May 14, 2025 • 51 mins
Brett Varvel shares his journey from creating backyard films to becoming an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker dedicated to faith-based storytelling. His creative foundations were shaped by growing up in an artistic household as the son of an internationally syndicated cartoonist, where exploration of various art forms was encouraged from an early age.
• Growing up in a creative household with his cartoonist father provided early exposure to visual storytelling
• Started with 2D art as a child before discovering his passion for filmmaking around age five
• Used action figures to create stories before gaining access to the family video camera
• Found that filmmaking combined all art forms he loved - visual design, writing, acting, and production
• Family garage became "Varvel Studio" where he and his brother created music videos and short films
• Negotiated with high school teachers to create films instead of written reports
• Won a statewide competition with a faith-based short film that changed his career direction
• Professor Jim Shasky at Ball State University provided tough but necessary criticism that shaped his development
• His film "Disciples in the Moonlight" took seven years to develop and explores what would happen if the Bible were outlawed in America
• Continues to embrace collaboration and dreams of creating a film about the crucifixion from both physical and spiritual perspectives
To experience Brett's work, watch "Disciples in the Moonlight" on Amazon, Apple TV, or Google Play.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to Risk and Resolve, and now for
your hosts, ben Conner and ToddHufford.
All right, welcome to anotherepisode of the Risk and Resolve
podcast.
Really pleased to have ourspecial guest with us today,
brett Varvel, from the creativefamily dynasty of the Varvel
(00:21):
family.
How are you doing, brett?
Speaker 2 (00:24):
I'm doing great.
It's good to be with you guys.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Brett, it's always great to see you, glad to be
here, and obviously my partnerin crime, todd Hufford, is here
with us as well.
Todd, how are you?
Speaker 3 (00:35):
I'm doing great, especially great because we get
to talk to Brett.
Brett is always going about 15different directions at a time
in 3D, so we're going to diveinto a little bit of that.
You know I was going to sayBrett, congratulations.
You're so successful now thatwe cannot cover all of your
successes in a podcast.
So congratulations, thank you.
(00:57):
I appreciate it.
I'm going to rattle off alittle bit about your background
for those that don't know you,but then we're going to go back
in history a little bit, so youalready know this about yourself
.
You're an Emmy Award winningfilmmaker, director, actor and
writer.
You're based here in ourwonderful city, indianapolis,
indiana.
You serve as the executivedirector of House of Grace
(01:18):
Studios, a production companyyou founded company you founded.
You're also known for yourdedication to creating high
value, faith-based content andyour passion for storytelling
comes through in everything youdo.
Anything inaccurate in thatstatement?
I think that's close.
It's pretty close.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Yeah, that's a good representation.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
I guess I want to go back a little bit.
I want to spend a little timetoday talking about the creative
process, largely because I envyit so much in people who are
bestowed with so much creativityand you clearly are somebody in
my sphere that I wouldobviously say has a ton of
talent.
I kind of want to talk aboutthis nature versus nurture.
(01:59):
Take me back to grade schooland let's go from first grade
and why don't you take me up tograde school?
And let's go from first gradeand why don't you take me up to
about high school.
Tell me about some of the firstthings you got to create, some
of the first opportunities yougot to exercise some of that
creativity, whether it was invarious different mediums,
(02:20):
whether it was print or filmback in those days, or maybe
audio tape recordings orsomething.
So take us back to first grade.
What were some of those firstinitial opportunities?
You had to be creative.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Well, first of all, while you may have a lot of
respect for the creative side ofthe brain, I have so much envy
for the logistical, businesswisdom side of the brain that us
creatives often lack and thatwe need a lot of help in to stay
on track because our brain kindof goes a million miles an hour
.
But, ben, you mentioned theMarvel name.
I mean it's creativity and artwas not a stranger in our home.
(02:58):
And so, growing up son of aninternationally syndicated
cartoonist, you're going to bepushed to explore creativity in
all facets of the word.
And so from a very young ageyeah, because my dad draw
cartoons for a living there wasthis immediate bent towards
picking up a pencil and drawingand just seeing where that
(03:19):
creativity would take me.
And so a lot of my early youknow, early years would take me,
and so a lot of my early youknow, early years, elementary
school it's a lot of 2D art.
So you're talking coloredpencils, you're talking painting
, you're talking all kinds ofdifferent books.
My parents would give us thesebooks of like how to draw Disney
cartoons, and then my dad wouldshow me some of the tricks of
(03:39):
the trade with drawingcaricatures and just how to
study the human face and thenbring that out visually, and so
that was very much an earlymanifestation of the creative
exploration in my life.
But I have always had afascination with movies from the
time that I was like five yearsold is the earliest that I can
(03:59):
remember being just completelyenamored with the art form of
film and so I expressed that Ididn't have a lot of tools at my
disposal at that time.
Of course this is back in theearly 90s, and so technology was
not what it is today, and soinstead what I would do is I
would take all my toys, myaction figures, and I would
create these stories with them,and they would act out the story
(04:21):
that I was creating in my ownhead.
And that was kind of the nextstep, I would say, in the
exploration of not justcreativity but story specific,
what is story and why does itmatter?
(04:41):
And as I got older I dabbled inmusic for a little bit and
quickly discovered that I'mterrible at music.
I have no ability to understandnotes and how to convey
emotions through music it's.
I can tell you what I want, butI can't create it.
I tried piano for a grand totalof, I think five weeks, and my
parents were not unhappy when Idecided not to continue pursuing
that.
I even played trombone for afew years and I think the only
(05:05):
reason I played trombone wasbecause I was one of the only
kids in the class that pushed mylips together and make the
sound come out of the horn.
I don't know why my teacher wasso gung-ho about me being a
trombone player.
I figured out how to play thetune to Georgia the Jungle on my
own and that was about it.
That was the extent of myability as a trombone player,
(05:25):
and it was one of those thingswhere my dad never pressured me
into being a cartoonist or doingthe traditional art sense of
pencil and painting and ormolding with clay or anything
like that.
I always had a fascination toit because he's always been so
gifted at it.
He's just this wealth ofknowledge.
(05:51):
But he quickly saw, especiallyin my junior high to early high
school years, that I just lovedthe camera.
I wanted to be in front of it,I wanted to be behind it, I
wanted to understand how to tella story with it and, to his
credit, he and my mom let metake over the home video camera
on more than one occasion anddestroy it.
There were scratches on thelens, there were a lot of tapes
(06:11):
that were destroyed, things thatI accidentally taped over, that
they were, you know, protectingfor a later date, whatever the
case would be.
But I couldn't get enough of it.
It's just like this limitlesscreativity.
I couldn't get enough of it.
It's just like this limitlesscreativity Because I started
discovering, in high schoolespecially, that filmmaking
encompasses every aspect of theentire art field.
(06:33):
You take everything from musicto 2D and 3D art, to writing, to
production, design, to actingand lighting, and it's all
molded into this one productcalled a movie or a video.
And that's why I think I was sodrawn to it, because I love all
of those different facets ofart.
And it felt like the proverbialyou're a kid in the sandbox and
(06:55):
you have this limitlesscreativity right, you can do
whatever you want.
And so that was really whatcarried me into my later high
school years was exploring whatcan I do, what are the limits,
and let's see how we can pushpast those limits.
Not just from a acting side ofthings, which was, I would say,
my original first love withfilmmaking, but then, the more I
(07:17):
started making movies andediting movies on my own, I grew
to just be equally asfascinated and in love with that
side of the equation as well.
And you know, the rest ishistory, so to speak, once I got
bit by the bug, so to speak.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
Let's stay within that junior high to high school
timeframe.
You know, when you have certaininterests, whether it's sports
or robotics or something else,you find your people who were
your people in junior high andhigh school.
That it also enjoyed, either infront or behind the camera,
with all these ideas you had.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
I'm blessed with an amazing creative family, so the
Varvel household was afilmmaking family from the
get-go.
There was no like gettingyourself out of it.
My brother he's five yearsyounger than me.
He was my partner in crime,sometimes not because he wanted
to, but because I told him hehad to.
And it's just like the olderbrother telling him you got to
do this.
My dad and my mom and my sisterwere always.
(08:12):
They always had a hand in whatI was doing.
But I was also blessed with somegreat friends, both in junior
high and high school, who Ithink they just liked that it
was.
They liked the fun aspect ofmaking a movie.
They didn't really care toomuch about the technical side of
things.
They let me worry about thatbut they were the one.
(08:33):
If I called them up and said,hey, let's go make a movie.
They were there and they wereready to do whatever I asked
them to do.
And this really took root, moreso in high school because I
discovered really quickly thatmy teachers you know I was
academically less than stellar.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
Let's say it that way .
Speaker 2 (08:53):
I struggled academically and so when it came
to writing a paper I had thismental block.
And so I bartered with myteachers and I'd say I would say
, instead of doing a report,what if I'd made a movie on the
topic at hand?
And they let me.
And I was shocked that it worksGreat.
And so, like, one of myfavorites was, instead of doing
(09:15):
a written report on the Battleof Iwo Jima in World War II, I
made a movie about Iwo Jima.
Wow, and my friends and I had anabsolute blast just putting on
the camo, reenacting the battlesand in that famous iconic image
of the soldiers raising theflag.
And it was just the whole class, you know, got a big kick out
(09:37):
of it because instead oflistening to an oral or a
written report, they got towatch a movie.
So they got a big kick out ofit as well.
And that just fanned the flamefor me to see that not only was
I doing what I love to do, but Iwas engaging with people and
they were responding emotionallyto what I was doing.
And that was a very, veryfulfilling kind of pouring
(09:58):
gasoline on the fire typereality for me.
But if it wasn't for my friendsand my family especially.
I would have been that lonerjust trying to figure out how to
do it on my own.
I think that would have reallyput a wet blanket on the whole
thing from the beginning.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
What's a specific memory you have with your
brother of like, hey, we didthis, we shot this movie, and
what specific memory comes tomind when you think about doing
stuff with your family and yourbrothers?
Speaker 2 (10:24):
The garage.
It was our studio.
We'd have our parents pull thecars out of the garage and that
was where we made music videos.
That was where we drew.
Especially my brother drew.
He took it to a whole differentlevel and ended up recreating
famous Shakespeare plays, but inhis own interpretation of the
plays, and so we did a lot inthe garage.
That was the Barbell Studio,and those are some of my
(10:51):
favorite moments, looking back.
One in particular there wasthis music video.
There's a ridiculous song backin the late 90s, early 2000s,
called Scatman and it's aridiculous like techno song.
I don't even know what it means, but it's a really fast,
lyrically driven song with abunch of weird sounds.
And he and I made up thisridiculously stupid story and
(11:19):
shot it in the garage and put ittogether in iMovie.
