Episode 111 - Testimony Series - Light from Darkness
This episode is a part of our December Testimony series. A series of short testimonies of times that God showed up upon set or in ways related to the film-industry.
In this episode, Eon De Bruin, founder of Tween Xtream, shares his inspiring journey of launching a successful Christian streaming platform for kids in South Africa during the COVID-19 pandemic. He recounts his long-standing passion for animation, his pivot to music production, and ultimately the creation of Tween Xtream after losing his income due to lockdowns. With Tween Xtream now boasting 18 diverse shows and international recognition, Eon highlights God's faithfulness in turning a dark period into a blessing.
Bio:
Eon de Bruin is a visionary entrepreneur, award-winning creative, and the founder of Tween Xstream, a pioneering Christian streaming platform for preteens. With a professional background as a music producer and video creator, Eon’s passion for storytelling and faith-driven content has guided his remarkable journey.
Inspired by a childhood dream of becoming an animator, Eon transformed this aspiration into reality during the global pandemic in 2020. He launched Tween Xstream to provide an alternative to mainstream children’s entertainment platforms like Disney and Nickelodeon. Rooted in biblical principles, Tween Xstream offers TV shows, animations, devotionals, and music videos that parents can trust and that inspire young audiences.
Eon’s dedication to excellence has earned him notable accolades, including two Afri-Indie Music Awards and top honors at the Reallusion Animation at Work contest. His platform was also named Christian Youth Media Platform of the Year 2023 by Innovation in Business in the United Kingdom.
With a commitment to creating faith-based content that uplifts and educates, Eon continues to redefine children’s entertainment, offering a safe, engaging, and values-driven alternative for families worldwide.
The Faith & Family Filmmakers podcast helps filmmakers who share a Christian worldview stay in touch, informed, and inspired. Releasing new episodes every week, we interview experts from varying fields of filmmaking; from screenwriters, actors, directors, and producers, to film scorers, talent agents, and distributors.
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Eon De Bruin: Hi, my name is Eon De Bruin and I am the founder of a Christian streaming platform called Tween Xtream, based here in South Africa, and I just would like to share my testimony of how Tween Xtream started.
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It actually started, um, from a very dark place, if I can say it like that, uh, through COVID actually.
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I was forced through COVID, um, to change, to find a new income.
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I've lost all my income.
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And today, four years later, I have a streaming platform, um, for kids and it has been so successful here in South Africa.
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And, um, it's actually now starting.
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I've opened up, uh, Subscriptions for families all across the world.
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a few months ago.
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So just to give you my background and to set up the testimony is, um, basically as a 13 year old kid, I always wanted to become an animator, but back then it was a complete different era.
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Um, there were no internet, animations were done by hand, not by software like today.
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Um, if you wanted to study animation, you had to go to, um, CalArts in the U.
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S.
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or CalArts in the U.
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S.
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Um, to some universities in Europe, and my parents didn't have the money to send me.
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So, to become an animator, even though it was my biggest dream, it just was something that, um, I knew wasn't gonna happen.
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So, I was 13 years old back then, in 1993.
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And so fast forward a few years, when I'm 16, I gave my life to the Lord and, um, after that I fell in love with music and music production.
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So, um, yeah, as a teenager I started playing guitar and then after school I went into corporate.
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I got a job, uh, not a job that I loved because I was a creative person.
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I loved music, um, I had a background in drawing, um, Because I wanted to become an animator, but then, um, yeah, the love of music grew and I started, while I was working, I started building up my own recording studio and, um, slowly but surely I build up the studio and in 2009 I made the leap of faith to do music recordings full time.
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So I recorded songs for artists and I also took it a step further.
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And I started producing, um, music videos for artists as well.
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So I did recordings and music videos, and I've built up the equipment along the way.
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Filming equipment for the music videos and also the recording studio.
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In 2017, I Saw an ad on YouTube, it just popped up before I watched the video and it was about an animation software.
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And that ad really brought back my childhood dream of becoming an animator and I just did some research.
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And then so what I did was I purchased the software.
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and started to play around.
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The software came with an online course on how to use the software and I just did some more research to learn more about animation obviously you need to learn animation, the principles, etc.
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So I started doing that and then I created my first animation which was a music video.
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that I've done for a kids band or teenage youth band and that video actually won an award at a music awards here in South Africa for best kids music video and so I thought I wanted to create an animation TV show just in my spare time.
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And so I started with that and in the end of 2019, I released episode one for free.
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it was an Afrikaans show, so I was really excited.
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I thought, oh man, I love this.
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but a few months later, COVID hit and everything changed.
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So basically, I lost my entire income with the lockdowns.
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I couldn't record any artists.
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All my bookings were cancelled with recordings and music videos, so I had no income and I had to do something.
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And I had this one episode I've produced at the moment.
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Kids TV show for a Christian channel in South Africa in 2016 so I had some content and I decided to create a streaming platform with subscriptions and that will hopefully supply and income for me and that grew and, um, best decision of my life.
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Um, today I have like 18 TV shows on the platform, not just animation, but it's animation, there's, Um, other TV shows.
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I have music videos.
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I produce, um, songs for the platform, uh, with music videos, karaoke.
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And, um, Tween Xtream was awarded, uh, Best Christian Youth Platform in the UK in 2023.
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And, um, I've won animation, um, contest, twice.
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with some of my shows.
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Um, so God was just good and I've never went back to recording music and create music videos for artists.
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I just love Tween Xtream and, um, yeah, this is, this is my love and God was just so good and faithful that out of one of the darkest periods, um, I almost want to say in mankind's history with COVID, where the whole world was turned upside down, God took that and just created something so good.
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something that I love, something that changes lives.
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And, um, I just love it.
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So that is my testimony of how God used COVID, to bring forth something that is just awesome called Tween Xtream, where I can minister to kids with animations, with music, with TV shows, with devotional videos every week, etc.
