fun, actually, to read the YouTube
comments, especially.
That used to be one of myresponsibilities.
We're a small team and you wearmany hats.
Thankfully, you know, you nowhire someone to help me out with
social media, but just readingthrough those comments and you
get a wide variety.
On the whole, people areincredibly thankful for getting
to see things.
(38:09):
There are some people who said,I've been a Christian for 60
years.
I've been reading the Biblesince I was six years old, and I
never saw Jerusalem.
Like I never really saw it.
But now I go back and I readthese stories I'm familiar with,
and now I actually see it.
Uh my favorite are things like aparent told me they watched an
episode of our series, we callit Searching for a King.
(38:32):
So it's about the first kings ofIsrael, Saul and David and
Solomon.
And they said, We watchedepisode one, and then we binge
read first Samuel.
And I love that.
Like, I'm less encouraged when Ihear people say that they binge
watched our content.
Like, good for you.
I haven't even binge watched ourcontent.
But I love it when I hear peoplesay, I watched enough and it got
(38:54):
me interested, and then I wentto the book and I couldn't stop
reading.
And that's really encouragingfor us.
SPEAKER_00 (38:59):
I you know, I look at the film industry as a whole
and you know, Hollywood, andit's there's not a lot of
Christian things there.
I mean, it kind of feels likeit's gone away from it.
And so I love the fact thatpeople like you and your team
who have these skills, thesegreat filmmaking skills, are
applying that to, you know, toshowcase faith and God and
Christ.
(39:20):
Where's Appian going?
I mean, where what's what doesthe future look like?
SPEAKER_01 (39:23):
That's uh in the Lord's hands, I would say.
We're excited for for everyproject we get to do and every
year that we get to continue todo this.
I will say that our team overthe last year and a half has
actually been developing a10-year plan.
So instead of just going projectto project, which was common,
they would say, okay, well,what's next?
What's next?
Now we've we've looked at thecontent that we've already
(39:46):
created and realized that wewere putting together pieces of
a full curriculum, pieces oftelling the entire Bible story.
Over the next 10 years, give ortake, we would like to fill in
the rest of those pieces so thatpeople can have content about
the Bible from Genesis toRevelation.
We have done a series on thelife of Jesus, but our team just
(40:08):
came back, like I said, doing aseries on the book of Acts and
many of those epistles.
That's going to involve a secondproduction trip, Lord willing,
in the next year or so, tofinish up Acts and the rest of
those epistles.
But you look at those two thingstogether and you've got almost
the entirety of the NewTestament.
And then going back, doingGenesis, doing the judges and
(40:30):
the conquest of Canaan, doingthe poetry, you know, doing
Psalms and Proverbs, and thereare visuals that can be created
or shown to help us betterunderstand that poetry language.
Uh, that's the plan.
Funding permitting, and and withthe right kind of creative
people on board, we believe thatwe can accomplish this in in
about 10 years' time.
SPEAKER_00 (40:51):
I love it.
It's amazing.
It's quite the quite the plan.
It's incredibly ambitious.
Yeah, it's absolutely ambitious.
I think that's that's great,though.
Even when you know travel'sdifficult, you know, you had
COVID at one point, kind of inthe middle, messing things up.
For you personally, what whatkeeps you motivated to keep this
going?
SPEAKER_01 (41:07):
Well, I wish I could tell you that I was super
excited about this work all thetime.
And it just keeps me on fire,and there's every day, you know,
and it's just it's not true.
The vast majority of the worktakes place in this room by
myself.
I'm editing together the video,and and there are other people
involved in that, but for manymonths, those initial months,
um, it's me on this computer orthese computers getting the work
(41:30):
done.
And staying motivated are thingslike just reminding myself, you
know, 15 years ago, we werelooking for tools like this,
even 10 years ago, and couldn'tfind it.
And we've made these availablefor people who are looking.
I look at my kids and go, When Iwas a kid, we did not have
(41:51):
resources like this, but my kidswill and do.
So they'll be able to look backon their childhood and go, we
had that at our fingertips.
My dad helped create it.
I'm very passionate on a varietyof levels of equipping the next
generation with what they need,to have stronger faith, to be
more engaged and active in theircommunities and in their
(42:12):
churches.
I believe that our resources arebeing used to do that.
And it also allows me theopportunity to talk to other
creatives, Christian creatives,or people who are, you know,
thinking about even steppinginto that industry, where I can,
I can now go, listen, uh, Iwould encourage you to do it.
You know, it's not just enoughto curse the darkness.
(42:32):
We have to be the ones to bringthe light.
And if you've got that skillset, many Christians before you
said, it's too hard, or I can'tdo it, or no one else is doing
it.
And so they talked themselvesout of it.
We shouldn't be that thatgeneration to do that.
And so just reminding myself ofwhat has been accomplished,
again, not through our ownability and our strength, but
(42:55):
what God is allowed to dothrough us and thinking about
what he can continue to do, whatmore he can do, keeps me going,
keeps our team going.
SPEAKER_00 (43:03):
And a question I always like to ask, because this
is, you know, journey withJake's about adventure and kind
of who you are on your journey.
For you, after these last 10years, more years to come, what
does adventure mean to you?
Oh man.
SPEAKER_01 (43:14):
Adventure means to me trying things I've not tried
before.
And I'm trying to instill thatinto my kids because growing up,
man, I I was the kid who likedroutine.
I liked the things that I liked.
And it didn't make sense for meto try new things because I had
already found, obviously, thebest food and the best book.
I had never flowninternationally prior to
(43:35):
starting Appian Media.
I'd never been overseas.
And I wasn't the one to initiatethat.
It was really Stuart's idea togo, whoa, what if we did this
crazy thing?
And I'm so glad that I did.
Was incredibly intimidated to doit the first time, and it took
one trip to Israel for suddenlymy bucket list of where else I
wanted to visit in the world,just that keeps getting longer
(43:58):
and longer and longer.
Adventure means trying newthings.
And sometimes it'll be thingsthat I love, and sometimes it'll
be things that I will never tryagain, like the raw meatballs
that we ate in Turkeyaccidentally.
Like we tried it, and I'llnever, never do that again.
But some of my favorite foodsnow are things that I ate in
(44:18):
Israel that had never eatenbefore, and I would not have
touched even in my 20s.
And now I'm asking my my wife athome, like, can you make swarma
at home?
Like, yeah, I brought somespices from Jerusalem.
Let's let's get this done.
So just put yourself out there,try new things, experiment, and
find people to do that with you.
(44:39):
And I think I think that's oneof the keys.
SPEAKER_00 (44:41):
I love that.
That's a great way to look atit.
All right, you're looking back10 years ago.
Appy Imedi is just kicking off.
You're just starting.
Here you are now.
What would you say to yourselflooking back?
What advice would you giveyourself knowing what you know
now?
SPEAKER_01 (44:56):
I still feel like I'm figuring it out even after
10 years.
I don't feel like we've gottento the point where like, oh,
this is now very easy.