And that one, to this day, isone of my favorites, not because
it's great, because it's reallybad, and if I were to show it
to you, all those accolades thatTodd read at the beginning
would come seriously in question.
But that one sticks in my brain.
I think it was because it wasone of the earliest
collaborations that he and I had.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
Brett, where would we find these old videos?
In some secret Google YouTubepage.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
They are under lock and key, friend maybe one day
I'll release them on youtube orsomething like that, but they're
so bad, they're so bad yeah,but any press is good press.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
But yeah, it's true yeah, maybe we'll.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
We'll start sprinkling those out into the
world, yeah local boy done.
Speaker 3 (12:03):
Good, uh, yeah there you go let let's stay in that
junior to high school timeframe.
At any time before yougraduated high school did you
kind of have the thought thatyou know my friends enjoy doing
this with me.
But my talent, my ability, myideas, I just have more of them.
It just flows out of me.
(12:23):
I have a gift.
Did that ever cross your mindduring those early years?
Speaker 2 (12:27):
It did and it wasn't fully fleshed out, I wouldn't
say, until I got to college, butthere was this reality that
everybody looked to me as themovie guy.
There wasn't anybody else in myfriend sphere, my school or
really even acquaintances, thatI had had the drive to just grab
the camera, write a story, dosomething.
(12:48):
Nobody else called me up tomake a movie.
I was always calling everybodyelse to make a movie and it
really came to fruition mysenior year of high school.
This was like the definingmoment in what launched, I think
, my career, if you want to usethat big of a phrase.
At the time there was astatewide arts competition in
Indiana called Project Excel,and any student, any high school
(13:11):
student from across the statecould enter into.
They had a bunch of differentcategories, from 2D and 3D art
to music, to performance, dancemovies and all kinds of
different things, but everysingle student had to create
their project based on a wordthat was given to schools and my
senior year the word that wasselected for students was the
(13:34):
word change, and nobody else inmy school made anything or
entered anything, and very fewof my friends even aspired to do
a movie.
But I was fixated on that wordchange and what it means to me
as a follower of Jesus Christ,and so I was talking to my dad
(13:54):
about it one day.
He said, brett, I want you tojust go for it, go do it.
And I wrote this short film thatwas kind of a personification
of being born again in Jesusbecoming a new creation.
That was kind of apersonification of being born
again in Jesus becoming a newcreation.
And it was this really intensestory where it was me playing
myself but I'm in this dirtyrags, I look bad and I keep
seeing this other, betterversion of myself and I'm
(14:17):
following him and he's leadingme somewhere and come to find
out that I'm a stand at thiscrossroad, where I can either go
this way or that way.
And it's the picture of thechoice that I think all of us
have to make as human beings.
Are you going to choose to denyChrist?
Are you going to choose tofollow him?
And so you know, this is asecular competition, this is not
a Christian competition, butthat was what I was so
passionate about.
So I entered it into thecompetition and ended up, to my
(14:41):
shock and I think everybody elseis shocked I won first place in
the state and that was crazyenough as it is.
But at the award ceremony, thedirector of the whole
competition told me that ajanitor peeked his head in while
my film was playing and endedup giving his life to Jesus.
And it was the complete,defining moment in my life of
(15:02):
the Lord saying okay, I knowyou're passionate about this, I
know you love doing this, I'vegiven you this talent, but
imagine what I could do throughyou.
And so, all of a sudden, thedreams and aspirations of I want
to be that Steven Spielberg, Iwant to go off to Hollywood and
make big blockbuster movieschange to what if they had
meaning and what if they hadpurpose beyond just
entertainment.
(15:22):
And that took me into a wholedifferent direction.
But yeah, I mean it was an itch.
I couldn't scratch hard enough.
You know I had to makesomething, had to do something,
but I'm thankful that I had thecommunity around me, like I said
earlier, to fan the flame, toencourage me and support me,
however they wanted to how didthat community change for you,
(15:44):
going from, like high schoolexperience where you had your
family as like the coreencouragement and school folks
around you?
Speaker 1 (15:58):
And then the reason why I ask is I kind of when I
think about you know, thankfullywe both grew up in families
where, like our parents like fanthe flame of our passion and
really encouraged us to dothings that we were passionate
about.
But there were those likepeople who weren't family, you
(16:18):
know, and who didn't likeintersect with us in like the
daily, like a teacher or youknow, even an aunt or an uncle,
but like who are?
Some of those like non-family,like key relationships, that
maybe in high school or maybeafter that, said like hey, I see
something in you and continuedthat encouragement that was like
(16:40):
oh, there are people that areoutside of, the ones that really
love me, that are telling melike walk into this and do this.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
Yeah, it's a great question opportunity in the
youth group to make videos.
Sermon illustrations, missionstrip recap videos.
Let me use the church equipmentwhenever I wanted to.
I mean, short of having a key,I had access in full reign and
he didn't care.
He wanted me to do what theLord had put in my heart.
(17:19):
And then when I got intocollege, all of these people
still were an encouragement tome in my college years.
But you got to understand.
I went to a small Christianschool and I was in a bubble.
And then all of a sudden, I goto Ball State University and it
was fished out of water to thenth degree and I no longer have
(17:44):
that Christian community thatcan surround me and pour into me
.
Now I'm and in addition to thatI'm competing with students in
my class that are way fartheradvanced than I am.
And now all of a sudden, it'sthis shock and horror of I've
made a terrible mistake.
I don't have what it takes andI'll never forget.
I was a freshman in college andthere was a professor at the
(18:09):
time at Ball State in ourtelecommunications department,
seasoned veteran TV producer.
He'd won more regional EmmyAwards than I think anybody has
ever won in their entire life.
He's done it all and seen itall.
And he was brightening andintimidating.
He would cuss students out inthe middle of class.
He would tell you if you had itor you didn't.
He would give you real worldindustry standard experience
(18:33):
right there in the classroom.
And he took a liking to me, butin that tough love type way he
would always tell me like you'reway more talented than you
realize, but this is terribleand you need to grow in this
area.
Because you call this the story, you call this lighting, you
call this camera work what areyou thinking?
And he would rip me to shredsand then give me enough hope to
(18:55):
not go home crying to build meback up and say keep trying,
keep trying.
And so it was one of those likechallenges for me.
Every project that I made Iwould send to him, whether it
was for a school project or itwas just something I wanted to
do on my own.
I would show him.
I would let him criticize itand tell me what he thought of
it.
I would let him criticize itand tell me what he thought of
(19:19):
it, and I was always seeking tolike one up myself and see if he
would finally give me thethumbs up on, you know, without
any criticism, and that was ahuge motivator for me and
setting my sights, like here'sthe standard.
But then let's go a little bitfurther.
What if we push the boundariesa little bit?
He was that guy for me, me a lotabout, you know, being a
cartoonist, and he gets hammeredfrom every direction on the
(19:59):
political spectrum of people whohate him because of his ideas
and his politics and hisbiblical worldview.
And he taught me you got tohave a thick skin and be willing
to take it and stay true toyour convictions and your talent
and all this stuff.
And so so yeah, I mean it tookshape in various people, but
that professor, his name was JimShasky, he who he was ruthless
(20:23):
but he was.
It was a very, very neededencouragement.
I like it.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
It's really interesting, I think, people who
are recognized with significanttalent and whatever their field
, you know no-transcript.
(20:59):
Yeah, I even listened to Coach Ktalk about providing
accountability for the UnitedStates basketball team to Kobe
Bryant and LeBron James, becausegreat people want to be
challenged.
Yeah, good on that professor ofpushing, pushing you and like,
like you respond to that.
You mentioned the industrybeing cutthroat and I love the
(21:24):
context that you gave that yourdata actually came from.
A similar thing of where publiceye and it's not all roses all
the time but in an industrythat's so cutthroat, like what
are some of the like those timeswhere you were just like man
this is something else, like amI sure I want to do this?
Obviously, you mentioned a timelike right out of the gate,
(21:45):
just going to college, but like,talk about, like just your
journey through your career,just how difficult it is in the
movie industry and just in thecreative industry.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
Yeah, I'm very blessed I'll say this to preface
it that I developed my skillsin what we call cutting your
teeth, and the time that I didbecause social media was barely
just starting.
When I was in college, I mean,I think my university was one of
the first nine universities toget Facebook.
University was one of the firstnine universities to get
(22:19):
Facebook in my sophomore year,and so that whole world hadn't
really existed.
Online opinion was minuscule atbest, and so you really had the
opportunity to try and fail alot without dramatic
repercussions.
But one of the things that wasso eye-opening to me and
alarming, I should say, was whenmy feature films started to go
out into the marketplace.
(22:41):
You see the criticism, and I'velearned to try to be very
selective about paying attentionto a lot of this stuff.
But people come after you, theymake it personal, and that's
the thing that I didn't quiteexperience.
It's one thing to say, ah, ah,the movie wasn't for me, didn't
like it that much.
It's another thing to say, andthat's because I've seen stuff
(23:02):
like this brett varble is theworst actor on the face of this
planet.
He should never open his mouthagain.
They come after you and all ofa sudden, it's like I don't even
know who you are.
And again, having a dad who hasexperienced that on a whole
different level.
My dad has actually evenreceived death threats before
Like coming to him and being andasking him honestly, okay, how
(23:23):
do you navigate this?
Because this field personalthis field I mean it hurts, I
don't like it, and then otherpeople in the industry is trying
to wrap this around from abiblical worldview of how the
Lord sees all of this is that,at the end of the day, all that
is expected of me is to do myabsolute best and to try and
(23:46):
take risks and try things thatno one else is trying.
Because if I'm just gonna dothings that's just gonna make
people happy, am I reallycreating out of something that's
a desire within, or am I just amachine that's trying going to
make people happy?
Am I really creating out ofsomething that's a desire within
or am I just a machine that'strying to regurgitate, to tickle
people's ears?
And that was something thatI've learned that the things
that I create may not be foreverybody, most likely won't be
(24:08):
for everybody, but how thataffects them is not my
responsibility.
I'm responsible to be a stewardof the talent that I have and
to cultivate that talent and trythings that no one else is
trying.
When you talk about the creativefield, it's the exploration of
the unknown, what hasn't beendone yet, or how can we redo
(24:30):
something that's already beendone and make it new.
And I have some friends of minewho are filmmakers the Kendrick
brothers in Georgia.
They give this greatillustration and I've tried to
take it to heart, where they saywhen you send your your movie
out into the world and you gotto be ready for criticism, but
here's the way you take it,instead of holding your movie
right over your heart and askingthem to shoot arrows at it, you
(24:53):
hold it off to the side and yousay shoot the arrow, tell me
what you didn't like about it.
