Mixing Marriage with Movie Making

Jaclyn: 00:00:00

Welcome to the Faith and Family Filmmakers Podcast.

Jaclyn: 00:00:02

My name is Jaclyn, and today I have some special guests with me where we're gonna be talking about documentaries.

Jaclyn: 00:00:09

We have not had too many guests that talk about documentaries, so I'm excited to really dive into this today.

Jaclyn: 00:00:15

Cole Dempsey and Hannah Ellif Dempsey are an award-winning husband and wife filmmaking team based in Dallas, Texas.

Jaclyn: 00:00:22

Together, they co-lead.

Jaclyn: 00:00:23

Rabbit Trail Productions a creative studio specializing in faith-driven films and cinematic storytelling and Rabbit Trail Media.

Jaclyn: 00:00:32

and DFW, marketing and Media Company.

Jaclyn: 00:00:35

Cole is a director, writer, cinematographer, and editor with a degree in digital cinematography from Full Sail University.

Jaclyn: 00:00:42

Hannah, a producer and assistant director with a background in film production and graphic design degree from Colin College manages the behind the scenes coordination that brings their shared vision to life.

Jaclyn: 00:00:54

Through Rabbit Trail Productions, they create purpose-filled narratives that inspire, uplift, and resonate with global audiences across platforms.

Jaclyn: 00:01:03

Welcome to the podcast Cole and Hannah.

Jaclyn: 00:01:05

it's actually, it's really cool, to be able to talk with you again.

Jaclyn: 00:01:09

Cole, I met you years ago.

Jaclyn: 00:01:12

I think it was 2021 at a conference in Texas.

Jaclyn: 00:01:16

We were at Content Media conference and you know, I think a lot of our guests, and I guess a lot of the, the contacts that I have in the industry are people that I met at conferences.

Cole: 00:01:27

Right.

Jaclyn: 00:01:28

And so for you guys with all of the work that you do, um, how did you get started?

Jaclyn: 00:01:34

Let's maybe back up and, and hear your origin story.

Jaclyn: 00:01:38

How did you get into this field and do what you do today?

Cole: 00:01:40

Yeah.

Cole: 00:01:40

You wanna start?

Hannah: 00:01:42

You can start, let's go further back.

Cole: 00:01:44

Okay.

Cole: 00:01:44

Yeah.

Cole: 00:01:44

My, so funny enough, um, my desire to be a filmmaker started when I was five.

Cole: 00:01:53

Um, my mom invited me into the living room to watch a behind the scenes documentary on how they made Star Wars.

Cole: 00:02:01

And I was a Star Wars fanatic.

Cole: 00:02:03

You know, I loved Star Wars.

Cole: 00:02:05

Everything I played was Star Wars.

Cole: 00:02:07

And so when I saw the behind the scenes, it didn't, it didn't ruin the magic for me.

Cole: 00:02:12

In fact, it made it more interesting to me.

Cole: 00:02:15

I'm like, that's what I want to do.

Cole: 00:02:17

Fast forward, you know, uh, years and years and years.

Cole: 00:02:21

I, I, grew up in West Texas where being a filmmaker or Hollywood was, uh, I might as well have been born on Tatooine, Right.

Jaclyn: 00:02:29

Right, right.

Cole: 00:02:30

And I, you know, I, I, I felt like Luke just in the middle of nowhere wanting to be a part of something much bigger than myself.

Cole: 00:02:38

You know, I was never interested in film.

Cole: 00:02:40

Um, I can't say never interested in film when I was younger to be famous.

Cole: 00:02:44

It, it, you know, I, I just kind of grew out of that, that filmmaker, desire.

Cole: 00:02:51

when I just thought, oh, this is never gonna happen.

Jaclyn: 00:02:54

Right.

Jaclyn: 00:02:54

Yeah.

Jaclyn: 00:02:54

Pursue something realistic, right?

Cole: 00:02:57

Yeah, I'm kind of, I, I did join, run off and joined the military.

Cole: 00:03:02

Um, I was on the medical field and I, I wanted to do something bigger than myself, like I said.