But I think what I would tellmyself is be less timid, engage
with other people who have comebefore you and tried those
things, get more feedback fromfrom others, and just be, you
know, trusting in the Lord,trusting in his timing.
(45:19):
Our our endeavors are prayerfulendeavors.
We we always engage with prayerbefore, during, and after
productions.
But to do that even more, uh, Ithink would would have
alleviated a lot of the fearsthat I had in those those first
many years.
SPEAKER_00 (45:33):
Great advice.
Great advice for anybody.
Be prayerful.
That's absolutely important.
I love that.
All right.
I know you mentioned this alittle bit earlier, but I want
you to mention again for thosewho are tuning in or like, I'm
interested in seeing thesevideos or learning more, maybe
want to contribute to this andand help you out.
Where can they do this?
Where can they find your videos?
Where can they donate if theywant to donate?
SPEAKER_01 (45:54):
Absolutely.
So you can find us at AppianA-P-P-I-A-N-Media.org.
Uh, frankly, if you just Googleus, Appian Media, you'll likely
find our website and you'll findour YouTube channel.
You know, most of our audiencesthere on YouTube.
All of the videos that wecreate, not just our main
series, but we do videopodcasts.
We do a lot of behind thescenes.
(46:16):
That's all going to be there onour YouTube channel.
Um, but there on our website,there is a donation page.
Uh, we encourage people, youknow, we're we're currently
actively fundraising to help usin the post-production of what
we just came back shooting.
But we also encourage people, ifthey can, just to donate month
to month.
You know, even if it's just$10 amonth.
But if hundreds of people aredoing that, we can then lay
(46:36):
track, as we say, lay track forfuture projects and start saving
up for that and anticipatingthat funding.
And that that really does go along way.
SPEAKER_00 (46:45):
This was fun for me.
Thank you so much, Craig, forcoming on Journey with Jake.
SPEAKER_01 (46:49):
Thank you so much for having me.
This was this was a greatconversation.
SPEAKER_00 (46:52):
What an incredible conversation with Craig D.
Hutt.
I love how he's usingstorytelling and film to make
the Bible come alive in such apowerful way.
His passion, creativity, andfaith are a reminder that
adventure isn't just about wherewe go, it's about what we see
and how it changes us.
You can learn more about Craigand Appian Media by visiting
(47:13):
Appianmedia.org and checking outtheir amazing documentary work
on YouTube.
Thank you, as always, for tuningin to Journey with Jake.
I truly appreciate each one ofyou who listens, shares, and
supports the show.
If you haven't already, makesure to follow the podcast and
connect with me on Instagram atJourney with Jake Podcast.
I love hearing your thoughts andseeing how these stories inspire
(47:36):
your own adventures.
And be sure to join me next timeas I sit down with Dr.
David Helfin, a couplestherapist who's redefining the
idea of adventure throughmarriage retreats, mindfulness,
and connection.
It's a fascinating look at howexploring together can transform
relationships.
Until then, keep chasing youradventures, and just remember
it's not always about thedestination as it is about the
(47:58):
journey.
Take care, everybody.
Imagine walking the same paths where biblical
history unfolded, camera in handand faith as your guide.
That's the adventure of Craig D.
Hutt, filmmaker and co-founderof Appian Media.
Today on Journey with Jake,Craig shares how his team turns
sacred landscapes into cinematicstories that inspire and deepen
belief.
Welcome to Journey with Jake.
(00:21):
This is a podcast aboutadventure and how through our
adventures we can overcome thechallenges of life that come our
way.
While I expect you will learnsome things about different
adventures, this show willentertain you.
Each episode will featuredifferent guests or guests as
they share experiences andstories from the different
adventures they have been on.
Not only will you beentertained, but you'll also
(00:42):
hear the failures and trialseach guest faces and what they
have done or are doing toovercome the hardships that come
their way.
My goal is to take each of us ona journey through the
experiences of my guests withthe hope that you'll be
entertained and inspired toovercome your day-to-day
challenges.
After all, it's not all aboutthe destination as it is about
(01:02):
the year.
As always, welcome back toJourney with Jake.
I'm your host, Jake Bushman, andI'm so glad you're here for
(01:23):
another story where adventuremeets inspiration.
Before we dive in, don't forgetto follow the show wherever you
listen to podcasts and connectwith me on Instagram at Journey
with Jake Podcast.
It's the best way to stay up todate with new episodes, reels,
and behind-the-scenes clips.
If you enjoyed today'sconversation with Craig about
storytelling and faith, you'lldefinitely want to check out
bonus episode 8 with Dr.
(01:44):
Douglas Brouwer, where we talkabout what it means to live with
purpose and perspective, evenwhen life takes unexpected
turns.
All right, let's jump into myconversation with Craig D.
Hutt and hear how his passionfor film and faith turned into
an incredible adventure throughthe lands of the Bible.
I'm excited for this one becauseI kind of looked a little bit
about what you've done.
I've got Craig D.
(02:06):
Hutt with me on the show today.
Craig, welcome to Journey withJake.
SPEAKER_01 (02:09):
Well, thanks for having me, Jake.
SPEAKER_00 (02:10):
I'm excited to talk to you.
Like I said, I was kind oflooking at who you are a little
bit before.
I always do that a little bitbefore I talk to people.
It's kind of get a littlebackground who you are.
Watched a couple of your clipsand I saw a little video about
Appian Media, which you're partof.
And I was impressed.
It's got adventure written allover it.
First of all, we're talking theBible, which is adventurous in
and of itself.
(02:30):
The book by itself isadventurous.
But then as you go to theseplaces and you're bringing
things firsthand to people,that's even more adventure.
So we're going to dive intothat.
I'm excited to hear your storyabout that.
Before we do that though, Craig,I'd like to know a little bit
about who you are, kind of whereyou're from, where you grew up,
that sort of thing, if you don'tmind, before we get rolling.
SPEAKER_01 (02:47):
Yeah, so I'm uh I'm Craig De Hutt.
I'm uh live in the Midwest withmy wife Karen and our three
kiddos.
Let's see, they are 11, 9, and 7years old.
Uh Karen homeschools them, anduh, which means she's superhuman
and appreciate her so much forthat.
I I do work from home uh whenI'm not out uh shooting video.
The work that I do for Appy andMedia takes up most of my time,
(03:10):
but I still still work as afreelance video producer for
clients around the country.
Yeah, I've had a love for videoand storytelling and creative
things since I was in highschool.
It took different forms.
There was a time when I wantedto be like a cartoonist, uh like
comic strips, back in newspaperswhen people actually subscribed
to those things, and uh I wasgonna be the next Jim Davis, you
(03:31):
know, make uh Calvin and Hobbesor something like that.
Eventually fell in love withphotography and computers and
storytelling and realized thatkind of filmmaking let me do a
lot of those things all in one.
Went to film school, graduatedafter a couple of years, and
I've worked in television news,I've uh worked in radio, I have
(03:51):
done some short films, and thenuh over the last decade or so
really kind of fallen in lovewith documentary.
And that's that's what's takenus uh, you know, the creation of
Appian Media about 10 years ago,and it's taken us uh around the
world.