And because it's only bylearning what didn't work that
you can grow and that's part ofthe creative process.
You're not always going tocreate gold and you have to
learn what worked, what doesn'twork.
But you can't take it personallyand, even though some people
(25:16):
will attack you personally, it'snot a personal thing.
So it's a very strange thingthat I'm continuing to try to
learn and grow in as I get older, and I think part of this also
is a really big lesson that I'velearned over the last five
years, especially to press intocollaboration more than I ever
had before.
(25:36):
So much of the early part of mycareer was just grinning and
bearing and doing it all bymyself, and the last few movies
that I've been a part of and TVshows that I've been a part of,
really taking a step back andrealizing that God had
surrounded me with people whoare way more creative than I can
ever be and to press into thatand invite them into the process
(25:59):
with me to make better whenthere's strength in numbers, so
to speak, and so that'ssomething that's helped handle
that criticism as well.
Speaker 3 (26:09):
There's a couple people in the nuclear family we
haven't touched upon, but I knowthey are super important to the
story.
So let's go back to junior,senior year in high school.
You're starting to think aboutwhat the next steps look like.
Talked about your dad and hiscreative history, your brother
with some of his crazycreativeness as your partner in
crime.
(26:29):
What role did your mom and yoursister play in all of this
throughout these years?
Speaker 2 (26:35):
So my mom not only has she been a pillar for me
because she was I mean, she's mymom she nurtured me, she cared
for me, she served soself-sacrificially for so many
years for not just I mean, it'snot even just me, but now it's
reflected into my own children,her grandchildren.
That's just like her way ofexpressing love is serving.
(26:57):
So that was one of thosefoundational things that was
always a big part of my life wasknowing that she had my back.
She was always cheering me onand willing to do whatever I
needed.
My mom was also exceptionallytalented at making costumes, and
this was demonstrated and Iremember vividly when I was in
(27:20):
elementary came home from schoolone day and we had a
Thanksgiving party that wasgoing to be coming the next day.
So I came home from school Iwas like, hey, mom, tomorrow we
have this Thanksgiving party.
Forgot to tell you about this,but our teacher wanted us to
dress up as either a NativeAmerican or as a pilgrim, and I
picked Native American.
But our teacher wanted us todress up as either a Native
American or as a pilgrim, and Ipicked Native American, but I
don't have a costume.
And then it was like hoursbefore I was supposed to be at
(27:42):
school and, to her credit, shewhipped up some fabric from, I
think, joanne Fabrics orsomething like that and made me
a costume, just because shecould.
And that has taken shape in alot of different movies that
I've been a part of she'sserving by.
In my first feature film she wasour wardrobe costumer.
(28:03):
She made all of our costumes,but in other areas she served by
feeding us, bringing meals,doing what we call craft
services and going back to thatfoundational nurturing that
she's always been so amazing at.
I don't want to dismiss how bigof a deal this was, but being
(28:24):
that cheerleader, she wasn'talways the one who was like
hands-on with crafting what Iwas doing in a movie, but she
always wanted to see what I wasdoing.
She always wanted to watch it.
But she always wanted to seewhat I was doing.
She always wanted to watch it.
She always wanted to brag toher friends about what I was
doing.
She wanted to be at thescreenings and the award shows
and different things like that.
And I can't quite put intowords what that meant to me
(28:49):
growing up and knowing that Ihad not just the encouragement
but the confidence that my momgave me, and then my sister, who
is also incredibly artisticallygifted.
She and I have a specialrelationship because before my
brother came along, my sisterand I were like attached, were
two years removed and we dideverything together.
(29:10):
She got older and realized howimmature I was and started
hanging out with her girlfriendsmore.
But then Drew came along and heand I got close.
But Ashley was always quick tobe a part of what I was doing.
She's very artistically giftedwith graphic design and painting
and illustrating, and so shewould design logos.
(29:31):
She would design what we callthe title treatment for my
movies.
She would help me design theposters.
She would design what we callthe title treatment for my
movies.
She would help me design theposters and she even wrote a
short story for one of my moviesback when I was late high
school, early college.
She always likes to make cameosin a lot of the movies that I
make and to this day faithfullyhelps me in bringing the print
side of what I do for a livingto life and did my most recent
(29:54):
movie, disciples in theMoonlight.
She was pivotal in helping mediscern what we call the key art
or this poster right here, whatthat should look like and
giving me notes on what worksand what doesn't, and so she was
also super foundational inthose early days of me
discovering what I wanted to do.
(30:16):
Is there a Brett?
Speaker 3 (30:17):
Varvel if there's no Varvel family?
Speaker 2 (30:21):
Probably not.
I know I wouldn't be alivewithout my parents, but you know
what I'm asking.
Yeah, I think it's a goodquestion.
I don't know if I've everreally thought of it that way,
but a lot of people that Iinteract with on a day-to-day
basis on a film set today, theperson that they experience in
large part is heavily impactedby my wife and my children, but
(30:46):
the foundation was really laidby my parents and my siblings,
and my parents being the one whobrought me up in the training
and admonition of the Lord, andthen my siblings being the ones
who were so different.
So, like my sister is theperfect child rule follower,
never did anything wrong, she'san angel.
I was the perfect child rulefollower.
Never did anything wrong, she'san angel.
I was the middle child,rebellious one, and then my
(31:08):
brother is the baby of thefamily, but we, the three of us,
complement each other so welland a lot of that shaped my
likes, my dislikes and theperson that I became really
before I met my wife.
And then my wife took my lifeto a whole different level and
made me a way better person thanI ever thought I could be.
Speaker 3 (31:31):
People who support creative types are unique in
their own right because theyunderstand that person, they
understand the gift and they fanthe flames in a real positive
way.
As you were talking about yourmom, I know your mom a little
bit and she's either one of twothings she's either exactly as
you've explained her, becausethat's how I know her, or she's
(31:51):
the world's most perfect actor,because she faked so well,
because she is a dream to bearound and so supportive.
Have you ever given thought thefact that she had practice in
supporting you because she firstsupported your dad as a spouse?
Speaker 2 (32:09):
Yeah, you're right on the money my mom came from.
She's one of six children.
She's the baby of the family.
I mean there was a big age gaptoo between her and her next
closest sibling, and so herwhole life was how can I help
people and how can I be there?
Because everybody was kind ofoff going and doing their own
things my aunts and my unclesand when she met my dad, they
(32:33):
instantly fell in love and theyhave.
It's a whole differentconversation about there's
something in the water with thevarbles, because we all married
our high school sweethearts.
It's crazy.
It's like a really bizarrestory.
Um but, uh, they, they foundeach other in high school and I
think from the beginning my momjust she loved being with my dad
(32:55):
and she wasn't like a fan, itwasn't like the fan girl thing
where she just wanted to bearound him.
But parents tell me this storythat, like when they were first
married, she would get up everymorning and make him kind of
gourmet breakfast so that he had, you know, the fuel to go do
what he needed to do.
You know, in any given day andI know my mom is a flawed human
(33:16):
being, she's not, you know, thisperfect person but the
character that she displayed tomy dad, with just kind of the
overspill, came over onto me andmy siblings and was a very
sweet testimony.
It takes support to not give upand I saw that demonstrated
with how she served my dad andthen how she served me and my
(33:40):
wife has been that for me aswell, yeah, having permission to
speak into my life and callinto question things that needed
to change or whatever the casemay be.
Speaker 3 (33:49):
You mentioned that the Varvels are notorious for
marrying their high schoolsweetheart.
So you're a senior in highschool.
I'm assuming Christina iseither at that same high school
or nearby.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
Yeah, so we actually started.
Well, we've known each othersince we were 12.
We went to started going to thesame Christian school in junior
high and when I was a freshmanI was really attracted to her
and I asked her out to be mygirlfriend and she said no and
good call, very good call, causeI was so oh, I had so much to
(34:24):
learn and I'm so thankful forthat, because she went off and
dated some of my best friends.
I went off and dated some ofher best friends and we kind of
got like all the mistakes out ofthe way real quick, good
strategy.
And then, junior year, my heartstarted being drawn to her, not
just because of how beautifulshe is, but because she made me
want to be more like my savior.
And I asked her out and I itwas hilarious because I asked
(34:48):
her to start dating me and shesaid well, I'm not looking to
get into a serious relationshipright now, let's just take it
slow.
That was the start of ourentire relationship.
We've never been apart eversince, and that's almost 22
years ago now.
Speaker 3 (35:02):
So you're still taking it slow.
Yeah, we're still taking itslow.
Yeah, we're taking it real slow.
Yeah, so you're a senior.
How did you decide where to goto college?
Speaker 2 (35:11):
That was a complete move of God.
I wanted to go to CedarvilleUniversity because that's where
all my friends were going andthat's where, at the time, my
wife was going to go.
She actually ended uptransferring to Purdue
University, but it was the safeChristian bubble.
It was the summer campexperience, but for four years
(35:35):
you know type thing, yeah.
And I worked hard to getaccepted because, again, I'm not
academically inclined and Iended up initially not getting
accepted and had to retake mySATs.
Got accepted finally, and seniornight for my varsity basketball
season, there was one of thereferees who knew my dad went to
Ball State University.
He refereed on the side to makesome money and it just so
(35:55):
happened that that night that hewas the referee of our game,
the after party of the varsitygame was at my house and it just
so happened that I had justfinished this movie that I
talked to you about.
That was going into thatstatewide arts competition.
So my dad invited this guy hisname was David over to our house
to watch my video.
And David watched the movie,turned to my dad and he said
(36:19):
Brett has to go to Ball StateUniversity.
He is way more talented thansome of the juniors and seniors
that I'm currently working withat school and it was one of
those like how much stock do weput into this guy's opinion?
You know he didn't really knowmuch about it, but to amuse him
we did a college visit me andmyself and my parents and
stepping onto that campus BallState University I started to
(36:43):
see God's plan, that this was aplace that I could get a film
school level education withouthaving to go to a film school,
something in state the caliberof the department.
I mean, people were winningnational and regional awards,
people were getting jobplacements right out of college
(37:05):
and it was a completelydifferent program not to
completely dismiss the programat Cedarville, but it was kind
of night and day at the time andI knew that if I wanted to be
serious about this industry Ineeded to get the best training
possible.
So I took that as a move of Godand went to Ball State
University.
Speaker 1 (37:23):
Brett, you mentioned earlier about that poster over
your shoulder Disciples in theMoonlight and we had the joy of
following along on that journeyfrom afar and seeing your heart
through that.
You know, for everyonelistening, it's an absolutely
incredible film that you need tomake sure you see.
It's on Amazon, right.
Speaker 2 (37:43):
right, you can purchase it on amazon, apple tv,
google, pretty much anywhereright now yeah, so I encourage
all, all listeners to watch thatfilm.