Cole: 00:03:09

But, I got out, I, uh, gave my life to the Lord on the way out of the military.

Cole: 00:03:16

You know, I, I, I'd walked away, from the Lord while, while I was, uh, in the military and, uh, partied all the time and, and all that stuff.

Cole: 00:03:25

So I came to know the Lord, I was like, well, golly, you know, I'm in California right now.

Cole: 00:03:33

Maybe I can start modeling or acting and stuff.

Cole: 00:03:36

And then I, I went to my first modeling audition.

Cole: 00:03:41

I realized it was a scam, and so it scared me so much that I just left.

Cole: 00:03:49

I just, I never, tried anything else and I wound up, uh, going in ministry for a while But, after 13 years, I was like, wait, I have walked away from this.

Cole: 00:04:03

What I felt like was a calling since I was five.

Cole: 00:04:07

I, I feel like now's the time.

Cole: 00:04:09

every job I had ever had, all I dreamt about was making films and acting.

Cole: 00:04:14

That was, that was all I could ever, ever just dream about.

Cole: 00:04:17

And I, while I was, uh, working some jobs, I, I started script writing for the first time and, and I, uh, thought, well, you know, I might as well try acting.

Cole: 00:04:29

And so about 11 years ago, I, I started acting and realized, well, and at this point I'm a single dad, right?

Cole: 00:04:36

So went through divorce.

Cole: 00:04:37

Now I'm taking care of three kids on my own, and I couldn't just run off to film school like I wanted to.

Cole: 00:04:45

So I, I found that there was a, desire in me to, to be an actor, but.

Cole: 00:04:51

Being in Dallas, Texas, there wasn't as many opportunities to act.

Cole: 00:04:55

So I thought, well, maybe I should write myself some short films so that I can make an acting demo reel.

Cole: 00:05:02

And then I realized I love to write.

Cole: 00:05:05

And then from there I decided, well, you know, I'm not gonna leave my kids.

Cole: 00:05:11

I'm not gonna walk away from them.

Cole: 00:05:12

I'm not gonna walk away from my responsibility.

Cole: 00:05:15

So what can I do in my situation right now that will help me pursue this calling to be in film, but yet still take care of my responsibilities as a father?

Cole: 00:05:30

And so I decided, well.

Cole: 00:05:32

I know Full Sail University has an online program, and I know that kind of sounds weird to a lot of people.

Cole: 00:05:39

Oh, you went to film school online?

Cole: 00:05:41

Yes.

Cole: 00:05:42

And instead of working on some big film sets with a bunch of, you know, cast and crew.

Cole: 00:05:49

It was just me and I wore every hat and it was, you know, more run and gun kind of situation.

Cole: 00:05:56

And my kids were my first cast and crew

Jaclyn: 00:06:00

uhhuh.

Cole: 00:06:01

I started that.

Jaclyn: 00:06:02

I think that there is value in any learning opportunity, whether you're learning online or learning, you know, at a bigger school or whatever.

Jaclyn: 00:06:12

It's more about the work ethic that you put into it, because.

Jaclyn: 00:06:16

Um, sometimes the people who are self-taught, if they've really put in that diligent effort and found a mentor, they can go so far, uh, in a way that they may not have been able to had they gone a school route.

Jaclyn: 00:06:31

And so that, that's not to say anything negative one way or the other, but just to recognize like everybody's learning experience and style and all of that is different.

Jaclyn: 00:06:40

Like I did that too, where I was self-taught for a long time, and then when I decided to pursue as a career, I went and I found a mentor and that mentor had the education and everything that would, you know, I, he actually was a professor that if I had gone and taken his classes, you know, I could have done that.

Jaclyn: 00:06:58

But

Jaclyn: 00:06:59

in my situation, he said, well, you're already farther along than you would need to be to be in my class, so let's just work, you know, one-to-one.

Jaclyn: 00:07:09

And so I actually think that I got a better education in that scenario.

Cole: 00:07:14

And, and there's no one way,

Cole: 00:07:17

there are people who are perfectly successful without film school.

Cole: 00:07:21

For me, the reason why I did it was because I and I did the whole YouTube university, right?