We've filmed in Israel andTurkey and Greece and Egypt and
Jordan and all over, reallyusing my my love for
(04:12):
storytelling and my love for theBible and combining those things
together in a in a fun visualformat.
SPEAKER_00 (04:17):
Amazing.
How did that come about?
How did the whole idea of like,hey, let's do some documentaries
about you know the Bible, AppiumMedia, basically how was Appian
Media born, I guess, is what I'masking.
SPEAKER_01 (04:27):
Right.
I mean, I wish I could say itwas my plan all along, and it
really wasn't.
Uh, you know, a friend of mine,uh Stuart Peck, was a fellow
creative.
He and I both had kind of movedto the Indianapolis area around
the same time, and so didn'tknow each other, but you hear of
another Christian who works inthis industry, and obviously you
have to meet for coffee.
We met several times and kind oftalked about the work that we
(04:49):
were doing.
He was working for HD TV at thetime.
Both of us were kind ofcomplaining about the lack of
this type of material.
High quality, accurate,biblically accurate,
historically accurate, and freevideos shot over in the Lands of
the Bible.
And we kept kind of thinking,like, surely someone's already
doing this, we just haven'tfound it.
(05:09):
You know, we just maybe justdon't know where to look.
And what we were finding, atleast at the time, it was either
not free or very low productionquality that we wouldn't want to
watch and our students wouldn'twant to watch.
Or we always kind of had to siftthrough it and give caveats,
like, hey, I want you to seethis because it shows you
Jerusalem, but they're coming atthis from a particular type of
(05:32):
slant, which we don't think isaccurate.
And we were just like, surely wecould we could find someone who
uh we don't have to do any ofthat.
You know, after complainingabout it so long, it was Stewart
who actually said, you know, howhard could it possibly be for us
as creatives to go over thereand do that?
That uh idea was born the end of2015.
Uh we launched a Kickstartercampaign actually to get this
(05:54):
thing going in the spring of2016 and took our first trip to
Israel that summer to create aseries on the life of Jesus,
thinking, you know, this isprobably the only shot we'll
get.
This is going to be harder thanwe think, and this may be the
only time that we can do it.
People keep coming back andsupporting the work, donating to
it, and asking us to createmore.
(06:14):
And so we do and and have forthe last 10 years.
SPEAKER_00 (06:18):
Wow.
So 10 years now in the making,it's still going, still
continuing on.
Still going, which is amazing.
Uh you mentioned the I think itwas like three things that you
said, because I think you'reright.
I think production quality, youknow.
I think we've all seen it, youknow, especially me as a kid and
Christian as well, you know, andyou you see these videos,
they're just so poor theproduction quality.
(06:39):
Then if you get good productionquality, then you're paying for
it.
You know, there's just so thosethose different aspects of of
getting all those.
You provide these resources forfree.
SPEAKER_01 (06:49):
Yes.
And it certainly raises eyebrowsin our industry.
They're like, How do you dothat?
How can we do that?
And it was our desire from thevery beginning uh to be a
non-for-profit, to allow peopleto donate on the front end.
And so we we raise the funds forthe production and the
post-production, and then wecreate the content so that when
we release it, we're not, youknow, desperately trying to find
(07:12):
those distribution deals torecoup some of the costs.
It's already been paid for bypeople who want to see more of
this content made.
You know, we we've done avariety of of things.
Like I said, we started with aKickstarter campaign, but as a
non-for-profit, you get scrappyand you do different things, you
know, different types offundraisers.
But on the whole, it's it's uhprimarily individuals who want
(07:33):
to see this content made, whobelieve in the mission, and want
to make sure that more and morepeople have access to it.
And so we're we're thankful forit.
SPEAKER_00 (07:41):
That's amazing.
I love that.
And I love the fact that you'vegot the people who are willing
to to put money forward forthat, for this good quality
content.
People are amazing, yeah.
Absolutely.
This is an adventure podcast.
Journey with Jake's all aboutadventure.
Like I said, I think the Biblein and of itself is full of
adventure.
You take it and you actually goto these places.
(08:02):
I gotta hear some some stories,kind of what was it like when
you like maybe the first timeyou left.
Yeah.
I I just need to hear a littlebit of a glimpse of what it's
like to actually go to placeslike Israel and Jordan, places
like that to actually film.
Because there's languagebarriers, there's custom issues.
I mean, there's all kinds ofdifferent things.
So maybe just uh two or threelittle examples of some things
(08:24):
that you could share with us.
SPEAKER_01 (08:25):
Yeah, I mean, so we're not the first people to
travel over there and makedocumentaries, but one of the
things we wanted from thebeginning was we we didn't want
just someone being there withthe land kind of behind them in
the distance.
We wanted our team to get intoit.
So we're gonna go into thestreets, we're gonna talk to the
locals, we're gonna eat thefood.
In one particular instance, wedid the series on the Exodus.
(08:47):
So we're in Egypt.
We're gonna go out into therural areas and get our host
knee deep in mud so that he canmake handmade mud bricks in a
similar fashion than theIsraelites would have when they
were in captivity.
It's about, you know, it's aboutthe adventure.
We're not trying to play it upor or overly dramatize it, but
the Bible is exciting, and wedon't have to manufacture
(09:10):
something artificial in order toget people to realize that.
And so we will oftentimes, withgear on our backs, hike up to
where we need to go to get theperspective that we need.
Uh again, but our series that wedid with uh with the Exodus, we
called it out of Egypt.
There's there's a lot of debateover where exactly Mount Sinai
is.
I didn't realize, but there's 12or more different supposed
(09:34):
sites.
There's probably two mostprominent, and uh, the one that
we chose to film at for a coupleof different reasons was the one
in the Sinai Peninsula, uh JabelMusa.
That involved spending the nighton top of this mountain.
You know, there's no hotel upthere.
We, you know, loaded gear on ourbacks and hiked up that and and
filmed the whole experience.
(09:54):
We really kind of broke thefourth wall and helped the
viewers understand like it's ateam going up here.
We got to sleep out, you know,under the stars in the freezing
cold night and wake up to thesunrise on the top of this
mountain as we considered whatGod brought to his servant
Moses.
But then there are other, youknow, other exciting things that
we can do.
Uh, in fact, we just our teamjust came back about uh a week
(10:15):
or so ago.
We're doing uh a series on thethe book of Acts and Paul's
missionary journeys.
So starting in Jerusalem, butthen venturing out into places
like Turkey and Greece, gettingon a boat and seeing what it
would have been like, you know,as as Paul approached the harbor
to some of these cities, andkeeping the cameras wrapped in
plastic as the sea, you know, isis getting in our eyes, and salt
(10:36):
water, obviously, andelectronics do not mix.
Apparently, salt water and hostsdo not mix either.
We got them completely drenched.
But uh our team, they're they'reso they're so up for a
challenge, just really excitedto have the people along for
trips like that.
But you're right, there arethere are customs issues, there
are language barriers.
Uh I only speak English andbarely.
(10:57):
And so when we're over there,you know, we've got local fixers
who can speak uh, you know, amultiplicity of languages,
helping us understand thecultural differences, helping us
understand.