Speaker 1 (37:53):
Incredibly well done, a great plot line, fantastic
acting.
Tell us about the journey ofthe film.
Maybe give a little insightinto the story of Disciples in
the Moonlight and tell us aboutthat journey.
Speaker 2 (38:09):
Well, I appreciate both of you and just for being
my prayer warriors and cheeringme on, and it's been an amazing
experience.
I first heard about thisproject in 2013.
A dear friend of mine, joshStrakowski, who was one of those
guys several years older thanme then when I was younger, that
(38:29):
was a big part of thatencouragement, friend force, so
to speak, and he and I worked ona lot of different things
together and anytime that Joshsays he has an idea, I take
interest because he's reallycreative, thinks outside the box
.
And he came to me one night andhe said I got an idea.
I had this flash in my head ofpeople running through
(38:49):
cornfields in Indiana.
The cornfield is bathed inmoonlight and these people are
running for their life andthey're carrying the Bible.
And he just looked at me and hesaid, what if the Bible was
illegal in America?
And I had goosebumps all overmy body.
I could see the whole movie inmy head.
I could feel it, I could smellit.
It was such a vivid I mean,sometimes ideas take a long time
(39:11):
to discover and cultivate.
This one was like lightning ina bottle.
We could both feel it and so Isaid, josh, you've got to go
explore this idea, write it outinto a script.
And Josh is old school in thesense that he writes that first
draft of Eddie's story longhand.
He doesn't type, he writes itall out longhand.
(39:33):
So it took a while for him towrite it all out and once he had
done that and then transcribedit into the computer, he sent me
the first draft of the scriptand asked me to direct the film.
It wasn't just a captivatingidea creatively for me, it
wasn't just that, oh, this wouldbe a fun and exciting story,
because the story, even at theearliest day, has never changed.
(39:54):
It was this journey with sevencharacters who live in a version
of America where the Bible hasbeen outlawed and repurposed
with a government-approvedancient text and people have to
make a choice Are they going tohand in their copy of God's Word
and accept thegovernment-approved Bible, or
(40:15):
are they going to keep the Wordof God and be labeled as rebels,
as outlaws, and have to gounderground to have church and
serve the Lord?
So that was the nugget that hasnever changed, and so that was
also captivating to me.
But the thing that kept me fromthe beginning and motivated me
throughout the seven years thatit took us to develop the
(40:36):
project was the question.
How would I respond?
If this was my reality?
What would I do?
I saw myself in thesecharacters and I was asking
myself pretty challengingquestions and thinking about the
fact that, though this isscience fiction in terms of
America today, this is realityfor many people all over the
(40:57):
world and this is something thatthey face day in and day out.
And you talk about a polarizingtopic.
This is about as polarizing asit can get.
With a podcast called Risk andResolve, we knew early on this
was a risk, because this is notsomething that is a slam dunk to
make a bunch of money and totickle everybody's ears and make
(41:19):
everybody happy.
This will disrupt people andfrom the beginning, for me, I
wanted to make a movie thatwould kind of shake the church
and wake them up and ask themhow much do you treasure the
word of God?
Is Jesus all, is he your life,and how far would you be willing
to go for your faith?
And so all of those things werejust so heavy on my heart that,
(41:40):
year after year, that we triedto raise the funds, that we had
doors closed in our faces, thatnetworks and studios said no,
this is crazy bad idea.
We kept pushing forward, wekept believing that God was in
it, and it all kind of came tofruition in 2022.
(42:01):
And the Lord not only broughtthe right people to bring the
funding, but he also brought theright people, the right artists
, to join me on the journey.
It was a seven-year periodwhere I was not only trying to
develop a project, but I wasmeeting people that I believe
God divinely appointed to be onour film set, to either act in
it or work on the crew side ofthings, post-production side of
(42:24):
things and the movie, though, wemade it for a very small amount
of money in terms of thenormals in the industry.
People think that this is amajor motion millions of dollars
production, and that's atestimony to my team, the people
that bought into the vision andwere willing to take the risk
(42:46):
with us.
And the thing that's been sooverwhelming is maybe too easy
of a word to use, but it hasbeen overwhelming is to see the
audience response.
Sure, the people on the outsideof the faith have ridiculed it.
We even had a Satanist do amovie review and put it online,
(43:08):
and it got hundreds of thousandsof views and they just ripped
it to shreds and that stuff hashappened which, I guess, if the
enemy isn't upset about whatyou're doing, are you really
doing anything effective.
But what's been so overwhelmingis that this movie has inspired
people to get serious about theBible, to commit scripture, to
memory, to reevaluate their ownrelationship with God, and it's
(43:32):
also been very fulfilling thatpeople enjoyed the movie.
A lot of people say, yeah,christian movies are great, but
they're not enjoyable.
They have good messages butthey're not enjoyable.
Well, you know, they have goodmessages but they're not
enjoyable.
And the fact that people havesaid that it's a thrill ride and
you're on the edge of your seatand you know those types of
comments it's affirming that therisk was worth it and I believe
(43:54):
that God has been honored inthe process and it's been the
most incredible experience.
It's taken up a decade of mylife and I'm so thankful that
it's now out there for people toexperience and pass on to their
friends and watch multipletimes.
That's one of the othercompliments we've received is
that this is not a movie you canonly watch once, so I'm just so
thankful.
Speaker 3 (44:14):
I want to weave in a couple of things.
You've already mentioned Morecollaboration and a professor at
Ball State Was it Jim Shasky?
Yeah, so I know for a fact thatdisciples, whether you wanted
to or not, forced you into morecollaboration, which was
ultimately wonderful, turned outgreat.
(44:35):
Have you, I guess, internalizedthe notion that the days of you
becoming the Jim Shasky of yoursphere is either here or
approaching very quickly?
And what I mean by that isyou've racked up some hardware,
you've had some successes andyou'll have more, but the idea
(44:55):
that through that collaboration,it's time for you to challenge,
admonish, fan the flames.
Where are you seeing thoseopportunities to work with, not
just people younger, you know,because you can lead up and lead
parallel?
Are you seeing that door ofopportunity open to where you're
taking some of those lessonsfrom your old professor and
(45:16):
applying them to people that yousee extreme talent in?
Speaker 2 (45:20):
Yes and no.
I mean, I think, on a simplelevel.
Yes, there have been veryobvious opportunities here in
the last few years, especiallywhere guys younger than me, who
are just starting out, they wantto be on my film sets and they
want to see why I do what I do.
(45:42):
And they just want to absorbwould be maybe a better word
from my experience and that'sbeen so flattering, rewarding, I
don't even know the right wordto use because I remember what
it was like being in high schooland college and just dreaming,
wishing one day, man, I want tobe on a film set, wishing one
(46:06):
day man, I want to be on a filmset.
And if it wasn't for Shafskyand the other professors at my
college like I would have hadsome of the opportunities that I
had, but it still wasn't beingon a feature film set.
I remember getting cast in asubway commercial when I was
sophomore in college and it wasmy first like really big film
set that I'd ever been on.
I remember so badly wanting thedirector just to pull me aside
and teach me a couple things,you know, whisper a few tricks
(46:28):
of the trade to me or something,and people in my industry are
very often they keep everythingclose to the chest, everything's
intellectual property.
You don't want it to be stolen,and so they can be kind of cold
.
And it's been very, veryfulfilling to put my arm around
a few people and just say, hey,here's what I've learned, try
this, connect people and try togive people opportunities.
(46:50):
That's been really fulfilling.
But I also realize that themore collaboration I've allowed
into my sphere, the more Irealize how little I still know
and how much I still need togrow and learn.
And so I'm still kind ofseeking out and in some ways I
guess I don't feel like I amready to be into that mentor
(47:13):
type role.
I'll do it as often as the Lordallows into my life, but I'm
still.
I guess I'm still hungry andwanting to chase some things
that are heavy on my heart.
Speaker 3 (47:23):
Well, you definitely have lots of more hardware to
collect and story to tell andwe're excited to be, whatever
little part or piece of it isthat we can be and follow along.
We like to end these podcastsand, by the way, thank you.
You've been super generous withyour time and your comments and
your stories and I know we kindof didn't cover a lot of the
(47:43):
traditional what movies andthings have you done?
But it's been fascinating tohear your background because I
truly do believe that there isnurture and nature in your
creative and we talked aboutthat.
You definitely have someGod-given gifts, but there've
been a lot of fans on that flameto make sure that it didn't go
out, from your parents, yoursiblings to your wife and now
your kids, you know in their ownunique way, as they encourage
(48:07):
all of us.
their children encourage all ofus.
We like to end with twoquestions.
So, without any kind ofpreempting, here's the first
question what is a risk that youhave taken that has changed
your life?
Speaker 2 (48:20):
Oh, man, I would say maybe at a fundamental level,
anybody who gets married istaking a risk, I think.
But marrying my wife, my highschool sweetheart, has been the
biggest change in my life andGod has used that woman to
change me in ways that I'llnever quite get over and be
grateful for.
That I'll never quite get overand be grateful for.
(48:43):
Also, I think a big risk wasDiscipled in the Moonlight.
That was the one that we hadevery reason to abandon ship and
people telling us to abandonship multiple times in the
process, and it was a risk.
But I'm so thankful that I tookthat risk because it made me a
(49:04):
better person, not just a bettercreative, and it has been
something that has blessed somany people and continues to
bless people, and I'm sothankful to see how God has
worked, despite myself in themidst of all that.
Speaker 3 (49:20):
Last question what is unfinished that you have the
resolve to complete either inthe near future or the not so
distant future?
Speaker 2 (49:29):
So with the way that my brain works.
There's, at any given time,there could be 15 to 20
different ideas that I'm chasingand I'm trying to figure out
and I'm trying to solve problemsI'm trying to solve in my head
and stories to cultivate.
But there is one that I want tosee happen before I die, and I
(49:50):
don't know if it's going to besoon, I don't know if it's going
to be later, but the Lord hasgiven me a lot of visions.
I've always been fascinated bythe crucifixion of Jesus.
It's something that I'vestudied a lot, just from a
historical standpoint and thenalso a biblical standpoint, and
I mean it is the climax of humanhistory, that and the
(50:11):
resurrection.
But one moment that has been onmy mind more than anything is
when Jesus said my God, my God,why have you forsaken me?
And in that moment bearing uponhimself the wrath of Almighty
god for the sins of all humanity.
And I want to explore tellingthat story from the spiritual
realm and not just the physicalrealm.
(50:32):
And so is essentially seeingthe crucifixion from a whole
different angle.
And that is, I have the resolvethat I want to see that come to
life one day.
I don't know when.