Cole: 00:07:26

I watched thousands of hours of video to try and learn to be a filmmaker in my spare time.

Cole: 00:07:32

But what I wanted from school was someone to go, okay, do this now, do this.

Cole: 00:07:38

Okay, now do this.

Cole: 00:07:39

Yeah.

Cole: 00:07:39

Break the, yeah.

Cole: 00:07:41

If, and I needed the structure, that was just me.

Cole: 00:07:44

That's, that doesn't mean that I think everyone needs to do film school.

Cole: 00:07:48

but after, uh, about halfway through, I met Hannah and she decided to go back to school for graphic design.

Hannah: 00:07:58

Well, I had already, been doing that.

Hannah: 00:08:00

I was actually, uh, in another career and, just a chain of events led me to go back to school and I did.

Hannah: 00:08:08

Uh, I had been to college many years before I had, um, for art and did graphic design work.

Hannah: 00:08:17

But I, and I knew some of the programs.

Hannah: 00:08:20

I didn't know all the programs, but it just worked out to go back and the Lord, just through a chain of events, really spoke to me about going back.

Hannah: 00:08:28

just to upgrade my skills and pick up.

Hannah: 00:08:31

you know, some more skills and learn and, and get mentors through that way.

Hannah: 00:08:36

And, um, so I did And, and I was in a, uh, storyboarding class.

Hannah: 00:08:42

Yeah.

Hannah: 00:08:42

And Cole was like, oh my gosh.

Hannah: 00:08:44

He was so excited cause it wouldn't just need the film was his thing.

Hannah: 00:08:47

And this, you know, I was just gonna do graphic design and like, I can help you with, you know, title sequence or whatever, but.

Hannah: 00:08:54

he really began to formulate this vision of us doing it together.

Hannah: 00:08:57

Right.

Hannah: 00:08:58

and I was like, oh, okay.

Cole: 00:09:00

Well, I, I started saying, were your skills matched up with my skills where I was lacking.

Cole: 00:09:07

Yeah.

Cole: 00:09:08

Yeah.

Cole: 00:09:08

And my skills matched up with yours where yours was lacking.

Cole: 00:09:12

And so it just kind of fit together Yeah.

Cole: 00:09:14

With this beautiful and puzzle piece.

Hannah: 00:09:16

Yes.

Hannah: 00:09:16

And so, we went on, eventually I began to see that and I learned, um, to set up the lighting.

Hannah: 00:09:25

I learned.

Hannah: 00:09:26

'cause at first he would do all that.

Hannah: 00:09:27

And then we, we started seeing, you know, he had so much going on when we were filming.

Hannah: 00:09:32

Um, there would be like one time we were filming something and some of the lights had just turned off and I wasn't paying attention 'cause it wasn't really, you know.

Hannah: 00:09:40

He, he was so busy with the cameras.

Hannah: 00:09:42

And so from that,

Cole: 00:09:43

and there is a story with that.

Cole: 00:09:44

Yeah, there's a

Hannah: 00:09:45

story with that.

Hannah: 00:09:45

But from that I said, well, what if I start learning the lighting?

Hannah: 00:09:49

And so I started setting up lighting and learning and working with him.

Hannah: 00:09:53

And I realized,

Cole: 00:09:54

you're really, really good.

Cole: 00:09:54

I

Hannah: 00:09:54

loved it.

Hannah: 00:09:55

I mean, I have a background also in, I used to co-own a photography studio, and with the graphic design, I mean an element light of design.

Hannah: 00:10:05

Are the same all across the board.

Hannah: 00:10:07

And so I started realizing my background in history and education really overlapped with the filmmaking.

Hannah: 00:10:15

And I realized I loved it.

Hannah: 00:10:17

I loved the storytelling too, and I loved, you know, working with him and doing these, uh, videos and whatever we did.

Hannah: 00:10:24

And we work with the musician, have done several music videos and the first one, because of that and because of some language.

Hannah: 00:10:31

Differences, not that, I mean, he spoke English, but he used different words for.