I mean, we we happened toschedule a trip in in Israel
just a couple of weeks ago thathappened to arrive during the
Jewish New Year.
And like, I wasn't thinkingabout that, the end of
(11:17):
September, beginning of October.
And then that you know was righton the heels of their feast of
booths.
I didn't realize, but the firstcouple of days of the Feast of
Booths is a day when familiesoftentimes will do their bar
mitzvahs.
And so Jerusalem was just fullof you know Israeli families you
know, bringing out their teenagesons, uh, doing their bar
mitzvahs, which again, in someinstances, you might what's
(11:40):
like, oh, well, this is not whatwe expected.
We're not gonna film that forus.
We love that kind of stuff.
So we're like, hey, the streetsare full of families and music
and dancing, and so rollcameras, send the hosts out into
that and have them engage withthese people, ask them to blow
the chaufar and you know, thingslike that.
It's all about getting peoplewho are unfamiliar with the
(12:03):
culture, and I very much was toto appreciate, you know, this
this long history of of uhincredible culture and and
happenings that God chose uh todo with his people and among his
people over the last thousandsof years.
And so trying to bring some ofthat home, uh at least for those
of us who who live in America,our content is is viewed
(12:24):
worldwide.
Many people just don'tunderstand.
They don't understand what itlooks like over there.
I know as a kid I imaginedIsrael was just sand dunes.
Right.
You know, that's not the case.
You know, some parts of Israelare incredibly green and lush,
and uh there are cities overthere now that are incredibly
modern cities, Tel Aviv orplaces, even parts of Jerusalem,
are usually just trying to helppeople visualize it differently,
(12:47):
kind of change the stereotypesmaybe they have in their mind or
the preconceived ideas they havein their mind, so that when they
read the text of scripture, theycan go, okay, now I can
visualize Jericho.
Okay, the Sea of Galilee is notan ocean, it's a small lake.
You can see from one side to theother.
And we're trying to help catchpeople up to have the same kind
(13:09):
of understanding of the history,the geography, and the culture
that that the originalrecipients of those books had.
SPEAKER_00 (13:16):
Kind of going back to that mountaintop in Egypt,
you're staying overnight.
You mentioned a couple things.
You mentioned your team and youmentioned gear.
When you say gear, what doesthat consist of?
I mean, I think camera, but whatI mean, there's probably more
than that.
There's probably all kinds ofthings.
So what's gear and then theteam?
What does your team consist of,roughly?
And I know it probably varies,but kind of give me a little
bit.
SPEAKER_01 (13:36):
It does vary.
We've had different team membersover uh over the course of
different projects, buttypically we're somewhere
between seven and ten people,and that's going to consist of
usually one or two differenthosts.
Three or four of us.
Uh we're all wearing amultiplicity of hats, but three
or four of us are usually theones with cameras in our hands.
But you've got camera operators,you usually have someone
(13:57):
dedicated to sound recording.
So they're the guy with the boompole, the headphones on, trying
to keep things quiet.
Sometimes we're lucky to have acouple of production assistants.
Oftentimes those are eitherteenagers of some of the hosts
or other team members.
We like to kind of helpencourage and teach the next
generation.
And then, you know, there's aproducer and a director, and uh,
(14:19):
sometimes that's the sameperson.
In the case of this lastproduction, that was me.
I was a producer and directorand pulled out a camera from
time to time and shot as well.
And then the the gear, you know,you're talking not just a
camera, you're talking three orfour main cameras.
We've shot with a variety ofthings, cannons over the years.
The last few years we've beenusing Sony's, uh, things like
(14:42):
the FX6 and FX3.
But then there's GoPros that weuse and 360 cameras.
There's usually a droneoperator.
Sometimes that's one of us orsomeone local, because getting
to see the Bible lands from theair is just spectacular.
So that's cameras, it's lights,it's microphones, it's
reflectors, it's cables, it'stripods.
(15:02):
We do try to pack light.
We're not going to have the kindof stuff that we would use if we
were shooting something in thestudio.
But it's still, you know, seven,eight, nine large pelican cases
that come with us on thoseairplanes and get lugged around
as we film what we need to film.
SPEAKER_00 (15:20):
And then you're going up a mountain in Egypt
with all this stuff.
SPEAKER_01 (15:22):
And then we're strapping it on our back and
going, okay, what can possiblystay at the hotel?
SPEAKER_00 (15:27):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (15:28):
I do not want to take this up on a mountain.
And then inevitably you get upon the mountain and go, I I wish
I had brought fill in the blank.
SPEAKER_00 (15:35):
Well, kind of in those same lines then, maybe
paint us a picture when you knoweverything kind of seemed to go
wrong.
You know, maybe a broken camera,maybe, you know, language.
I don't know, whatever.
I I think there's at one pointthat you had a guard demanding a
bribe.
I don't know.
I've I've read different thingsor heard different things.
So paint a picture when thingsare going wrong, and how do you
how do you kind of overcomethat?
(15:56):
Sure.
SPEAKER_01 (15:57):
It happens every trip.
We spend months and months inpre-production and development
planning for these trips.
We do not just show up and startfilming.
You have to acquire filmpermits, you've got to get all
the permissions.
Uh, we do this legally, we dothis safely.
All those things you take intoconsideration.
And yet, inevitably, you show upand things don't go the way that
(16:19):
you expect.
Sometimes in a good way,sometimes we are blessed with
things more than what wethought.
And then sometimes it's likethis this is not how I thought
the day was gonna go.
We've got to make the most ofit.
You know, there's no coming backand uh oh, we'll just come back
tomorrow and do it again.
No, you you're moving on to thenext location.
So, yeah, there are film permitsthat are required.
(16:39):
And in some instances, this wasat the at the base of Jabel
Musa, their Sinai.
It's in the video, veryexpensive film permit.
They usually, you know, in Egyptand Jordan will uh in in many
ways kind of take advantage ofthose that that want to film
these types of things and do itlegally.
And we showed up, we had thepermit in hand, and it was
(17:00):
something as silly as, well,your permit is only good for a
day, and we constitute that assunset.
So we'd shown up at 10 a.m.
thinking a day equaled 24 hours,and they said, no, that the rest
of today.
And so you need to get anotherfilm permit for the sunrise.
So you can either go up thereand film, but as soon as the sun
(17:23):
sets, you can't film any of therest.
And so they they kept us kind ofhigh and dry for two hours,
three hours, waiting, you know,for the response and seeing how
we were going to do that, sothat when we finally did pay
what we needed to pay and starthiking, we were three hours
behind, the sun was was startingto set.
You know, we didn't want toshoot in the dark, completely in
(17:43):
the dark.
And so we made a hike thatnormally takes three or four
hours, and we kind of had topush and do it in less than two.
With all your with all your gearand everything else.
With all the gear, right?
And uh so we're we're huffingand puffing and getting up there
and and very thankful.
We got there as the sun was inthat kind of golden hour moment,
(18:04):
so it was a beautiful scene, andwe're very thankful for it.