It would be a very expensivemovie, but if there's anything
that could be like the crowningjewel of my career, I would want
it to be that, because that'sthe most important story that I
(50:53):
could ever tell.
I think I have some pretty coolideas for it.
Speaker 3 (50:57):
Well, thanks for sharing it, because now I know
how to hold you accountable tothat big jewel.
Thank you again for your time,for sharing your talent with the
world and for always pointingus, to remind us the source of
that talent is your Lord andSavior.
So thanks for just being you,brett, to enjoy the association
and getting to know you andhaving this conversation.
Thank you, thanks for tuning into Risk and Resolve.
(51:20):
See you next time.
You're listening to Risk and Resolve, and now for
your hosts, ben Conner and ToddHufford.
All right, welcome to anotherepisode of the Risk and Resolve
podcast.
Really pleased to have ourspecial guest with us today,
brett Varvel, from the creativefamily dynasty of the Varvel
(00:21):
family.
How are you doing, brett?
Speaker 2 (00:24):
I'm doing great.
It's good to be with you guys.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Brett, it's always great to see you, glad to be
here, and obviously my partnerin crime, todd Hufford, is here
with us as well.
Todd, how are you?
Speaker 3 (00:35):
I'm doing great, especially great because we get
to talk to Brett.
Brett is always going about 15different directions at a time
in 3D, so we're going to diveinto a little bit of that.
You know I was going to sayBrett, congratulations.
You're so successful now thatwe cannot cover all of your
successes in a podcast.
So congratulations, thank you.
(00:57):
I appreciate it.
I'm going to rattle off alittle bit about your background
for those that don't know you,but then we're going to go back
in history a little bit, so youalready know this about yourself
.
You're an Emmy Award winningfilmmaker, director, actor and
writer.
You're based here in ourwonderful city, indianapolis,
indiana.
You serve as the executivedirector of House of Grace
(01:18):
Studios, a production companyyou founded company you founded.
You're also known for yourdedication to creating high
value, faith-based content andyour passion for storytelling
comes through in everything youdo.
Anything inaccurate in thatstatement?
I think that's close.
It's pretty close.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Yeah, that's a good representation.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
I guess I want to go back a little bit.
I want to spend a little timetoday talking about the creative
process, largely because I envyit so much in people who are
bestowed with so much creativityand you clearly are somebody in
my sphere that I wouldobviously say has a ton of
talent.
I kind of want to talk aboutthis nature versus nurture.
(01:59):
Take me back to grade schooland let's go from first grade
and why don't you take me up tograde school?
And let's go from first gradeand why don't you take me up to
about high school.
Tell me about some of the firstthings you got to create, some
of the first opportunities yougot to exercise some of that
creativity, whether it was invarious different mediums,
(02:20):
whether it was print or filmback in those days, or maybe
audio tape recordings orsomething.
So take us back to first grade.
What were some of those firstinitial opportunities?
You had to be creative.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Well, first of all, while you may have a lot of
respect for the creative side ofthe brain, I have so much envy
for the logistical, businesswisdom side of the brain that us
creatives often lack and thatwe need a lot of help in to stay
on track because our brain kindof goes a million miles an hour
.
But, ben, you mentioned theMarvel name.
I mean it's creativity and artwas not a stranger in our home.
(02:58):
And so, growing up son of aninternationally syndicated
cartoonist, you're going to bepushed to explore creativity in
all facets of the word.
And so from a very young ageyeah, because my dad draw
cartoons for a living there wasthis immediate bent towards
picking up a pencil and drawingand just seeing where that
(03:19):
creativity would take me.
And so a lot of my early youknow, early years would take me,
and so a lot of my early youknow, early years, elementary
school it's a lot of 2D art.
So you're talking coloredpencils, you're talking painting
, you're talking all kinds ofdifferent books.
My parents would give us thesebooks of like how to draw Disney
cartoons, and then my dad wouldshow me some of the tricks of
(03:39):
the trade with drawingcaricatures and just how to
study the human face and thenbring that out visually, and so
that was very much an earlymanifestation of the creative
exploration in my life.
But I have always had afascination with movies from the
time that I was like five yearsold is the earliest that I can
(03:59):
remember being just completelyenamored with the art form of
film and so I expressed that Ididn't have a lot of tools at my
disposal at that time.
Of course this is back in theearly 90s, and so technology was
not what it is today, and soinstead what I would do is I
would take all my toys, myaction figures, and I would
create these stories with them,and they would act out the story
(04:21):
that I was creating in my ownhead.
And that was kind of the nextstep, I would say, in the
exploration of not justcreativity but story specific,
what is story and why does itmatter?
(04:41):
And as I got older I dabbled inmusic for a little bit and
quickly discovered that I'mterrible at music.
I have no ability to understandnotes and how to convey
emotions through music it's.
I can tell you what I want, butI can't create it.
I tried piano for a grand totalof, I think five weeks, and my
parents were not unhappy when Idecided not to continue pursuing
that.
I even played trombone for afew years and I think the only
(05:05):
reason I played trombone wasbecause I was one of the only
kids in the class that pushed mylips together and make the
sound come out of the horn.
I don't know why my teacher wasso gung-ho about me being a
trombone player.
I figured out how to play thetune to Georgia the Jungle on my
own and that was about it.
That was the extent of myability as a trombone player,
(05:25):
and it was one of those thingswhere my dad never pressured me
into being a cartoonist or doingthe traditional art sense of
pencil and painting and ormolding with clay or anything
like that.
I always had a fascination toit because he's always been so
gifted at it.
He's just this wealth ofknowledge.
(05:51):
But he quickly saw, especiallyin my junior high to early high
school years, that I just lovedthe camera.
I wanted to be in front of it,I wanted to be behind it, I
wanted to understand how to tella story with it and, to his
credit, he and my mom let metake over the home video camera
on more than one occasion anddestroy it.
There were scratches on thelens, there were a lot of tapes
(06:11):
that were destroyed, things thatI accidentally taped over, that
they were, you know, protectingfor a later date, whatever the
case would be.
But I couldn't get enough of it.
It's just like this limitlesscreativity.
I couldn't get enough of it.
It's just like this limitlesscreativity Because I started
discovering, in high schoolespecially, that filmmaking
encompasses every aspect of theentire art field.
(06:33):
You take everything from musicto 2D and 3D art, to writing, to
production, design, to actingand lighting, and it's all
molded into this one productcalled a movie or a video.
And that's why I think I was sodrawn to it, because I love all
of those different facets ofart.
And it felt like the proverbialyou're a kid in the sandbox and
(06:55):
you have this limitlesscreativity right, you can do
whatever you want.
And so that was really whatcarried me into my later high
school years was exploring whatcan I do, what are the limits,
and let's see how we can pushpast those limits.
Not just from a acting side ofthings, which was, I would say,
my original first love withfilmmaking, but then, the more I
(07:17):
started making movies andediting movies on my own, I grew
to just be equally asfascinated and in love with that
side of the equation as well.
And you know, the rest ishistory, so to speak, once I got
bit by the bug, so to speak.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
Let's stay within that junior high to high school
timeframe.
You know, when you have certaininterests, whether it's sports
or robotics or something else,you find your people who were
your people in junior high andhigh school.
That it also enjoyed, either infront or behind the camera,
with all these ideas you had.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
I'm blessed with an amazing creative family, so the
Varvel household was afilmmaking family from the
get-go.
There was no like gettingyourself out of it.
My brother he's five yearsyounger than me.
He was my partner in crime,sometimes not because he wanted
to, but because I told him hehad to.
And it's just like the olderbrother telling him you got to
do this.
My dad and my mom and my sisterwere always.
(08:12):
They always had a hand in whatI was doing.
But I was also blessed with somegreat friends, both in junior
high and high school, who Ithink they just liked that it
was.
They liked the fun aspect ofmaking a movie.
They didn't really care toomuch about the technical side of
things.
They let me worry about thatbut they were the one.
(08:33):
If I called them up and said,hey, let's go make a movie.
They were there and they wereready to do whatever I asked
them to do.
And this really took root, moreso in high school because I
discovered really quickly thatmy teachers you know I was
academically less than stellar.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
Let's say it that way .
Speaker 2 (08:53):
I struggled academically and so when it came
to writing a paper I had thismental block.
And so I bartered with myteachers and I'd say I would say
, instead of doing a report,what if I'd made a movie on the
topic at hand?
And they let me.
And I was shocked that it worksGreat.
And so, like, one of myfavorites was, instead of doing
(09:15):
a written report on the Battleof Iwo Jima in World War II, I
made a movie about Iwo Jima.
Wow, and my friends and I had anabsolute blast just putting on
the camo, reenacting the battlesand in that famous iconic image
of the soldiers raising theflag.
And it was just the whole class, you know, got a big kick out
(09:37):
of it because instead oflistening to an oral or a
written report, they got towatch a movie.
So they got a big kick out ofit as well.
And that just fanned the flamefor me to see that not only was
I doing what I love to do, but Iwas engaging with people and
they were responding emotionallyto what I was doing.
And that was a very, veryfulfilling kind of pouring
(09:58):
gasoline on the fire typereality for me.
But if it wasn't for my friendsand my family especially.
I would have been that lonerjust trying to figure out how to
do it on my own.
I think that would have reallyput a wet blanket on the whole
thing from the beginning.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
What's a specific memory you have with your
brother of like, hey, we didthis, we shot this movie, and
what specific memory comes tomind when you think about doing
stuff with your family and yourbrothers?
Speaker 2 (10:24):
The garage.
It was our studio.
We'd have our parents pull thecars out of the garage and that
was where we made music videos.
That was where we drew.
Especially my brother drew.
He took it to a whole differentlevel and ended up recreating
famous Shakespeare plays, but inhis own interpretation of the
plays, and so we did a lot inthe garage.
That was the Barbell Studio,and those are some of my
(10:51):
favorite moments, looking back.
One in particular there wasthis music video.
There's a ridiculous song backin the late 90s, early 2000s,
called Scatman and it's aridiculous like techno song.
I don't even know what it means, but it's a really fast,
lyrically driven song with abunch of weird sounds.
And he and I made up thisridiculously stupid story and
(11:19):
shot it in the garage and put ittogether in iMovie.
And that one, to this day, isone of my favorites, not because
it's great, because it's reallybad, and if I were to show it
to you, all those accolades thatTodd read at the beginning
would come seriously in question.
But that one sticks in my brain.
I think it was because it wasone of the earliest
collaborations that he and I had.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
Brett, where would we find these old videos?
In some secret Google YouTubepage.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
They are under lock and key, friend maybe one day
I'll release them on youtube orsomething like that, but they're
so bad, they're so bad yeah,but any press is good press.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
But yeah, it's true yeah, maybe we'll.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
We'll start sprinkling those out into the
world, yeah local boy done.