Hannah: 00:10:36

Film stuff and, uh, anyway, so, but once we got that worked out and once we got where I could be the one who goes, okay, Cole, so now we're gonna do this.

Hannah: 00:10:46

And now we're, you know, it's almost like sometimes my job is like AD / slash Script Supervisor.

Hannah: 00:10:52

I don't know, there's, it's like I'm doing both, you know, on smaller sets.

Hannah: 00:10:56

Um, which I've done script supervisor on other film productions, like people have hired me to do that and I really like it, but so we laugh because I'm like, I'm his translator, you

Cole: 00:11:06

know?

Jaclyn: 00:11:06

Well, as long as you guys laugh

Jaclyn: 00:11:08

about it, you know, I think that's one of those things where, um, you know, working with your spouse, it comes with its own challenges because you have

Jaclyn: 00:11:15

so many things, right, that, that your lives are, bringing together.

Jaclyn: 00:11:19

So working together when you can find that way to have that strong working relationship and to, uh, lean on each other and to recognize each other's strengths as you have, like, that's a beautiful thing.

Cole: 00:11:30

Yeah, thank you.

Cole: 00:11:30

And, and we, both love collaborating with other people and, I don't really have a lot of pride wrapped up in it and what I do, You know what I mean?

Cole: 00:11:40

Like I'm not prideful about what I'm doing.

Cole: 00:11:43

I'm just so excited to do film and direct or do cinematography.

Cole: 00:11:50

So it's, it's all exciting to me and I love, I, I don't have to do everything, you know, at first I felt like I had to do everything because that's what I did.

Cole: 00:11:59

Yeah.

Cole: 00:12:00

I did that on

Cole: 00:12:00

all the,

Hannah: 00:12:01

that was a, that was an issue too, is that.

Hannah: 00:12:05

He had done everything by himself.

Hannah: 00:12:07

And so then when I started to come in, then, he would just automatically, we had already agreed, look, I'll take care of the lighting.

Hannah: 00:12:14

You know, You always said, great, that's a great idea.

Hannah: 00:12:16

But then we would get on a situation like the music video set or some other set that we're doing and, and he would just start like, doing the lighting and I'm like, wait, I, I'm doing that.

Hannah: 00:12:26

I got it.

Hannah: 00:12:27

Focus on the cameras, you know?

Jaclyn: 00:12:29

Yeah.

Jaclyn: 00:12:30

Yeah.

Jaclyn: 00:12:30

There's,

Hannah: 00:12:30

So it was a

Jaclyn: 00:12:31

always gonna be like, yeah.

Jaclyn: 00:12:32

A learning curve.

Jaclyn: 00:12:33

A bit of transition of, of figuring out how this actually plays

Cole: 00:12:37

yes.

Cole: 00:12:38

Yeah.

Cole: 00:12:39

And I remember, you know, when we were in the beginning, we were trying to come up with a production name.

Cole: 00:12:46

And then college, you have to just, basically, it's like your name production company.

Cole: 00:12:52

So it was initially cold Mc Productions.

Cole: 00:12:55

And I, didn't wanna do that.

Cole: 00:12:56

And so we, we were praying about, God, what, what do we do?

Cole: 00:13:00

And I came up with, we brainstorm and we talk and

Hannah: 00:13:02

we'd give ideas like, what about this?

Hannah: 00:13:05

No, like what about this and what, yeah.

Hannah: 00:13:06

Yeah.

Hannah: 00:13:06

I mean

Hannah: 00:13:06

over like a.

Jaclyn: 00:13:07

like picking names for your

Hannah: 00:13:08

Yes, you.

Hannah: 00:13:09

Exactly.

Hannah: 00:13:10

And I mean just like over several week period, you know,

Hannah: 00:13:13

we've just,

Cole: 00:13:13

how

Hannah: 00:13:13

about this?

Hannah: 00:13:14

No,

Cole: 00:13:15

it doesn't do it for me.

Cole: 00:13:17

And then, then we were having this conversation and we, we like to rabbit trail, not that we like to, we just do's know, we start here and then we wound up over here, but we always come back to the thing.

Cole: 00:13:27

And so I think I just.

