Dorsey Ross Show
Hello, my name is Dorsey Ross, and I am the host of the Dorsey Ross Show. I am a minister and itinerant speaker. I started the Dorsey Ross Show to interview people of faith who have stories of faith and overcoming trials and difficulties. In this podcast, you will hear stories of all kinds. Some will make you laugh, cry, and even say I can connect with that story or that person. I would love to encourage you to check out these stories of faith, encouragement, and inspiration my guests share on the show. I hope these stories give you hope, to get you through your week and your life. Please share them with your family, friends, co-workers, and anyone who needs a little touch of encouragement today.
Dorsey Ross Show
Craig DeHut's Creative Path in Faith-Based Media
Ever wondered how biblical stories can captivate the digital-savvy youth of today? Join us for a compelling conversation with Craig D Hut, the innovative co-founder of Appian Media, as he unveils his journey from film school to becoming a pioneer in digital biblical storytelling. Discover how Craig's passion for intriguing narratives, like the story of a financial scam wrapped in biblical secrets, fuels his creative pursuits. With experiences from traveling to biblical locations and engaging with diverse cultures, Craig discusses his vision of leveraging limitless resources to spread the gospel and address global needs.
Immerse yourself in our exploration of the evolving world of Christian media, where we tackle the delicate balance between artistic creativity and the integrity of biblical accuracy. Craig shares insights on how the landscape of faith-based films and television series is expanding beyond Hollywood's borders. Hear about the challenges and triumphs in producing high-quality Christian content and why continuous investment in talent is crucial. Get a sneak peek into Appian Media's upcoming projects, including an exciting series on the Book of Acts and a children's series based on the Exodus. This episode promises to enrich your understanding of the cultural impact of Christian media today.
Craig Dehuts website
https://www.appianmedia.org/
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Hello everyone, thanks again for joining me on another episode of the Dorsi Rush show. Today we have a special guest with us. His name is Craig D Hutt. He and his business partner, Stuart, created Appian Media in 2015 when they saw a lack of biblical materials in video form for young people. Over the years, they have traveled the world filming Bible study materials that can be digested via digital media. Craig, thank you so much for coming on the show today. Thanks for having me, Absolutely so. As I said, I'd like to open up with a couple of icebreaker questions, and the first question I have is what was the last thing you looked for, either on Spotify or on Apple Music?
Speaker 2:either on Spotify or on Apple Music. On Apple Music, oh, it's interesting. I used to work in radio and I used to listen to music a lot, and I actually have found myself not listening to it a lot recently. Besides podcasts, does that count? You can listen to podcasts on Spotify.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we'll do podcasts, all right.
Speaker 2:So I was recently listening to a podcast called the Missing 49 Million, and it's a story of basically a scam that a guy was running probably about a decade or so ago, claiming to have the ultimate artificial intelligence that he found in secrets from the Bible, and scammed people out of $49 million that was never accounted for. So things like that, like interesting stories, unsolved a lot of times unsolved mysteries are things that I enjoy listening to while I'm out for a run or while I'm driving.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I like to listen to on on Apple TV. I'll watch, you know, stories or documentaries on people who have gone missing and and never found, that type of that type of thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:If you had unlimited resources, would it be money technology? What would you do with it?
Speaker 2:Oh man, if I had unlimited resources, I would certainly share that with others. I would try to find a way to expand what we're doing with Appian Media, trying to get the gospel in front of as many people as possible. To me, I think that's the most worthwhile endeavor. Obviously, if we can provide for the physical needs of people along the way, I think that's the most worthwhile endeavor. Obviously, if we can provide for the physical needs of people along the way, I think that would be beneficial. But people need Jesus, and so I'd try to find a way to get it to as many people as possible.
Speaker 2:Amen, tell us a little bit more about yourself, your background, how you got into what you're doing Sure, so I live in the Indianapolis area with my wife, Karen, and our three kiddos, and I graduated film school back in 2007. And since that time have worked in a variety of media professions worked in news, I've done documentary. I even for a year or so developed mobile games. I was an animator and illustrator for some mobile games, which was a fun diversion. But since high school really, I have been fascinated with telling stories through media through film and TV, and recorded media and found after coming out of film school that telling stories of real people, capturing events and things that are actually happening with real people, is something that I've just really been attracted to, and so I work as a freelance video producer now for the last eight or nine years, in addition to the work that I do for Appian Media.
Speaker 1:Why are you passionate about what you do?