Speaker 3 (12:03):
Good, uh, yeah there you go let let's stay in that
junior to high school timeframe.
At any time before yougraduated high school did you
kind of have the thought thatyou know my friends enjoy doing
this with me.
But my talent, my ability, myideas, I just have more of them.
It just flows out of me.
(12:23):
I have a gift.
Did that ever cross your mindduring those early years?
Speaker 2 (12:27):
It did and it wasn't fully fleshed out, I wouldn't
say, until I got to college, butthere was this reality that
everybody looked to me as themovie guy.
There wasn't anybody else in myfriend sphere, my school or
really even acquaintances, thatI had had the drive to just grab
the camera, write a story, dosomething.
(12:48):
Nobody else called me up tomake a movie.
I was always calling everybodyelse to make a movie and it
really came to fruition mysenior year of high school.
This was like the definingmoment in what launched, I think
, my career, if you want to usethat big of a phrase.
At the time there was astatewide arts competition in
Indiana called Project Excel,and any student, any high school
(13:11):
student from across the statecould enter into.
They had a bunch of differentcategories, from 2D and 3D art
to music, to performance, dancemovies and all kinds of
different things, but everysingle student had to create
their project based on a wordthat was given to schools and my
senior year the word that wasselected for students was the
(13:34):
word change, and nobody else inmy school made anything or
entered anything, and very fewof my friends even aspired to do
a movie.
But I was fixated on that wordchange and what it means to me
as a follower of Jesus Christ,and so I was talking to my dad
(13:54):
about it one day.
He said, brett, I want you tojust go for it, go do it.
And I wrote this short film thatwas kind of a personification
of being born again in Jesusbecoming a new creation.
That was kind of apersonification of being born
again in Jesus becoming a newcreation.
And it was this really intensestory where it was me playing
myself but I'm in this dirtyrags, I look bad and I keep
seeing this other, betterversion of myself and I'm
(14:17):
following him and he's leadingme somewhere and come to find
out that I'm a stand at thiscrossroad, where I can either go
this way or that way.
And it's the picture of thechoice that I think all of us
have to make as human beings.
Are you going to choose to denyChrist?
Are you going to choose tofollow him?
And so you know, this is asecular competition, this is not
a Christian competition, butthat was what I was so
passionate about.
So I entered it into thecompetition and ended up, to my
(14:41):
shock and I think everybody elseis shocked I won first place in
the state and that was crazyenough as it is.
But at the award ceremony, thedirector of the whole
competition told me that ajanitor peeked his head in while
my film was playing and endedup giving his life to Jesus.
And it was the complete,defining moment in my life of
(15:02):
the Lord saying okay, I knowyou're passionate about this, I
know you love doing this, I'vegiven you this talent, but
imagine what I could do throughyou.
And so, all of a sudden, thedreams and aspirations of I want
to be that Steven Spielberg, Iwant to go off to Hollywood and
make big blockbuster movieschange to what if they had
meaning and what if they hadpurpose beyond just
entertainment.
(15:22):
And that took me into a wholedifferent direction.
But yeah, I mean it was an itch.
I couldn't scratch hard enough.
You know I had to makesomething, had to do something,
but I'm thankful that I had thecommunity around me, like I said
earlier, to fan the flame, toencourage me and support me,
however they wanted to how didthat community change for you,
(15:44):
going from, like high schoolexperience where you had your
family as like the coreencouragement and school folks
around you?
Speaker 1 (15:58):
And then the reason why I ask is I kind of when I
think about you know, thankfullywe both grew up in families
where, like our parents like fanthe flame of our passion and
really encouraged us to dothings that we were passionate
about.
But there were those likepeople who weren't family, you
(16:18):
know, and who didn't likeintersect with us in like the
daily, like a teacher or youknow, even an aunt or an uncle,
but like who are?
Some of those like non-family,like key relationships, that
maybe in high school or maybeafter that, said like hey, I see
something in you and continuedthat encouragement that was like
(16:40):
oh, there are people that areoutside of, the ones that really
love me, that are telling melike walk into this and do this.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
Yeah, it's a great question opportunity in the
youth group to make videos.
Sermon illustrations, missionstrip recap videos.
Let me use the church equipmentwhenever I wanted to.
I mean, short of having a key,I had access in full reign and
he didn't care.
He wanted me to do what theLord had put in my heart.
(17:19):
And then when I got intocollege, all of these people
still were an encouragement tome in my college years.
But you got to understand.
I went to a small Christianschool and I was in a bubble.
And then all of a sudden, I goto Ball State University and it
was fished out of water to thenth degree and I no longer have
(17:44):
that Christian community thatcan surround me and pour into me
.
Now I'm and in addition to thatI'm competing with students in
my class that are way fartheradvanced than I am.
And now all of a sudden, it'sthis shock and horror of I've
made a terrible mistake.
I don't have what it takes andI'll never forget.
I was a freshman in college andthere was a professor at the
(18:09):
time at Ball State in ourtelecommunications department,
seasoned veteran TV producer.
He'd won more regional EmmyAwards than I think anybody has
ever won in their entire life.
He's done it all and seen itall.
And he was brightening andintimidating.
He would cuss students out inthe middle of class.
He would tell you if you had itor you didn't.
He would give you real worldindustry standard experience
(18:33):
right there in the classroom.
And he took a liking to me, butin that tough love type way he
would always tell me like you'reway more talented than you
realize, but this is terribleand you need to grow in this
area.
Because you call this the story, you call this lighting, you
call this camera work what areyou thinking?
And he would rip me to shredsand then give me enough hope to
(18:55):
not go home crying to build meback up and say keep trying,
keep trying.
And so it was one of those likechallenges for me.
Every project that I made Iwould send to him, whether it
was for a school project or itwas just something I wanted to
do on my own.
I would show him.
I would let him criticize itand tell me what he thought of
it.
I would let him criticize itand tell me what he thought of
(19:19):
it, and I was always seeking tolike one up myself and see if he
would finally give me thethumbs up on, you know, without
any criticism, and that was ahuge motivator for me and
setting my sights, like here'sthe standard.
But then let's go a little bitfurther.
What if we push the boundariesa little bit?
He was that guy for me, me a lotabout, you know, being a
cartoonist, and he gets hammeredfrom every direction on the
(19:59):
political spectrum of people whohate him because of his ideas
and his politics and hisbiblical worldview.
And he taught me you got tohave a thick skin and be willing
to take it and stay true toyour convictions and your talent
and all this stuff.
And so so yeah, I mean it tookshape in various people, but
that professor, his name was JimShasky, he who he was ruthless
(20:23):
but he was.
It was a very, very neededencouragement.
I like it.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
It's really interesting, I think, people who
are recognized with significanttalent and whatever their field
, you know no-transcript.
(20:59):
Yeah, I even listened to Coach Ktalk about providing
accountability for the UnitedStates basketball team to Kobe
Bryant and LeBron James, becausegreat people want to be
challenged.
Yeah, good on that professor ofpushing, pushing you and like,
like you respond to that.
You mentioned the industrybeing cutthroat and I love the
(21:24):
context that you gave that yourdata actually came from.
A similar thing of where publiceye and it's not all roses all
the time but in an industrythat's so cutthroat, like what
are some of the like those timeswhere you were just like man
this is something else, like amI sure I want to do this?
Obviously, you mentioned a timelike right out of the gate,
(21:45):
just going to college, but like,talk about, like just your
journey through your career,just how difficult it is in the
movie industry and just in thecreative industry.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
Yeah, I'm very blessed I'll say this to preface
it that I developed my skillsin what we call cutting your
teeth, and the time that I didbecause social media was barely
just starting.
When I was in college, I mean,I think my university was one of
the first nine universities toget Facebook.
University was one of the firstnine universities to get
(22:19):
Facebook in my sophomore year,and so that whole world hadn't
really existed.
Online opinion was minuscule atbest, and so you really had the
opportunity to try and fail alot without dramatic
repercussions.
But one of the things that wasso eye-opening to me and
alarming, I should say, was whenmy feature films started to go
out into the marketplace.
(22:41):
You see the criticism, and I'velearned to try to be very
selective about paying attentionto a lot of this stuff.
But people come after you, theymake it personal, and that's
the thing that I didn't quiteexperience.
It's one thing to say, ah, ah,the movie wasn't for me, didn't
like it that much.
It's another thing to say, andthat's because I've seen stuff
(23:02):
like this brett varble is theworst actor on the face of this
planet.
He should never open his mouthagain.
They come after you and all ofa sudden, it's like I don't even
know who you are.
And again, having a dad who hasexperienced that on a whole
different level.
My dad has actually evenreceived death threats before
Like coming to him and being andasking him honestly, okay, how
(23:23):
do you navigate this?
Because this field personalthis field I mean it hurts, I
don't like it, and then otherpeople in the industry is trying
to wrap this around from abiblical worldview of how the
Lord sees all of this is that,at the end of the day, all that
is expected of me is to do myabsolute best and to try and
(23:46):
take risks and try things thatno one else is trying.
Because if I'm just gonna dothings that's just gonna make
people happy, am I reallycreating out of something that's
a desire within, or am I just amachine that's trying going to
make people happy?
Am I really creating out ofsomething that's a desire within
or am I just a machine that'strying to regurgitate, to tickle
people's ears?
And that was something thatI've learned that the things
that I create may not be foreverybody, most likely won't be
(24:08):
for everybody, but how thataffects them is not my
responsibility.
I'm responsible to be a stewardof the talent that I have and
to cultivate that talent and trythings that no one else is
trying.
When you talk about the creativefield, it's the exploration of
the unknown, what hasn't beendone yet, or how can we redo
(24:30):
something that's already beendone and make it new.
And I have some friends of minewho are filmmakers the Kendrick
brothers in Georgia.
They give this greatillustration and I've tried to
take it to heart, where they saywhen you send your your movie
out into the world and you gotto be ready for criticism, but
here's the way you take it,instead of holding your movie
right over your heart and askingthem to shoot arrows at it, you
(24:53):
hold it off to the side and yousay shoot the arrow, tell me
what you didn't like about it.
And because it's only bylearning what didn't work that
you can grow and that's part ofthe creative process.
You're not always going tocreate gold and you have to
learn what worked, what doesn'twork.
But you can't take it personallyand, even though some people
(25:16):
will attack you personally, it'snot a personal thing.
So it's a very strange thingthat I'm continuing to try to
learn and grow in as I get older, and I think part of this also
is a really big lesson that I'velearned over the last five
years, especially to press intocollaboration more than I ever
had before.