Cole: 00:13:29

Made this offhand.

Cole: 00:13:31

It was a joke.

Cole: 00:13:31

It was a joke.

Cole: 00:13:32

Like, you know, it'd be funny if we called ourselves Rabbit Trail Productions.

Cole: 00:13:36

And Hannah that's

Cole: 00:13:37

it.

Cole: 00:13:37

I was like, it sounded so good.

Cole: 00:13:39

I love it.

Jaclyn: 00:13:39

Yeah.

Cole: 00:13:40

that's how it came about.

Cole: 00:13:41

And we, you know, just kind of poking fun at ourselves and, you know, we take what we do serious, but we don't

Jaclyn: 00:13:46

Yes.

Jaclyn: 00:13:48

love that.

Jaclyn: 00:13:50

I love that.

Cole: 00:13:51

Yeah.

Cole: 00:13:52

Yep.

Jaclyn: 00:13:52

That's such a great attitude, uh, because it's like, okay, I'm over me.

Jaclyn: 00:13:56

I am all about this project.

Jaclyn: 00:13:58

You know,

Jaclyn: 00:13:58

like it, I think it really adds to the work because you get yourself outta the way, like you said, it's not about pride, it's not about that.

Jaclyn: 00:14:06

So it really lets you dive wholeheartedly into the project where you're able to hear other people give you advice or suggestions or whatever.

Jaclyn: 00:14:15

And, you know, I find too, like.

Jaclyn: 00:14:17

I crave that at times where it's like, I just want this to be the best that it can.

Jaclyn: 00:14:21

Can somebody please poke holes in my project so I can fix them?

Cole: 00:14:24

Yeah.

Cole: 00:14:25

Right.

Cole: 00:14:25

And that's what we do with each other.

Cole: 00:14:26

That's exactly what we do.

Cole: 00:14:27

We do.

Cole: 00:14:28

Now, I don't always like it.

Cole: 00:14:30

Yeah.

Cole: 00:14:31

But I, I asked for it.

Jaclyn: 00:14:32

Yeah.

Hannah: 00:14:34

it,

Hannah: 00:14:34

makes a better project.

Hannah: 00:14:36

We've realized, you know, I heard one time Jordan Peterson, I think he had made a comment about marriage and said that, that that struggle makes you a better person like that.

Hannah: 00:14:46

Iron sharpens iron.

Hannah: 00:14:47

And I don't know if he used that term, but it was what I took from, it was, you know, in a marriage, whenever you can stand up, not arguing and mean and insulting, but in a respectful way at times, it makes you a better person and right in the same way I see the projects.

Hannah: 00:15:05

We have hashed through things.

Hannah: 00:15:07

There have been times where we, we argued and we had to kind of go, let's wait and let's just pray.

Hannah: 00:15:13

And we just, he's disagreed with me.

Hannah: 00:15:16

I've disagreed with him.

Hannah: 00:15:18

And, but we always were able to come back and like negotiate.

Hannah: 00:15:23

Yeah.

Hannah: 00:15:23

We were negotiating with each other and, uh, came to a. Conclusion throughout, and it made a better project.

Hannah: 00:15:31

I look back and go, wow, that was a better project because of me holding to my, like convictions about something that I was like, no, this, really needs to be this way.

Hannah: 00:15:41

Or him holding to his convictions.

Hannah: 00:15:44

Saying, no, this really needs to be this way.

Hannah: 00:15:46

and that's good.

Hannah: 00:15:47

That's good.

Hannah: 00:15:47

Whether it's your spouse or, or a business partner or a, producer, two producers or whatever.

Cole: 00:15:53

And I think that would be a good segment into our first project.

Cole: 00:15:56

Now we did some short films and stuff.

Cole: 00:15:59

Why was finishing, when I was going through film school, she came on board and started helping me.

Cole: 00:16:05

And you know, we did this get little short.

Cole: 00:16:08

Film.

Cole: 00:16:08

Yeah, we did several.

Cole: 00:16:10

Yeah.

Cole: 00:16:10

I was able to have my first onscreen kiss.

Cole: 00:16:13

That was really awesome.