We like I said, we just cameback from from Israel and Turkey
and Greece.
There were a couple of siteswhere you know we got the
permits, but that morning we'retold actually that particular
site has been closed forconstruction for the last two
months.
We forgot to tell you.
Oops.
So, okay, well, we can shoot itin this way.
(18:26):
We can get the drone in there,and it can, I mean, nearly touch
the ground.
It can start shooting and almostlook like you've got someone
there, but a human can't get inthere.
And so finding different ways toto accomplish what we need to
accomplish, to bring home thevisuals, keeping everyone safe
and healthy, keeping ourselveson schedule as best as possible.
(18:47):
And that's that's the primaryjob of a producer.
And so the producer's job is aproblem solver.
And so you're you're talkingwith those fixtures and those
locals, you're managing thepermits and the payments and
readjusting things when thingsdon't go uh according to
schedule.
SPEAKER_00 (19:04):
How long do each of these projects take roughly?
I mean, I know they probablyvary again, but from the first
time you went to this mostrecent one, what are kind of the
how many days are you goneroughly?
Sure.
SPEAKER_01 (19:15):
The completion of a project from concept to
completion, it's anywherebetween 18 to 24 months.
Believe it or not, of those 18or 24 months, we're only
overseas for a couple of weeks.
Gotcha.
SPEAKER_00 (19:27):
Okay, so two weeks.
SPEAKER_01 (19:28):
In this particular instance, it was about 18 days
and was the longest trip we'dever taken.
It's not long, but we pack thosedays.
And then you come home withterabytes and terabytes of
footage, hours of footage.
It's it's my job and and othersto uh to edit it together into
something that's reasonable andwatchable, and that that process
(19:48):
takes the bulk of the time,months, to edit all that
together.
SPEAKER_00 (19:52):
Wow.
Okay.
And you said, you know, thosetwo weeks that you're on
location filming, you pack thosedays.
What does a typical day looklike?
SPEAKER_01 (20:00):
If it's a good day, we get breakfast at the hotel
before we leave.
Not every day we get thatluxury.
Sometimes we're eating in thevans as we're heading to that
first location.
But typically it's uh, you know,you're getting up between six
and six thirty in the morning.
Ideally, you're getting to theselocations either before the
public has access to them orwhen the lighting is best.
(20:22):
You're filming uh depending onwhat you're what you're shooting
and and what's involved, two tofour hours at a location, and
then you're packing all that upand going to the next location
and shooting for two to fourhours.
Typically, depending on howclose the locations are, you
might be able to do two or threeof those in a day.
Again, a good day is when youhave lunch at lunchtime.
(20:44):
And then usually we're notgetting back to the hotel until
seven or eight o'clock in theevening.
But for many of us, the workisn't finished.
You know, the the crew is comingback, they're cleaning cameras,
charging batteries.
Uh, for those of us, uhtypically I'm in charge of
what's called DIT.
It's the person in handling allthe media, backing up all the
footage at the end of the day,uh, which takes, you know, a
(21:05):
long time.
And then uh uh hopefully gettinga shower and uh getting a good
night's rest because you're upat six o'clock the next morning
to to do it all over.
SPEAKER_00 (21:14):
Do it all over again.
I'm guessing when these twoweeks are over, you gotta be
just exhausted.
SPEAKER_01 (21:49):
Absolutely.
In fact, if you had tried to doa podcast with me last week, I
don't know that I could havestrung two sentences together.
Um I'm still recovering aboutgetting over the jet lag.
So it's worth it.
Like I I live for that.
It is so exciting and exhaustingand stressful and wonderful, and
I'm thrilled to go.
(22:10):
I'm blessed to go.
You know, I've been able totravel to places that that most
people will not get to see intheir lifetime.
And I've been able to, you know,for for Israel, I I've been
there now four different times,and that's such a blessing.
That's incredible.
But I'm also uh I can't wait tocome home.
You know, there gets a point inevery trip where it's like, oh
man, I can, you know, chat withmy wife and we can FaceTime and
(22:34):
send messages.
You know, you're missing home uhpretty early on in those trips,
and then you go, I still havetwo more weeks to go.
So certainly not complaining.
It is uh it is an opportunitythat I I realize I am blessed to
have and I'm thankful for it.
There have been many people whowould say, Oh, I'd love to come
on a trip with you just to justto come along and experience it.
(22:54):
It's like you you actually don'tunderstand what you're
volunteering for.
This is not a vacation.
This is not a typical tour ofthe Bible lands.
This is work.
This is 16 to 18 hour days.
My watch tells me or my phonetells me that I'm walking
somewhere between 12 and 14miles a day.
Like those are just my my steps,you know, not counting the miles
(23:17):
that we drive.
It's work and it's fun and it'sit's absolutely worth it.
SPEAKER_00 (23:22):
You mentioned something about that I didn't
even think of, but you weretalking about a typical day, and
you said a lot of times you tryto get to these places before
the public does.
I didn't even think about that.
I mean, a lot of these placesyou're filming are places that,
yeah, these are like could beattractions because people are
like, oh, I want to see thisplace where the Bible you know
took place.
And what's that like when youget people involved?
How do you kind of manage that?
Because I'm sure people arecurious and want to kind of
(23:43):
looky look or whatever, kind ofwhat's the situation like that
when you get people involved?
SPEAKER_01 (23:47):
Yeah, you know, every every year is a different
challenge.
These are places, you know.
You talk about this is whereJesus grew up.
Here's Capernaum, here'sNazareth.
We are not the first people togo there, and we are certainly
not going to be the last, and weare not there by ourselves.
If we're lucky, we can havethose opportunities where the
film permit may allow us eitheraccess before the the crowds are
(24:12):
there or after.
But we've been blessed.
Uh, like there was anopportunity we went to
Bethlehem, and there's uhthere's a church called the
Church of the Nativity, and it'sa structure that's been built on
top of what very well could havebeen the area where Jesus was
born.
Not a barn manger, but likely acave is where they would have
kept the animals.
(24:33):
And so in the basement of thischurch, it is like a ride to
Disneyland, the line that isformed of people who want to go
down into this small area andlook and then come back up.
Our fixture knew a guy whoworked there and were able to
communicate with him, and theybasically said, We're cleaning
the site right now.
(24:53):
You have five minutes down thereby yourselves, and we can't hold
the crowds back any longer thanthat.
So we got to shoot a scene infive minutes, and then they
said, Okay, we're gonna let thecrowds in now, and we we kept
rolling, we kept kind ofshooting some b-roll and things,
and that space just filled upwith people.
We get those types ofopportunities.
(25:14):
Um, but then there are othertypes where we I have no control
over the space.
You know, it's a it's a publicspace and it's the middle of the
day, and we need to film it, andso where can we go and angle it
so that we don't have crowds,like you said, kind of peering
in the background, looking atthe hosts and being obnoxious.
There was literally an instancewhile we were in Greece where
I've got a camera in one hand,I'm holding a gimbal, the scene
(25:36):
is rolling, the hosts are doingtheir thing, and I can see a
tour group coming up, andthey're completely oblivious.