Speaker 2:Well, twofold One, passionate about telling stories through media. I've just been fascinated with technology and storytelling. As a kid I used to just write stories and rewrite stories and then found that I could do that in video and in pictures and it's a fun's a. It's a fun creative outlet, and I'm passionate because the technology is always changing, the tools are always changing, so it's never the same. I kind of hate, you know, routine or redundancy. I, like you, know trying new things. As far as what I'm doing with Appian Media, my my truest, greatest passion is the Bible and relationship with God and with Jesus, and so to be able to combine those two things together to create documentaries and media to help people better understand the Bible and come to know God, it's just something I'm thrilled about participating in. It's just something I'm thrilled about participating in.
Speaker 1:I read your background and your website and everything, and you travel a lot overseas to the Middle East and to the Holy Land and parts of that world to do your documentaries and to do your shows and what not. Have you found anything to do your documentaries and to do your, your shows and whatnot? Have you found anything? Or have anybody told you stories? Let me, let me, let me word this in a, in a, in a, you know, not in an appropriate way, but in a way that makes sense, I guess. Has anybody told you stories that you really don't read about in the Bible, if that makes sense, about the biblical times?
Speaker 2:Okay, I think I understand your question. Traveling over to those places is something that I just started doing when Appian was formed. So, believe it or not, before our first production trip to Israel, I had never been overseas, so that was back in 2016. Since that time, we've been able to visit Israel, I guess, three different times. We've been blessed to go to Turkey and to Egypt and to Jordan, and we encounter people of all beliefs and faiths. Obviously, there are plenty of people who live over there that believe the biblical text, but you also have plenty of people that maybe believe parts of it or none of it, and so, yeah, it's not uncommon for us to encounter people who are interested in what we're doing. They're interested. I love the openness of people that they're interested to talk to us about what it is that we're doing. You're carrying cameras around, you kind of attract attention, and we're more than willing to talk to people.
Speaker 2:I distinctly remember a conversation one of our team members had.
Speaker 2:We were at the top of Jabal Musa, which is the traditional location of Mount Sinai in the Sinai Peninsula, and whether that's the true Mount Sinai is probably up for debate for many of your listeners, but that's the one that we chose to climb up and there was a gentleman up there who had once believed in Christianity but also had some Islamic beliefs and was trying to reconcile those two because they're not in perfect alignment, and our team member, justin, had a great conversation with him, just kind of talking it through and maybe challenging some ideas and hearing from him, and we welcome that.
Speaker 2:We obviously believe that the Bible presents biblical truth, presents truth for all of us, and it's always been encouraging um. The archeology and the history that we find over there is as we talk to people. Um has never once proven to contradict the Bible. There's quite a bit in the Bible we read about we just haven't found the evidence for. But one archeologist shared with us that, uh, only 5% of the land of the Bible has actually been excavated. You've got about 95% that they just haven't dug up yet. So it shouldn't surprise us then that there are chunks of the Bible we haven't found evidence yet for. But what we have found does correspond with what we read.
Speaker 1:It's interesting you mentioned about that 5%. I had someone recently on my show in one of my previous episodes and the same thing that you just said that if only 5% of what the Bible is is what we have found in that land in that area.
Speaker 1:Yeah there's so much more that they can dig, and he explained it to us. It's a matter of time, it's a matter of man, hours, and it's funding. Mostly it's funding. It takes a lot of money. An archaeologist and very, you know, peaceful to you, what about, you know, when I mean obviously right now, we see a lot of, you know, war going on in that area. Sure, have you ever felt, you know, concerned going over there with that happening? Or were you ever in that? Were you ever there when a war was going on and you were like, hey, maybe we can have beaten it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, truthfully, to answer that last question, no, the last time that I personally was in Israel was about 2018. We've done various other trips in other parts of the Bible lands Turkey and Egypt and Jordan, like I said. Since then, however, one of our team members his name is Barry Britnell, and he leads tours over to Israel, typically two or three of them a year. There have been periods of time, especially last October, where he had to postpone a trip last October where he had to postpone a trip, you know and it wasn't so much that the whole country was at war, because that's a mistaken idea that people get when they read the news the whole country is not currently at war. You've got some things down and I'm not trying to minimize any of it, but it's down near the southern border there near Gaza, and then there's some conflict happening in the northern part of Israel, but when you talk about central Israel, jerusalem and other things, life is kind of going on like normal for them. So Barry was recently over there, three or four weeks ago, and took a tour, but usually those things get delayed or postponed, oftentimes because the airlines simply choose to hold flights. But there is also we don't want to be unaware and we don't want to minimize it. There is always the idea that you need to be careful and considerate of your surroundings.