Cole: 00:16:14

It's funny.

Cole: 00:16:15

Yeah.

Cole: 00:16:16

Yeah.

Cole: 00:16:16

There's not, there's really hardly any, any words in there, but, uh, and that's what I wanted.

Cole: 00:16:21

I wanted something a little bit more.

Cole: 00:16:23

You know, the, the facial expressions and the, the awkwardness, uh, of, of, uh, getting outta your comfort zone to talk to someone that you think is, really special.

Cole: 00:16:35

You know, that's kind of what it's about.

Cole: 00:16:37

And so, um, that was one of the, the first project you helped me with

Hannah: 00:16:41

and we did several and then, um, several little short things filmed together.

Hannah: 00:16:47

Yeah.

Hannah: 00:16:48

And then.

Hannah: 00:16:49

Homeschooling documentary.

Hannah: 00:16:50

Yeah, yeah.

Hannah: 00:16:51

You, you kind of, you did that without me.

Hannah: 00:16:53

But Yeah.

Hannah: 00:16:55

That was before, yeah.

Hannah: 00:16:56

You were a star.

Hannah: 00:16:57

But, um, ultimately I'm involved.

Hannah: 00:17:00

I've been involved in this initiative.

Hannah: 00:17:02

It's a kind of a ministry, but it's a initiative involving many ministries in the body of Christ for many years.

Hannah: 00:17:07

And this is leading up to our first big project that we did, and.

Hannah: 00:17:13

A lot of people have trouble understanding it.

Hannah: 00:17:15

And so one day he goes, what is, you know, this ministry?

Hannah: 00:17:18

And we were sitting in the car and I explained it, and he got it.

Hannah: 00:17:20

And he goes, this is huge.

Hannah: 00:17:22

This is so important.

Hannah: 00:17:23

It's you know, prophetic and for the, return of Christ and all this stuff.

Hannah: 00:17:26

And I said, yeah, it's really big.

Hannah: 00:17:28

And so, um, he talked to the guy that.

Hannah: 00:17:32

One day we saw him that really had the vision for this many years ago and he said, y'all need to do a document.

Hannah: 00:17:37

And Cole, at this point, Cole was in school.

Hannah: 00:17:40

I was still in school.

Hannah: 00:17:42

We were both working full time.

Hannah: 00:17:44

You know, we were, I said, we married, we, I mean, anyway, he was like, he's the visionary.

Hannah: 00:17:50

He was like, ah, we gotta do a documentary about this.

Hannah: 00:17:52

He goes, yeah, that'd be a great idea.

Hannah: 00:17:54

Yeah, you should, you should do that.

Hannah: 00:17:56

And then Cole would say it to me and I'm like, yeah, that's gonna cause a lot of money.

Hannah: 00:17:59

Like, who was gonna fund that?

Hannah: 00:18:01

and he said it a few times, like, yeah, that'd be great if we could do that.

Hannah: 00:18:04

so it was like a year later in 2020.

Hannah: 00:18:08

The beginning of like, COVID had just hit, and I was praying one day and it's like when God, I don't know if this ever happened to people, but when God dropped something on you and it's everything all at once,

Hannah: 00:18:22

like,

Jaclyn: 00:18:22

Yeah.

Hannah: 00:18:24

and he dropped on me this download out of the blue, we hadn't even been talking about making this documentary, we had, not talked about it since he mentioned it a year before.

Hannah: 00:18:34

I have, I didn't think anything else about it because of the cost.

Hannah: 00:18:37

Obviously that would cost a lot of money.

Hannah: 00:18:39

and the Lord dropped it and it was like everything we would do, I could do this, he could do this, I could do this, he could do, but it was all at once.

Hannah: 00:18:48

It's like God showed me with our skills we could do this.

Hannah: 00:18:51

Now he didn't show me what it was gonna cost and he didn't show me everything that we would

Jaclyn: 00:18:56

Of course not.

Cole: 00:18:57

probably good that he didn't get

Hannah: 00:18:59

because I, I would've been like, no, what are you talking about?

Hannah: 00:19:01

God, you

Hannah: 00:19:01

know?