Or maybe they're not and they'rejust curious.
And with one hand I'm filming,and the other hand I'm you know
putting my hand up, motioningfor them to stop and hold back.
I can't call to them becausecameras are rolling, but I'm
literally like, you know, quiet,quiet, hold them back, and the
(25:59):
crowd thankfully saw it, stayedjust out of frame.
Then we yell cut and that placefills with people.
It's a challenge.
There have been times uh wedidn't make a trip to Turkey
during the year of COVID, soOctober of 2020.
Uh Turkey was one of the firstcountries to open back up.
There was a small window wherewe had had to postpone the trip
because of COVID, but it openedback up in October.
(26:22):
And so we went, you know, let'slet's take advantage of it,
let's go.
But the majority of the worldwas still afraid to travel.
And so we got to Turkey andthese sites that are typically
filled with people, no one wasthere.
We had Ephesus almost all toourselves, and it was um that
was quite a blessing where wecould kind of point in any
direction and go, yeah, there'sthere's no one here.
SPEAKER_00 (26:43):
As you're talking, you mentioned these places, you
know, Nazareth and Bethlehem andthese amazing historical places.
But not only for you know whatthey were, but because you know,
as as someone like me who whobelieves in Christ and follows
Christ, that's pretty important.
How does this affect you, likein your faith?
I mean, is this something that'simportant to you beforehand, and
(27:04):
and how does it affect it asyou've done these projects?
SPEAKER_01 (27:07):
I mean, I I've been very blessed.
I grew up in a Christian home,and uh my father is a preacher,
and so I I was familiar with thestories.
I I came to believe in themearly on.
I became a Christian when I wasabout 12 years old, uh, was
baptized into Christ, and so myfaith wasn't dependent on seeing
it with my own eyes.
I read it in the book and Ibelieved the book.
(27:28):
I believe the book.
It's God's inspired word, butthere's something about getting
to see it, and whether that'swith your own eyes, and if if
people have the opportunity, Iencourage them to do it, even
just once.
But even just seeing it througha video, seeing someone walk you
through the space, there'ssomething profoundly helpful to
(27:52):
your faith.
It it grounds it, it's not it'snot stories of a long time ago
in a in a land far away.
These are historical accounts ofreal people who lived in real
places.
The events are real, just as theBible describes them.
There have been times, I wasthankful, one of our hosts,
Barry Britnell, he actuallyleads tours over there on a
regular basis.
(28:12):
It's one of the reasons why he'she's part of our team.
But the very first trip, hesaid, I know you guys are going
to do your job, and I know thatyou guys are busy looking, you
know, through the cameras andand doing your work, but
everywhere we go, make sure thatat some point you put the camera
down and you don't just see theplace through a monitor, but you
see it with your own eyes, andjust take a breath and look
(28:35):
around and take a moment toconsider.
You're standing in the Garden ofGethsemane right now.
Think about what happened there.
Think about what Jesus chose todo and not do while he was
praying in that garden.
Like take a moment and thinkabout it.
That has affected my faith, thatthat has affected the way that I
teach.
(28:55):
Um when I get opportunity topreach, to be able to say,
listen, like to stand in thegarden and to see the city, and
to know that Jesus watched asthe torches came down that
valley and he could hear themob, he could he knew that they
were armed, he could see the thetorch lights, and yet he waited
a solid 15 minutes at leastwatching them come down and come
(29:18):
back up, and he stayed where hewas and let them come.
Having those types of moments,it happens every trip where it's
like, Can you can you believethat we're here?
We're here.
There are some sites where it'syou know, we don't know for
sure, somewhere in this areaJesus fed the 5,000.
But then there are some siteswhere it's like it could be
nowhere but here.
(29:38):
We are standing in the place,the valley of Elah, where David
fought Goliath, is just onevalley, and it narrows to a
point where there's a creek bed,where there's only one place he
could have gotten those stones.
And you're standing in thatcreek bed going, yeah, David
stooped down somewhere rightaround here.
And so I did, like any goodtourist would, I picked up five
smooth stones and took themhome.
(29:59):
But just doing that and andhaving that again, my faith is
not dependent on it, but I thinkGod in his wisdom provides the
evidence so that our faith doesnot necessarily have to be a
leap of faith, a blind leap intonothingness, but a a very
reasonable step where you followthe evidence, you look at what
God has provided, you look atthe the Bible and the fact that
(30:23):
it has stood the test of time,and then you go to these places,
and wouldn't you know it's justlike the Bible describes it?
Down to the position of thecreek that David got his stones
from, and you go, okay, for meto believe that God created the
world the way that Genesis 1describes it, yeah, I can do
that.
SPEAKER_00 (30:42):
I like that perspective.
Thank you.
As far as filming goes, too,because you're in these amazing
places.
How do you have find thatcorrect balance?
Because you want to capturegreat footage, but you also want
to, you know, you got thehistorical weight of the places
that you're in.
How do you do that?
How do you kind of find thatright balance?
SPEAKER_01 (30:58):
Hmm.
You know, keeping the properperspective of what it is that
we're doing.
We are not merely entertaining.
We could go to these places andmake it very entertaining for
you and give you very littlevalue.
We could also go and lecture toyou and just give you
information, kind of brain dumpon you and happen to be in the,
(31:19):
but we aren't going to want towatch that either.
Finding the right combination,and sometimes that's easy and
sometimes it's more challenging.
We have found that that ourapproach, the more we make it
feel like the viewer is simplythere with us on the trip with
us, the more we find our workresonates with people.
What we call in the industrybreaking the fourth wall.
(31:42):
There are occasions whereinstead of just seeing the two
hosts, we'll show you the crewfilming the two hosts.
Or something might be happeningwhere a camera operator happens
to be engaging with one of thelocals and buying something at
one of the local shops, and wemay show you that.
We want the viewers to feel likethey're there among us on the
(32:05):
trip with us.
And then that prevents us fromhaving to manufacture anything
artificial.
Fascinating things are happeningas we go and visit these places.
You know, as we got to the topof Jab El Musa, you know, we get
to the top of Mount Sinai andwe're exhausted and we're
shooting a scene.
And this reverend guy, you know,this older black gentleman, uh
(32:27):
starts singing and screaminghallelujah as he gets to the
top.
We could have said, cut, startagain.
You know, he kind of ruined thescene, and instead, cameras just
kind of flipped over to him.
And our host knew enough to justengage him in conversation and
had a great conversation withthis gentleman who uh was much
(32:48):
older than we were, and yet hadpushed himself to get up this
mountain to experience that.
We try to embrace that as oftenas we can, authentic moments
that that just happened.
SPEAKER_00 (32:58):
Your company, Appian Media, the the content that you
produce, for example, I thinkyou have you know you have the
life of Christ or kind of the weknow where Christ was with one
of your first ones that you did,but who would you say it's for?
Is it for families?
Can you know would a wholefamily enjoy this together?
I mean, what kind of who arethese really targeting?
SPEAKER_01 (33:17):
Absolutely.