Speaker 2:While we have not necessarily been in Israel during this particular conflict I personally have not there have been instances where we have been there. For example, when we were there in 2018, the embassy was currently being moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. That's when, then, president Trump had made that decision and that caused a stir. It also booked up most of the hotels that we were trying to get. There were just tons of people in. I have never felt any more unsafe in Israel than I do in your average American large city. For example, we flew to Turkey and shot over there for a couple of weeks, had a great time. It was actually during 2020, the latter part of 2020, the country had just opened up and we were blessed to be able to get a flight over there and there were no crowds because very few people were traveling.
Speaker 2:And then we returned and had a two-day layover in New York City, and I love New York. It's very fascinating, but there were parts of New York where I felt more unsafe there than anywhere I had been in Turkey, and it's just. You need to be mindful. People are people and there are, unfortunately, evil people in every country, people who would seek to do harm in every country, and you just need to be thoughtful.
Speaker 2:What we have found overall in our trips is, regardless of their nationality, regardless of their religion, regardless of their upbringing, most people have been incredibly gracious to us and thoughtful and kind to us, and we have rarely had people show any kind of hostility towards us when we are over there doing what we're doing, even if they don't agree with what it is that we're communicating. People have opened their homes and shared meals with us and been very thoughtful. Yeah, it's funny you mention New York City, because I'm actually originally from New York City until 2020. That's where I lived most of my life. Cool, I'd like to see more of it, but we were traveling to and from Times Square a little after midnight which I've been told is not wise and we just you know, I was glad to be traveling in a group- Right, no, I would not say it's probably not an inaccurate statement at all.
Speaker 2:Tell us about some of your documentaries that you have done, sure. So the first one that we did and it actually took two years, two production trips to Israel to complete was a series that we call Following the Messiah, and it was an episodic docu-series where we trace the footsteps of Jesus, so from the city of Bethlehem, where he was born, to the city of Jerusalem, where he was killed and resurrected, to as many places in between as we could. So we traveled to Galilee and visited the Jordan and took a boat out on the Sea of Galilee. We tried to interact with locals, we visited Nazareth, we ate some of the food, and what we were really trying to accomplish with that was just to help people understand the story of Jesus and the story of the Bible is not some legend, some myth. Once upon a time, in a land far away, these places are real, the history is real, the culture is there and you can go and see many of these places exactly as they're described in the Bible. We followed that up with a series, again shot in Israel, called Searching for a King, and that was tracing the first kings of Israel, so King Saul and King David and King Solomon, and especially that one was dealing quite a bit with the archaeology surrounding those stories and the Bible in general.
Speaker 2:Can the biblical texts be trusted? Is it a reliable historical source? Was was one of the thesis um questions that that we were pursuing with that, and then we produced a series, uh, that that brought us to Turkey and that was to do a series on the seven churches of revelation. So in revelation, chapter one through three, there's there's letters written to seven churches of Asia minor at the time, which is now modern day Turkey, and so we got to visit places like Ephesus and got to see just some incredible things and as well as interview and talk with Christians all over the world modern day, to see how those letters impact and relate to us even thousands of years later.
Speaker 2:And then, just this year, we released a series on the Exodus, we call it, out of Egypt, and that's what took us to Egypt and Jordan back in 2022, where we traced one of the potential paths that the Israelites could have taken when they were released from bondage in Egypt through what becomes the wilderness of Jordan into the land of Israel. We kind of ended our trip looking past the Dead Sea into the land of Israel and so that series was released, and in between those times typically between 12 and 18 months between each major production, we're producing numerous podcasts and workbooks and other smaller series, children's series and devotional study series, all giving those away for free online. People can consume the content viewed on our website and on our YouTube channel, because we're trying to make it available to as many people as we can.
Speaker 1:I know some Christian movies, you know, or even Christian TV shows that are out now. Sometimes they take artistic license. Now, sometimes they take artistic license and I'm not saying they take it out of context of what the Bible is saying, but they take artistic license to what the Bible is talking about. Have you ever done that or what do you think about these TV shows or movies doing that?
Speaker 2:Sure, it is a fine line to walk. Certainly, it's one of the things that we don't have to consider as often. Simply because we're pursuing documentary, so we're not casting actors, we're not writing scripts, scripts so, for example, we don't have anyone acting as Jesus and giving him lines and having to wonder is this something Jesus actually said, or does this sound like something Jesus would actually say? Simply because we're pursuing documentary, is there a place for that? Can that be done well? I think so. Has it been done well? Yes, in many cases has it been done poorly, where they take so many artistic licenses that you have a hard time believing the Book of Noah or the Book of Noah, the movie of Noah, russell Crowe, that is so far removed from the biblical text. It does make it feel like a fantasy myth once upon a time.