Hannah: 00:19:02

And, but it's over that next year.

Hannah: 00:19:05

So I told Cole and we were both like, whoa.

Hannah: 00:19:08

And so we kind of filmed this little short to present to this ministry and They were like,

Cole: 00:19:13

and to, kind of propose it to the ministry leaders that are, that are involved to say, Hey, so this is kind of what we're thinking.

Cole: 00:19:20

We get

Hannah: 00:19:21

your blessing

Cole: 00:19:21

to do it.

Cole: 00:19:22

It's your blessing.

Cole: 00:19:22

Yeah.

Hannah: 00:19:23

Yeah.

Hannah: 00:19:23

And so we did, and they loved it.

Hannah: 00:19:26

And they said, yeah, go ahead.

Hannah: 00:19:27

And, uh, the Lord provided.

Hannah: 00:19:30

I mean it was just like after that the Lord started providing and one interesting story of the Lord's

Cole: 00:19:36

provision when we started this, I have to say we were both, like I was finishing up school.

Cole: 00:19:43

Yes.

Cole: 00:19:43

We'd just gotten married the year before and we were both working part-time.

Cole: 00:19:50

Yeah.

Cole: 00:19:50

Still, like the thought of paying.

Cole: 00:19:53

Out pocket and funding our own

Cole: 00:19:56

documentary was, was crazy.

Cole: 00:19:59

Again, we were on Right.

Cole: 00:20:00

We're

Cole: 00:20:01

just so far away from Yeah.

Cole: 00:20:04

Figuring out how to do this.

Hannah: 00:20:05

and then I my company hired me full time.

Hannah: 00:20:07

I finished and they wanted to hire me, And then my company hired me and, and they had mean right in the middle of COVID and they were on a hiring freeze and they hired him full time.

Hannah: 00:20:14

It's amazing.

Hannah: 00:20:15

But another thing, one, I mean, there were so many cool things God did during the production, and of course we both were working at that point, full time.

Hannah: 00:20:23

And so the production went very slowly.

Hannah: 00:20:25

You know, it did, But the,

Cole: 00:20:27

the ministry leaders said, I'm gonna help you schedule interviews.

Cole: 00:20:32

To everyone.

Cole: 00:20:33

Mm-hmm.

Cole: 00:20:34

that was in there.

Hannah: 00:20:35

Yep.

Hannah: 00:20:35

Yep.

Hannah: 00:20:35

And pre-production went very fast.

Hannah: 00:20:37

Um,

Jaclyn: 00:20:38

And what's the title?

Jaclyn: 00:20:39

Sorry.

Jaclyn: 00:20:40

Just to make sure that our audience knows what project we're talking about.

Jaclyn: 00:20:43

What's the title of this project?

Hannah: 00:20:44

so this is called One New Man and the full

Cole: 00:20:47

title is One New Man A TJC II documentary series.

Cole: 00:20:52

It

Hannah: 00:20:52

One example of something.

Hannah: 00:20:55

That God did.

Hannah: 00:20:56

And we actually hired a

Hannah: 00:20:58

composer that we had met at content.

Hannah: 00:21:00

he came back and he goes, Hey, his name's Jared Lane.

Hannah: 00:21:03

he goes, so I just, I just got back from the Czech Republic and I worked on this film set and, and

Cole: 00:21:09

well, he, and we worked with.

Cole: 00:21:10

The Phil Harmonic,

Hannah: 00:21:11

with the Czech Phil Harmonic But it was on the, another film project that, yeah, he came out and just helped for only this amount, you know, you could fly me out, you could fly me out to the, the Czech Republic and, and get this all recorded by a live, you know, orchestra

Cole: 00:21:26

yeah.

Cole: 00:21:27

the Prague Metropolitan Phil

Hannah: 00:21:28

Harmonic and

Hannah: 00:21:29

so.

Hannah: 00:21:30

Of course.

Hannah: 00:21:31

I'm like, ha, that's cute.

Hannah: 00:21:33

You know, that's a lot of money.

Hannah: 00:21:34

Don't you think?