I I know in our industry peopleare like, who is your target
audience?
And we say, everyone.
We are not simply making contentfor people who already believe
the Bible.
The vast majority of ouraudience probably already does,
at least to some degree.
That's that's why they end upstumbling across or even looking
for what we're creating.
(33:38):
But we want to make content thatan atheist could start watching
and go, listen, I don't believethis Bible stuff, but this is
compelling history.
This is shot well, those hostsare engaging, and maybe they can
learn something.
Uh, hopefully, they can learn toknow and and love God and his
son Jesus.
These videos are for the peoplewho may be doubting in their
(33:59):
faith.
Can I really trust what theBible says?
Is it actually real?
It's one of the reasons why welean into the archaeological
evidence of these stories.
So we'll interview experts andarchaeologists, we'll go to digs
as they're digging stuff up outof the ground to help those who
may be questioning their faith.
Maybe even they're they'reprofessing to be agnostic now.
(34:22):
Maybe they used to believesomething and don't.
And maybe our content isappealing to them to go, okay,
I'm gonna give this a secondlook.
But absolutely, they're forfamilies who want to teach their
children.
They're for preachers andteachers who are teaching
classes and want to engage inthat way.
This wasn't our original design,but it's no surprise to me that
(34:43):
the homeschool community eatsthis stuff up.
You know, you're talking aboutfree Bible videos, and now we've
got dozens and dozens of hoursof it.
So we we end up, and have beendoing this now for the last five
or six years, uh, frequentinghomeschool conventions.
We'll we'll come with a boothand and have our workbooks and
the videos and and uh engagewith families in that way.
(35:05):
The original idea of Appian wasprimarily focusing on a
disengagement that we wereseeing in high school age.
Kids were showing up at Bibleclass, bored with the resources
that were being made availableor no resources that were being
made available.
They were used to engagingthrough media at school in order
(35:26):
to help them learn, butoftentimes that media was not
available in Bible classes.
And so what started with adesire to re-engage teenagers,
we we realized that people ofall ages are falling into that
very similar category.
We are all visual learners, weall benefit from seeing what it
is that we're reading.
(35:46):
There's nothing that we havecreated that I would not
recommend for any age.
I mean, young and old.
I've got a seven-year-old, andhe's been watching our content.
We've been creating our contentsince before he was born.
And so I love it when I hearfamilies say, this was just told
to me just a few months back.
Uh, my kid was never interestedin our Bible studies.
We, you know, we're trying toengage them.
(36:08):
Then we showed them a few of theof your videos, and now they're
the ones engaging, saying, Canwe watch more?
Can we study more?
And now they're interested inthe story of David when before
that was just one more thing forthem to do.
They're excited about the Bibleagain, and that's uh that's a
win for us.
SPEAKER_00 (36:25):
I like it too, because if you think about it,
the Bible, it's exciting byitself.
You know, you don't really needall this other stuff.
However, I think what you'redoing though just brings it to a
whole new light and gets peopleexcited.
If I'm not mistaken, how many Idon't know, I don't want to call
them views, but how many peoplehave partaken of Appian Media
(36:46):
content?
It's been you're pushingmillion, right?
I mean, you're at those kind ofnumbers?
SPEAKER_01 (36:51):
It's something close to 20 million views across our
various platforms.
Wow, okay, even higher than Ithought.
So our analytics tell us thatpeople in over 160 countries
have seen the content.
So it's available on YouTube.
That's where our primaryaudience is.
But Vimeo as well, Facebook andInstagram, 20, 20 million views.
(37:11):
And we don't say that to bragabout our team.
We say that to to prove thepoint that people really are out
there searching and they'reinterested and they want to
engage with God's word.
They're just looking formechanisms that they're familiar
with.
Yeah, we're we're blown away.
We're incredibly humbled by thethe growth that we've seen.
SPEAKER_00 (37:33):
And you mentioned some feedback you got about, you
know, the the children wantingto kind of push it forward now
and say, hey, let's watch this.
Any other example of any kind ofyou know feedback you've got
from somebody who's eitherstumbled across your content or
wanted to look at it and thenkind of what it's done for them.
SPEAKER_01 (37:48):
It is so much fun, actually, to read the YouTube
comments, especially.
That used to be one of myresponsibilities.
We're a small team and you wearmany hats.
Thankfully, you know, you nowhire someone to help me out with
social media, but just readingthrough those comments and you
get a wide variety.
On the whole, people areincredibly thankful for getting
to see things.
(38:09):
There are some people who said,I've been a Christian for 60
years.
I've been reading the Biblesince I was six years old, and I
never saw Jerusalem.
Like I never really saw it.
But now I go back and I readthese stories I'm familiar with,
and now I actually see it.
Uh my favorite are things like aparent told me they watched an
episode of our series, we callit Searching for a King.
(38:32):
So it's about the first kings ofIsrael, Saul and David and
Solomon.
And they said, We watchedepisode one, and then we binge
read first Samuel.
And I love that.
Like, I'm less encouraged when Ihear people say that they binge
watched our content.
Like, good for you.
I haven't even binge watched ourcontent.
But I love it when I hear peoplesay, I watched enough and it got
(38:54):
me interested, and then I wentto the book and I couldn't stop
reading.
And that's really encouragingfor us.
SPEAKER_00 (38:59):
I you know, I look at the film industry as a whole
and you know, Hollywood, andit's there's not a lot of
Christian things there.
I mean, it kind of feels likeit's gone away from it.
And so I love the fact thatpeople like you and your team
who have these skills, thesegreat filmmaking skills, are
applying that to, you know, toshowcase faith and God and
Christ.
(39:20):
Where's Appian going?
I mean, where what's what doesthe future look like?
SPEAKER_01 (39:23):
That's uh in the Lord's hands, I would say.
We're excited for for everyproject we get to do and every
year that we get to continue todo this.
I will say that our team overthe last year and a half has
actually been developing a10-year plan.
So instead of just going projectto project, which was common,
they would say, okay, well,what's next?
What's next?
Now we've we've looked at thecontent that we've already
(39:46):
created and realized that wewere putting together pieces of
a full curriculum, pieces oftelling the entire Bible story.
Over the next 10 years, give ortake, we would like to fill in
the rest of those pieces so thatpeople can have content about
the Bible from Genesis toRevelation.
We have done a series on thelife of Jesus, but our team just
(40:08):
came back, like I said, doing aseries on the book of Acts and
many of those epistles.
That's going to involve a secondproduction trip, Lord willing,
in the next year or so, tofinish up Acts and the rest of
those epistles.
But you look at those two thingstogether and you've got almost
the entirety of the NewTestament.
And then going back, doingGenesis, doing the judges and
(40:30):
the conquest of Canaan, doingthe poetry, you know, doing
Psalms and Proverbs, and thereare visuals that can be created
or shown to help us betterunderstand that poetry language.
Uh, that's the plan.
Funding permitting, and and withthe right kind of creative
people on board, we believe thatwe can accomplish this in in
about 10 years' time.
SPEAKER_00 (40:51):
I love it.
It's amazing.
It's quite the quite the plan.