(25:36):
So much of the early part of mycareer was just grinning and
bearing and doing it all bymyself, and the last few movies
that I've been a part of and TVshows that I've been a part of,
really taking a step back andrealizing that God had
surrounded me with people whoare way more creative than I can
ever be and to press into thatand invite them into the process
(25:59):
with me to make better whenthere's strength in numbers, so
to speak, and so that'ssomething that's helped handle
that criticism as well.
Speaker 3 (26:09):
There's a couple people in the nuclear family we
haven't touched upon, but I knowthey are super important to the
story.
So let's go back to junior,senior year in high school.
You're starting to think aboutwhat the next steps look like.
Talked about your dad and hiscreative history, your brother
with some of his crazycreativeness as your partner in
crime.
(26:29):
What role did your mom and yoursister play in all of this
throughout these years?
Speaker 2 (26:35):
So my mom not only has she been a pillar for me
because she was I mean, she's mymom she nurtured me, she cared
for me, she served soself-sacrificially for so many
years for not just I mean, it'snot even just me, but now it's
reflected into my own children,her grandchildren.
That's just like her way ofexpressing love is serving.
(26:57):
So that was one of thosefoundational things that was
always a big part of my life wasknowing that she had my back.
She was always cheering me onand willing to do whatever I
needed.
My mom was also exceptionallytalented at making costumes, and
this was demonstrated and Iremember vividly when I was in
(27:20):
elementary came home from schoolone day and we had a
Thanksgiving party that wasgoing to be coming the next day.
So I came home from school Iwas like, hey, mom, tomorrow we
have this Thanksgiving party.
Forgot to tell you about this,but our teacher wanted us to
dress up as either a NativeAmerican or as a pilgrim, and I
picked Native American.
But our teacher wanted us todress up as either a Native
American or as a pilgrim, and Ipicked Native American, but I
don't have a costume.
And then it was like hoursbefore I was supposed to be at
(27:42):
school and, to her credit, shewhipped up some fabric from, I
think, joanne Fabrics orsomething like that and made me
a costume, just because shecould.
And that has taken shape in alot of different movies that
I've been a part of she'sserving by.
In my first feature film she wasour wardrobe costumer.
(28:03):
She made all of our costumes,but in other areas she served by
feeding us, bringing meals,doing what we call craft
services and going back to thatfoundational nurturing that
she's always been so amazing at.
I don't want to dismiss how bigof a deal this was, but being
(28:24):
that cheerleader, she wasn'talways the one who was like
hands-on with crafting what Iwas doing in a movie, but she
always wanted to see what I wasdoing.
She always wanted to watch it.
But she always wanted to seewhat I was doing.
She always wanted to watch it.
She always wanted to brag toher friends about what I was
doing.
She wanted to be at thescreenings and the award shows
and different things like that.
And I can't quite put intowords what that meant to me
(28:49):
growing up and knowing that Ihad not just the encouragement
but the confidence that my momgave me, and then my sister, who
is also incredibly artisticallygifted.
She and I have a specialrelationship because before my
brother came along, my sisterand I were like attached, were
two years removed and we dideverything together.
(29:10):
She got older and realized howimmature I was and started
hanging out with her girlfriendsmore.
But then Drew came along and heand I got close.
But Ashley was always quick tobe a part of what I was doing.
She's very artistically giftedwith graphic design and painting
and illustrating, and so shewould design logos.
(29:31):
She would design what we callthe title treatment for my
movies.
She would help me design theposters.
She would design what we callthe title treatment for my
movies.
She would help me design theposters and she even wrote a
short story for one of my moviesback when I was late high
school, early college.
She always likes to make cameosin a lot of the movies that I
make and to this day faithfullyhelps me in bringing the print
side of what I do for a livingto life and did my most recent
(29:54):
movie, disciples in theMoonlight.
She was pivotal in helping mediscern what we call the key art
or this poster right here, whatthat should look like and
giving me notes on what worksand what doesn't, and so she was
also super foundational inthose early days of me
discovering what I wanted to do.
(30:16):
Is there a Brett?
Speaker 3 (30:17):
Varvel if there's no Varvel family?
Speaker 2 (30:21):
Probably not.
I know I wouldn't be alivewithout my parents, but you know
what I'm asking.
Yeah, I think it's a goodquestion.
I don't know if I've everreally thought of it that way,
but a lot of people that Iinteract with on a day-to-day
basis on a film set today, theperson that they experience in
large part is heavily impactedby my wife and my children, but
(30:46):
the foundation was really laidby my parents and my siblings,
and my parents being the one whobrought me up in the training
and admonition of the Lord, andthen my siblings being the ones
who were so different.
So, like my sister is theperfect child rule follower,
never did anything wrong, she'san angel.
I was the perfect child rulefollower.
Never did anything wrong, she'san angel.
I was the middle child,rebellious one, and then my
(31:08):
brother is the baby of thefamily, but we, the three of us,
complement each other so welland a lot of that shaped my
likes, my dislikes and theperson that I became really
before I met my wife.
And then my wife took my lifeto a whole different level and
made me a way better person thanI ever thought I could be.
Speaker 3 (31:31):
People who support creative types are unique in
their own right because theyunderstand that person, they
understand the gift and they fanthe flames in a real positive
way.
As you were talking about yourmom, I know your mom a little
bit and she's either one of twothings she's either exactly as
you've explained her, becausethat's how I know her, or she's
(31:51):
the world's most perfect actor,because she faked so well,
because she is a dream to bearound and so supportive.
Have you ever given thought thefact that she had practice in
supporting you because she firstsupported your dad as a spouse?
Speaker 2 (32:09):
Yeah, you're right on the money my mom came from.
She's one of six children.
She's the baby of the family.
I mean there was a big age gaptoo between her and her next
closest sibling, and so herwhole life was how can I help
people and how can I be there?
Because everybody was kind ofoff going and doing their own
things my aunts and my unclesand when she met my dad, they
(32:33):
instantly fell in love and theyhave.
It's a whole differentconversation about there's
something in the water with thevarbles, because we all married
our high school sweethearts.
It's crazy.
It's like a really bizarrestory.
Um but, uh, they, they foundeach other in high school and I
think from the beginning my momjust she loved being with my dad
(32:55):
and she wasn't like a fan, itwasn't like the fan girl thing
where she just wanted to bearound him.
But parents tell me this storythat, like when they were first
married, she would get up everymorning and make him kind of
gourmet breakfast so that he had, you know, the fuel to go do
what he needed to do.
You know, in any given day andI know my mom is a flawed human
(33:16):
being, she's not, you know, thisperfect person but the
character that she displayed tomy dad, with just kind of the
overspill, came over onto me andmy siblings and was a very
sweet testimony.
It takes support to not give upand I saw that demonstrated
with how she served my dad andthen how she served me and my
(33:40):
wife has been that for me aswell, yeah, having permission to
speak into my life and callinto question things that needed
to change or whatever the casemay be.
Speaker 3 (33:49):
You mentioned that the Varvels are notorious for
marrying their high schoolsweetheart.
So you're a senior in highschool.
I'm assuming Christina iseither at that same high school
or nearby.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
Yeah, so we actually started.
Well, we've known each othersince we were 12.
We went to started going to thesame Christian school in junior
high and when I was a freshmanI was really attracted to her
and I asked her out to be mygirlfriend and she said no and
good call, very good call, causeI was so oh, I had so much to
(34:24):
learn and I'm so thankful forthat, because she went off and
dated some of my best friends.
I went off and dated some ofher best friends and we kind of
got like all the mistakes out ofthe way real quick, good
strategy.
And then, junior year, my heartstarted being drawn to her, not
just because of how beautifulshe is, but because she made me
want to be more like my savior.
And I asked her out and I itwas hilarious because I asked
(34:48):
her to start dating me and shesaid well, I'm not looking to
get into a serious relationshipright now, let's just take it
slow.
That was the start of ourentire relationship.
We've never been apart eversince, and that's almost 22
years ago now.
Speaker 3 (35:02):
So you're still taking it slow.
Yeah, we're still taking itslow.
Yeah, we're taking it real slow.
Yeah, so you're a senior.
How did you decide where to goto college?
Speaker 2 (35:11):
That was a complete move of God.
I wanted to go to CedarvilleUniversity because that's where
all my friends were going andthat's where, at the time, my
wife was going to go.
She actually ended uptransferring to Purdue
University, but it was the safeChristian bubble.
It was the summer campexperience, but for four years
(35:35):
you know type thing, yeah.
And I worked hard to getaccepted because, again, I'm not
academically inclined and Iended up initially not getting
accepted and had to retake mySATs.
Got accepted finally, and seniornight for my varsity basketball
season, there was one of thereferees who knew my dad went to
Ball State University.
He refereed on the side to makesome money and it just so
(35:55):
happened that that night that hewas the referee of our game,
the after party of the varsitygame was at my house and it just
so happened that I had justfinished this movie that I
talked to you about.
That was going into thatstatewide arts competition.
So my dad invited this guy hisname was David over to our house
to watch my video.
And David watched the movie,turned to my dad and he said
(36:19):
Brett has to go to Ball StateUniversity.
He is way more talented thansome of the juniors and seniors
that I'm currently working withat school and it was one of
those like how much stock do weput into this guy's opinion?
You know he didn't really knowmuch about it, but to amuse him
we did a college visit me andmyself and my parents and
stepping onto that campus BallState University I started to
(36:43):
see God's plan, that this was aplace that I could get a film
school level education withouthaving to go to a film school,
something in state the caliberof the department.
I mean, people were winningnational and regional awards,
people were getting jobplacements right out of college
(37:05):
and it was a completelydifferent program not to
completely dismiss the programat Cedarville, but it was kind
of night and day at the time andI knew that if I wanted to be
serious about this industry Ineeded to get the best training
possible.
So I took that as a move of Godand went to Ball State
University.
Speaker 1 (37:23):
Brett, you mentioned earlier about that poster over
your shoulder Disciples in theMoonlight and we had the joy of
following along on that journeyfrom afar and seeing your heart
through that.
You know, for everyonelistening, it's an absolutely
incredible film that you need tomake sure you see.
It's on Amazon, right.
Speaker 2 (37:43):
right, you can purchase it on amazon, apple tv,
google, pretty much anywhereright now yeah, so I encourage
all, all listeners to watch thatfilm.
Speaker 1 (37:53):
Incredibly well done, a great plot line, fantastic
acting.
Tell us about the journey ofthe film.
Maybe give a little insightinto the story of Disciples in
the Moonlight and tell us aboutthat journey.
Speaker 2 (38:09):
Well, I appreciate both of you and just for being
my prayer warriors and cheeringme on, and it's been an amazing
experience.
I first heard about thisproject in 2013.