Hannah: 00:21:35

That's excessive?

Hannah: 00:21:36

You know?

Hannah: 00:21:36

And so we go back and forth and so we're hashing and he did not let it go.

Cole: 00:21:40

like, like a dog with a bone,

Hannah: 00:21:41

like we hash through, hash

Hannah: 00:21:42

through for a

Hannah: 00:21:43

while,

Hannah: 00:21:44

and then

Hannah: 00:21:44

one day.

Hannah: 00:21:46

You were talking to our friends and he goes, something, something about it.

Hannah: 00:21:49

and I kind of probably said some negative comment about, let's, it's gonna be so expensive, we're not doing that.

Hannah: 00:21:55

And he goes, but can I give something to the Lord that doesn't cost me anything?

Hannah: 00:22:00

And I was just like, Ugh.

Jaclyn: 00:22:02

Oh

Hannah: 00:22:02

And I mean, just this conviction came and.

Hannah: 00:22:06

I just felt like, yeah, okay, we need to do this.

Hannah: 00:22:09

And I'm really glad he held onto that, that he didn't just give up.

Hannah: 00:22:13

You know, sometimes people will just give up and go fine, but he never did and he held onto that.

Hannah: 00:22:19

I'm really glad he did because,

Hannah: 00:22:20

right after that, it was like a month later, or maybe it was a couple weeks later, very

Hannah: 00:22:26

shortly after that, I got a bonus.

Hannah: 00:22:28

That was the amount, exact amount.

Hannah: 00:22:31

like my boss called me in and said, Hey, here's this bonus.

Hannah: 00:22:34

And it was a big bonus at my company I mean, I was like, whoa.

Hannah: 00:22:37

And so I just saw, okay, that was the Lord, that he provided.

Hannah: 00:22:42

And so we just gave it back to him and, and it's beautiful.

Hannah: 00:22:45

The music's beautiful and I'm glad he pushed, you know?

Hannah: 00:22:48

Yeah.

Hannah: 00:22:48

And so the Lord did.

Hannah: 00:22:50

Throughout this whole filming, he did a lot of really cool stuff.

Hannah: 00:22:54

He really increased our faith.

Hannah: 00:22:56

and then we realized this is just our first fruits, you know, to the Lord this

Hannah: 00:23:00

project.

Hannah: 00:23:01

And not that everything will be on a biblical topic or about a ministry.

Hannah: 00:23:06

Um, you know, we have other plans, but, we do have some stuff in the works that are still kind of a documentary style.

Hannah: 00:23:15

Like we have a series.

Jaclyn: 00:23:17

Mm-hmm.

Hannah: 00:23:17

The works that we're talking about that, wanna start putting out.

Cole: 00:23:20

documentary One New Man is, it is about the one new man, right.

Cole: 00:23:24

Jew and Gentile in the body of Messiah, reconciling for.

Cole: 00:23:30

1600 years of persecution against the Jewish people and not allowing the Jewish people to come to faith and stay Jewish,

Cole: 00:23:39

we have such a love for the Jewish people.

Cole: 00:23:43

Neither one of us are Jewish.

Cole: 00:23:44

We're we're Christian.

Cole: 00:23:45

And so doing this documentary about the one new man was completely unexpected, but.

Cole: 00:23:54

It went right in line with this love that God had placed on our heart for the Jewish people for our whole lives,

Hannah: 00:24:04

where God had called both of us separately.

Cole: 00:24:06

Yeah.

Jaclyn: 00:24:06

I love that.

Jaclyn: 00:24:08

Okay.

Jaclyn: 00:24:08

I'm actually, this is a perfect place to pause our interview, um, and we can dive more into that project, getting to know more about your heart and maybe even some of the people who were involved.

Jaclyn: 00:24:20

And of course, I'm sure.

Jaclyn: 00:24:22

There must have been things that went wrong along the way and how you dealt with all of that.

Jaclyn: 00:24:27

So yeah, we'll dive into that in our next episode.

Jaclyn: 00:24:31

So I wanna thank our listeners for listening, and I would encourage you to tune in for our next episode with Cole and Hannah.