It's incredibly ambitious.
Yeah, it's absolutely ambitious.
I think that's that's great,though.
Even when you know travel'sdifficult, you know, you had
COVID at one point, kind of inthe middle, messing things up.
For you personally, what whatkeeps you motivated to keep this
going?
SPEAKER_01 (41:07):
Well, I wish I could tell you that I was super
excited about this work all thetime.
And it just keeps me on fire,and there's every day, you know,
and it's just it's not true.
The vast majority of the worktakes place in this room by
myself.
I'm editing together the video,and and there are other people
involved in that, but for manymonths, those initial months,
um, it's me on this computer orthese computers getting the work
(41:30):
done.
And staying motivated are thingslike just reminding myself, you
know, 15 years ago, we werelooking for tools like this,
even 10 years ago, and couldn'tfind it.
And we've made these availablefor people who are looking.
I look at my kids and go, When Iwas a kid, we did not have
(41:51):
resources like this, but my kidswill and do.
So they'll be able to look backon their childhood and go, we
had that at our fingertips.
My dad helped create it.
I'm very passionate on a varietyof levels of equipping the next
generation with what they need,to have stronger faith, to be
more engaged and active in theircommunities and in their
(42:12):
churches.
I believe that our resources arebeing used to do that.
And it also allows me theopportunity to talk to other
creatives, Christian creatives,or people who are, you know,
thinking about even steppinginto that industry, where I can,
I can now go, listen, uh, Iwould encourage you to do it.
You know, it's not just enoughto curse the darkness.
(42:32):
We have to be the ones to bringthe light.
And if you've got that skillset, many Christians before you
said, it's too hard, or I can'tdo it, or no one else is doing
it.
And so they talked themselvesout of it.
We shouldn't be that thatgeneration to do that.
And so just reminding myself ofwhat has been accomplished,
again, not through our ownability and our strength, but
(42:55):
what God is allowed to dothrough us and thinking about
what he can continue to do, whatmore he can do, keeps me going,
keeps our team going.
SPEAKER_00 (43:03):
And a question I always like to ask, because this
is, you know, journey withJake's about adventure and kind
of who you are on your journey.
For you, after these last 10years, more years to come, what
does adventure mean to you?
Oh man.
SPEAKER_01 (43:14):
Adventure means to me trying things I've not tried
before.
And I'm trying to instill thatinto my kids because growing up,
man, I I was the kid who likedroutine.
I liked the things that I liked.
And it didn't make sense for meto try new things because I had
already found, obviously, thebest food and the best book.
I had never flowninternationally prior to
(43:35):
starting Appian Media.
I'd never been overseas.
And I wasn't the one to initiatethat.
It was really Stuart's idea togo, whoa, what if we did this
crazy thing?
And I'm so glad that I did.
Was incredibly intimidated to doit the first time, and it took
one trip to Israel for suddenlymy bucket list of where else I
wanted to visit in the world,just that keeps getting longer
(43:58):
and longer and longer.
Adventure means trying newthings.
And sometimes it'll be thingsthat I love, and sometimes it'll
be things that I will never tryagain, like the raw meatballs
that we ate in Turkeyaccidentally.
Like we tried it, and I'llnever, never do that again.
But some of my favorite foodsnow are things that I ate in
(44:18):
Israel that had never eatenbefore, and I would not have
touched even in my 20s.
And now I'm asking my my wife athome, like, can you make swarma
at home?
Like, yeah, I brought somespices from Jerusalem.
Let's let's get this done.
So just put yourself out there,try new things, experiment, and
find people to do that with you.
(44:39):
And I think I think that's oneof the keys.
SPEAKER_00 (44:41):
I love that.
That's a great way to look atit.
All right, you're looking back10 years ago.
Appy Imedi is just kicking off.
You're just starting.
Here you are now.
What would you say to yourselflooking back?
What advice would you giveyourself knowing what you know
now?
SPEAKER_01 (44:56):
I still feel like I'm figuring it out even after
10 years.
I don't feel like we've gottento the point where like, oh,
this is now very easy.
But I think what I would tellmyself is be less timid, engage
with other people who have comebefore you and tried those
things, get more feedback fromfrom others, and just be, you
know, trusting in the Lord,trusting in his timing.
(45:19):
Our our endeavors are prayerfulendeavors.
We we always engage with prayerbefore, during, and after
productions.
But to do that even more, uh, Ithink would would have
alleviated a lot of the fearsthat I had in those those first
many years.
SPEAKER_00 (45:33):
Great advice.
Great advice for anybody.
Be prayerful.
That's absolutely important.
I love that.
All right.
I know you mentioned this alittle bit earlier, but I want
you to mention again for thosewho are tuning in or like, I'm
interested in seeing thesevideos or learning more, maybe
want to contribute to this andand help you out.
Where can they do this?
Where can they find your videos?
Where can they donate if theywant to donate?
SPEAKER_01 (45:54):
Absolutely.
So you can find us at AppianA-P-P-I-A-N-Media.org.
Uh, frankly, if you just Googleus, Appian Media, you'll likely
find our website and you'll findour YouTube channel.
You know, most of our audiencesthere on YouTube.
All of the videos that wecreate, not just our main
series, but we do videopodcasts.
We do a lot of behind thescenes.
(46:16):
That's all going to be there onour YouTube channel.
Um, but there on our website,there is a donation page.
Uh, we encourage people, youknow, we're we're currently
actively fundraising to help usin the post-production of what
we just came back shooting.
But we also encourage people, ifthey can, just to donate month
to month.
You know, even if it's just$10 amonth.
But if hundreds of people aredoing that, we can then lay
(46:36):
track, as we say, lay track forfuture projects and start saving
up for that and anticipatingthat funding.
And that that really does go along way.
SPEAKER_00 (46:45):
This was fun for me.
Thank you so much, Craig, forcoming on Journey with Jake.
SPEAKER_01 (46:49):
Thank you so much for having me.
This was this was a greatconversation.
SPEAKER_00 (46:52):
What an incredible conversation with Craig D.
Hutt.
I love how he's usingstorytelling and film to make
the Bible come alive in such apowerful way.
His passion, creativity, andfaith are a reminder that
adventure isn't just about wherewe go, it's about what we see
and how it changes us.
You can learn more about Craigand Appian Media by visiting
(47:13):
Appianmedia.org and checking outtheir amazing documentary work
on YouTube.
Thank you, as always, for tuningin to Journey with Jake.
I truly appreciate each one ofyou who listens, shares, and
supports the show.
If you haven't already, makesure to follow the podcast and
connect with me on Instagram atJourney with Jake Podcast.
I love hearing your thoughts andseeing how these stories inspire
(47:36):
your own adventures.
And be sure to join me next timeas I sit down with Dr.
David Helfin, a couplestherapist who's redefining the
idea of adventure throughmarriage retreats, mindfulness,
and connection.
It's a fascinating look at howexploring together can transform
relationships.
Until then, keep chasing youradventures, and just remember
it's not always about thedestination as it is about the
(47:58):
journey.
Take care, everybody.
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