A dear friend of mine, joshStrakowski, who was one of those
guys several years older thanme then when I was younger, that
(38:29):
was a big part of thatencouragement, friend force, so
to speak, and he and I worked ona lot of different things
together and anytime that Joshsays he has an idea, I take
interest because he's reallycreative, thinks outside the box
.
And he came to me one night andhe said I got an idea.
I had this flash in my head ofpeople running through
(38:49):
cornfields in Indiana.
The cornfield is bathed inmoonlight and these people are
running for their life andthey're carrying the Bible.
And he just looked at me and hesaid, what if the Bible was
illegal in America?
And I had goosebumps all overmy body.
I could see the whole movie inmy head.
I could feel it, I could smellit.
It was such a vivid I mean,sometimes ideas take a long time
(39:11):
to discover and cultivate.
This one was like lightning ina bottle.
We could both feel it and so Isaid, josh, you've got to go
explore this idea, write it outinto a script.
And Josh is old school in thesense that he writes that first
draft of Eddie's story longhand.
He doesn't type, he writes itall out longhand.
(39:33):
So it took a while for him towrite it all out and once he had
done that and then transcribedit into the computer, he sent me
the first draft of the scriptand asked me to direct the film.
It wasn't just a captivatingidea creatively for me, it
wasn't just that, oh, this wouldbe a fun and exciting story,
because the story, even at theearliest day, has never changed.
(39:54):
It was this journey with sevencharacters who live in a version
of America where the Bible hasbeen outlawed and repurposed
with a government-approvedancient text and people have to
make a choice Are they going tohand in their copy of God's Word
and accept thegovernment-approved Bible, or
(40:15):
are they going to keep the Wordof God and be labeled as rebels,
as outlaws, and have to gounderground to have church and
serve the Lord?
So that was the nugget that hasnever changed, and so that was
also captivating to me.
But the thing that kept me fromthe beginning and motivated me
throughout the seven years thatit took us to develop the
(40:36):
project was the question.
How would I respond?
If this was my reality?
What would I do?
I saw myself in thesecharacters and I was asking
myself pretty challengingquestions and thinking about the
fact that, though this isscience fiction in terms of
America today, this is realityfor many people all over the
(40:57):
world and this is something thatthey face day in and day out.
And you talk about a polarizingtopic.
This is about as polarizing asit can get.
With a podcast called Risk andResolve, we knew early on this
was a risk, because this is notsomething that is a slam dunk to
make a bunch of money and totickle everybody's ears and make
(41:19):
everybody happy.
This will disrupt people andfrom the beginning, for me, I
wanted to make a movie thatwould kind of shake the church
and wake them up and ask themhow much do you treasure the
word of God?
Is Jesus all, is he your life,and how far would you be willing
to go for your faith?
And so all of those things werejust so heavy on my heart that,
(41:40):
year after year, that we triedto raise the funds, that we had
doors closed in our faces, thatnetworks and studios said no,
this is crazy bad idea.
We kept pushing forward, wekept believing that God was in
it, and it all kind of came tofruition in 2022.
(42:01):
And the Lord not only broughtthe right people to bring the
funding, but he also brought theright people, the right artists
, to join me on the journey.
It was a seven-year periodwhere I was not only trying to
develop a project, but I wasmeeting people that I believe
God divinely appointed to be onour film set, to either act in
it or work on the crew side ofthings, post-production side of
(42:24):
things and the movie, though, wemade it for a very small amount
of money in terms of thenormals in the industry.
People think that this is amajor motion millions of dollars
production, and that's atestimony to my team, the people
that bought into the vision andwere willing to take the risk
(42:46):
with us.
And the thing that's been sooverwhelming is maybe too easy
of a word to use, but it hasbeen overwhelming is to see the
audience response.
Sure, the people on the outsideof the faith have ridiculed it.
We even had a Satanist do amovie review and put it online,
(43:08):
and it got hundreds of thousandsof views and they just ripped
it to shreds and that stuff hashappened which, I guess, if the
enemy isn't upset about whatyou're doing, are you really
doing anything effective.
But what's been so overwhelmingis that this movie has inspired
people to get serious about theBible, to commit scripture, to
memory, to reevaluate their ownrelationship with God, and it's
(43:32):
also been very fulfilling thatpeople enjoyed the movie.
A lot of people say, yeah,christian movies are great, but
they're not enjoyable.
They have good messages butthey're not enjoyable.
Well, you know, they have goodmessages but they're not
enjoyable.
And the fact that people havesaid that it's a thrill ride and
you're on the edge of your seatand you know those types of
comments it's affirming that therisk was worth it and I believe
(43:54):
that God has been honored inthe process and it's been the
most incredible experience.
It's taken up a decade of mylife and I'm so thankful that
it's now out there for people toexperience and pass on to their
friends and watch multipletimes.
That's one of the othercompliments we've received is
that this is not a movie you canonly watch once, so I'm just so
thankful.
Speaker 3 (44:14):
I want to weave in a couple of things.
You've already mentioned Morecollaboration and a professor at
Ball State Was it Jim Shasky?
Yeah, so I know for a fact thatdisciples, whether you wanted
to or not, forced you into morecollaboration, which was
ultimately wonderful, turned outgreat.
(44:35):
Have you, I guess, internalizedthe notion that the days of you
becoming the Jim Shasky of yoursphere is either here or
approaching very quickly?
And what I mean by that isyou've racked up some hardware,
you've had some successes andyou'll have more, but the idea
(44:55):
that through that collaboration,it's time for you to challenge,
admonish, fan the flames.
Where are you seeing thoseopportunities to work with, not
just people younger, you know,because you can lead up and lead
parallel?
Are you seeing that door ofopportunity open to where you're
taking some of those lessonsfrom your old professor and
(45:16):
applying them to people that yousee extreme talent in?
Speaker 2 (45:20):
Yes and no.
I mean, I think, on a simplelevel.
Yes, there have been veryobvious opportunities here in
the last few years, especiallywhere guys younger than me, who
are just starting out, they wantto be on my film sets and they
want to see why I do what I do.
(45:42):
And they just want to absorbwould be maybe a better word
from my experience and that'sbeen so flattering, rewarding, I
don't even know the right wordto use because I remember what
it was like being in high schooland college and just dreaming,
wishing one day, man, I want tobe on a film set, wishing one
(46:06):
day man, I want to be on a filmset.
And if it wasn't for Shafskyand the other professors at my
college like I would have hadsome of the opportunities that I
had, but it still wasn't beingon a feature film set.
I remember getting cast in asubway commercial when I was
sophomore in college and it wasmy first like really big film
set that I'd ever been on.
I remember so badly wanting thedirector just to pull me aside
and teach me a couple things,you know, whisper a few tricks
(46:28):
of the trade to me or something,and people in my industry are
very often they keep everythingclose to the chest, everything's
intellectual property.
You don't want it to be stolen,and so they can be kind of cold
.
And it's been very, veryfulfilling to put my arm around
a few people and just say, hey,here's what I've learned, try
this, connect people and try togive people opportunities.
(46:50):
That's been really fulfilling.
But I also realize that themore collaboration I've allowed
into my sphere, the more Irealize how little I still know
and how much I still need togrow and learn.
And so I'm still kind ofseeking out and in some ways I
guess I don't feel like I amready to be into that mentor
(47:13):
type role.
I'll do it as often as the Lordallows into my life, but I'm
still.
I guess I'm still hungry andwanting to chase some things
that are heavy on my heart.
Speaker 3 (47:23):
Well, you definitely have lots of more hardware to
collect and story to tell andwe're excited to be, whatever
little part or piece of it isthat we can be and follow along.
We like to end these podcastsand, by the way, thank you.
You've been super generous withyour time and your comments and
your stories and I know we kindof didn't cover a lot of the
(47:43):
traditional what movies andthings have you done?
But it's been fascinating tohear your background because I
truly do believe that there isnurture and nature in your
creative and we talked aboutthat.
You definitely have someGod-given gifts, but there've
been a lot of fans on that flameto make sure that it didn't go
out, from your parents, yoursiblings to your wife and now
your kids, you know in their ownunique way, as they encourage
(48:07):
all of us.
their children encourage all ofus.
We like to end with twoquestions.
So, without any kind ofpreempting, here's the first
question what is a risk that youhave taken that has changed
your life?
Speaker 2 (48:20):
Oh, man, I would say maybe at a fundamental level,
anybody who gets married istaking a risk, I think.
But marrying my wife, my highschool sweetheart, has been the
biggest change in my life andGod has used that woman to
change me in ways that I'llnever quite get over and be
grateful for.
That I'll never quite get overand be grateful for.
(48:43):
Also, I think a big risk wasDiscipled in the Moonlight.
That was the one that we hadevery reason to abandon ship and
people telling us to abandonship multiple times in the
process, and it was a risk.
But I'm so thankful that I tookthat risk because it made me a
(49:04):
better person, not just a bettercreative, and it has been
something that has blessed somany people and continues to
bless people, and I'm sothankful to see how God has
worked, despite myself in themidst of all that.
Speaker 3 (49:20):
Last question what is unfinished that you have the
resolve to complete either inthe near future or the not so
distant future?
Speaker 2 (49:29):
So with the way that my brain works.
There's, at any given time,there could be 15 to 20
different ideas that I'm chasingand I'm trying to figure out
and I'm trying to solve problemsI'm trying to solve in my head
and stories to cultivate.
But there is one that I want tosee happen before I die, and I
(49:50):
don't know if it's going to besoon, I don't know if it's going
to be later, but the Lord hasgiven me a lot of visions.
I've always been fascinated bythe crucifixion of Jesus.
It's something that I'vestudied a lot, just from a
historical standpoint and thenalso a biblical standpoint, and
I mean it is the climax of humanhistory, that and the
(50:11):
resurrection.
But one moment that has been onmy mind more than anything is
when Jesus said my God, my God,why have you forsaken me?
And in that moment bearing uponhimself the wrath of Almighty
god for the sins of all humanity.
And I want to explore tellingthat story from the spiritual
realm and not just the physicalrealm.
(50:32):
And so is essentially seeingthe crucifixion from a whole
different angle.
And that is, I have the resolvethat I want to see that come to
life one day.
I don't know when.
It would be a very expensivemovie, but if there's anything
that could be like the crowningjewel of my career, I would want
it to be that, because that'sthe most important story that I
(50:53):
could ever tell.
I think I have some pretty coolideas for it.
Speaker 3 (50:57):
Well, thanks for sharing it, because now I know
how to hold you accountable tothat big jewel.
Thank you again for your time,for sharing your talent with the
world and for always pointingus, to remind us the source of
that talent is your Lord andSavior.
So thanks for just being you,brett, to enjoy the association
and getting to know you andhaving this conversation.
Thank you, thanks for tuning into Risk and Resolve.
(51:20):
See you next time.
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