Speaker 2:But there are other people who I think are trying very hard to, even when they give lines to characters, filling in some of those gaps that we don't have necessarily in the Gospels. I appreciate their due diligence. Would I agree with every creative decision that they've made If you and I are both thinking of the same show? No, frankly, I wouldn't. You just need to be careful. You need to be careful, and so, thankfully for us, we're interviewing real people. We're interviewing people who are living there or experts in their particular field, and we have not really delved into the area of recreating biblical stories, and so we're always mindful. We want the Bible to be the source in which we're going to, and, especially when it comes to words of God and words that Jesus said, we don't think they need any enhancement or elaboration.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. How does Christian media counter the culture of Hollywood?
Speaker 2:That's a great question and that's something that's very near and dear to my heart. When I was in film school and this was back wow, it's been almost two decades ago it was no secret that, at least from the Hollywood professionals that I was learning from, because they were working in the industry during the day and then teaching classes to many of us they despised Christians. They despised anything that would prevent them from changing the culture in the direction that they were hoping to. In fact, they referred to us as filmmakers. They called us culture changers. They understood that we could change the minds of the masses if we packaged our message in a way that was easily consumable, and so for many years Christians could only really kind of curse the darkness. They couldn't really do anything to change that, because Hollywood had all the money, they had all the talent, they had all the tools and we could just kind of complain about what was coming out of Hollywood.
Speaker 2:But there wasn't much we could do Until the last 20 or 30 years, where the cost of entry now is significantly less. The technology is now much more available and we no longer have to ask Hollywood for permission. We can pursue the creative projects and counter the culture that we desire, that we believe, are in line with God's truth, and we don't have to go to them for the tools or the talent. There are many talented creatives out there who have chosen not to work in Hollywood, and there's just some incredibly encouraging pockets of creativity. That's happening not just here in the US but all over the world, and I think we have seen over the last 15, 20 years it's taken a little bit of time, frankly, but the quality, the production value of Christian media and content is increasing at a very encouraging rate, and I've been thrilled to see not just movies and their box office returns but, as you mentioned, television shows that are being rewarded for their production value and for their impact on the culture in a good way.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you mentioned about the quality of the media, especially the Christian media, and that was going to be one of my questions is. My questions is you know, although we don't see it as much we used to see, you know, some cheesy Christian you know, or faith based movies? What can faith based media do to make these, to make better quality videos?
Speaker 2:that's a great question. I wish I could say I don't see them anymore. They are still being made.
Speaker 1:Let's be real.
Speaker 2:And.
Speaker 2:But what I would say and this is really what I would say to for many years I taught students, high school and college age students about how to create content and use media.
Speaker 2:So just because you put out a movie and it is cheesy and it's hard to watch, hopefully the next one will be better. Try to improve upon the last one, don't just be okay with your status quo. What I would also say is find those who are better in that field or in that area and seek to hire them. Offer them competitive wages and I am thankful to see that quality Christian content is making money. When they market it well and they write it well and they produce it well, they do get a return, which then lets them invest in more talent and invest in the people who are doing their craft well, and so seek to improve with every project and learn by doing. Don't be satisfied just because, yes, I can make a movie for a million dollars and all of my church friends watch it and I earn a million dollars in return, like that's not a successful endeavor. Seek to do better and hire the people, and hire the people who are skilled at those crafts, and that will improve exponentially.
Speaker 1:What is your next project or what is your next idea coming out of Appian Media?
Speaker 2:Well, that's a great question. We have all kinds of ideas. We have all kinds of things that we would like to do. The big answer is there's a lot more of the Bible to cover. Frankly, we have not covered much of it and there's a lot more to do. We would like to produce content that covers Genesis to Revelation.
Speaker 2:In the immediate, I think the idea that has risen to the top and has been honestly suggested for many years is doing a series of videos on the Book of Acts and the beginning of the church and Paul's missionary journeys. And when you look at a map you realize that's a massive undertaking and will involve multiple countries and likely multiple production trips. But we've kind of got our eyes on the Book of Acts right now and so we are in early, early stages of development for that. In the meantime, we have a children's series coming out where we have produced Out of Egypt, which is our feature-length documentary about the Exodus. But we've also been working on a series of children's videos, shorter videos for a younger audience, 13 of those that, lord willing, will be coming out later this year.
Speaker 1:And, from what I understand, a lot of your or maybe most or a lot of your videos are for the younger audience or teenage, young adult audience.
Speaker 2:Yes, truthfully, that's where it started. It was that Stuart and I had both. He's the other co-founder of Appian, stuart Peck. He and I had both recognized this disengagement with the biblical text, especially among young people, like high school age really, and that's really where our conversations started with. What can we do to get them to fall in love with the text again? What can we do?
Speaker 2:What we found, though, with the release of our very first project, was this was not a problem just among young people.
Speaker 2:This was a problem among people of all ages, that the power of the biblical text was being lost because people were not engaging with it and falling in love with it like they should, and so we don't really identify ourselves as creating primarily children's content. In fact, my children my youngest is six years old, my oldest is 10, and they watch everything we produce and they're engaged Like, yes, some of it's going to go over their heads, no doubt, but they'll watch it all the way through. In fact, my poor kids. When we had screenings of Out of Egypt earlier this year, they sat through it numerous times. They're probably fine to take a break from Out of Egypt specifically for a little while, but then we have a specific children's series we call it Lessons from the Land where we go back and create written content about the same period of the Bible, but it's written very specifically for a grade school level, and then we find out that adults watch that content and they love it too. So it's for everyone. It really is for everyone.
Speaker 1:For everyone. It really is for everyone. Going back to you, know you traveling overseas and everything. What are some of the challenges that you have faced over there?
Speaker 2:Sure, there are numerous challenges with producing content overseas. A lot of that just has to do with the logistics of it. You can't just show up with cameras and start shooting somewhere. Most people are not going to appreciate that. And so the challenges of just securing the proper permits and permissions, coordinating with locals there to make sure that we have access to the places that we want to film. Usually we're only there for 10 to 14 days. It's not a long period of time, so we're trying to pack in as much as we possibly can in that period, and so just coordinating it and using our time well.
Speaker 2:Another challenge is it's also rather costly. We take a team of six to eight of us and that is all financed through donations. Appian Media is a non-for-profit and we raise all the funds for production prior to the trip, and so that pays for not just the trip and everyone coming and all of the gear and the permits and the hotels and all of that, but it also pays for the work that has to be done on the back end of that the post-production and editing and writing. And so the challenges of raising funds and the challenges of using those funds well. There's also challenges of managing the team and keeping everyone safe and keeping everyone healthy on those trips and looking out for everyone.
Speaker 2:And then there's just the challenge of, you know, honestly, technology is changing so rapidly and keeping up with that, trying to make sure that we're getting our content in front of people where they're looking for it, and in some ways that's exciting, but also it's challenging because it changes so fast. You know, which social media site do we sign up for now? And should we spend a lot of time dumping content on fill in the blank social media, knowing that it might go belly up, you know, or people just may stop using it in six months time? And just keeping up is is a challenge, but it's also an exciting thing.
Speaker 1:As I get ready to end here, I always ask my guests what encouragement would you give to my listeners?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I guess overall, from my personal experience being able to do this over the last eight or nine years, my encouragement to people is find the thing that you're passionate about, find other people who are equally passionate about it and can help you on that journey.
Speaker 2:Some of the greatest things that will be accomplished are rarely accomplished alone, and so finding people that you can align yourself with to accomplish those things together and set about doing things that will benefit others we will typically be benefited ourselves in the process of that, but seeking first the benefit of others is one of the greatest encouragements that I would give to people. And if it's something that you're passionate about and something that you're good at, that's going to help push you through those times where the work gets hard or the work gets boring because that happens too because you know why you're doing it and you know who you're doing it for. And if it's something related to your faith, remember who you're doing it for and be motivated by the fact that you're trying to do it for the glory of God, and that should help, like I said, through those difficult times.
Speaker 1:How can people connect with you and get your content to either walk for themselves or walk for Bible study? Church group, young adult group.
Speaker 2:Sure, so all of our content is available to watch for free on appianmediaorg. So appianmediaorg you can also just search for that on YouTube. We have a YouTube channel and all of our content is up there as well, not just the major series and podcasts, but there's also quite a bit of behind the scenes which I'm always very interested in and interested in sharing with people. And then, just reaching out to me or members of the team, there's a contact form on the website and you fill that out and it'll come to myself and to Stuart and others and we'd be happy to converse with you. And then, as far as me personally, you can look up Craig D Hutt on Google and find me, and I'd be happy to connect with you.
Speaker 1:Great Well, craig, thank you so much for coming on the show today and sharing your story and sharing your um your experience about your documentaries.
Speaker 2:I'm glad to do it, thanks. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1:Well, guys and girls, thank you so much for coming on the show and listening today. I hope you appreciate it. Please go and like uh the information that Greg said today and hopefully you'll be encouraged by, and be encouraged by, this episode and until next time. God bless, Bye, bye.
