Shownotes
The Bittersweet Journey of Filmmaking, with Matt Chastain
In this episode of the Faith and Family Filmmakers podcast, Hosts Geoffrey Whitt and Jaclyn Whitt have a conversation with Matt Chastain, focusing on the behind-the-scenes journey of creating 'Small Group,' a Christian film that balances comedy and drama. Chastain discusses the decision to shoot on location in Guatemala to capture the authenticity needed for the film's mission trip segment, overcoming challenges posed by Screen Actors Guild (SAG) regulations, and the financial difficulties faced in marketing and distribution without recognizable names in the cast. He highlights:
- the rich narrative achieved through depicting real-world issues and the importance of portraying genuine faith-driven stories.
- The power of prayer and God's provision in filmmaking
- The potential for the Christian film industry to innovate and engage broader audiences beyond traditional storytelling formulas,
- The cautionary yet inspiring tale of pursuing one's creative vision while navigating the complexities of the film industry.
- Addressing Poverty Tourism and Character Development
- The Joy and Pain of Filmmaking: A Personal Journey
Matt Chastain is the writer / director and actor in Small Group the Movie, which won Best Picture at the International Christian Film Festival
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.
It is produced and hosted by Geoffrey Whitt and Jaclyn Whitt , and is brought to you by the Faith & Family Filmmakers Association
Support Faith & Family Filmmakers Our mission is to help filmmakers who share a Christian Worldview stay in touch, informed, and inspired. If you would like to assist with the costs of producing this podcast, you can help by leaving a tip.
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Jaclyn's Actor's Reel Script Writing Workshop: https://www.faffassociation.com/actors-reel
Copyright 2024 Ivan Ann Productions
Transcripts
We're back with R2 D2.
Geoff:We're going to keep that in.
Jaclyn Whitt:Yeah,
Jaclyn Whitt:we should.
Geoffrey Whitt:Welcome back to the Faith and Family Filmmakers podcast, the members only portion with Matt Chastain.
Geoffrey Whitt:We had a great first, episode.
Matt:You think that was great?
Matt:I thought it
Geoff:It was great.
Geoff:I thought I done better.
Geoff:We need to take some notes.
Geoff:I'll take some notes.
Geoff:We'll do better next time, I promise.
Jaclyn:Okay.
Jaclyn:You do you.
Geoff:Well, we're looking forward to what's ahead.
Jaclyn:yeah, let's get into talking about, um, Small Group again.
Jaclyn:We started, a bit on the writing process.
Jaclyn:but this movie actually goes on location in Guatemala.
Jaclyn:How in the world did that happen?
Matt:We just showed up in Guatemala with cameras and go, let's do this.
Matt:No, it wasn't...
Jaclyn:And they all just said, sure.
Matt:They're like, come on, let's go.
Matt:No, that's a very interesting part of the movie that kind of speaks to something much bigger.
Matt:Look, in the writing, I knew that the lead character, he had to.
Matt:really see Jesus in action.
Matt:And unfortunately, a lot of times that's not going to happen in, you know, upper middle class suburban America, your small group, right?
Matt:And so he gets to go on this mission trip to Guatemala.
Matt:We've all been on several mission trips.
Matt:So we really see, if you pay attention, that's.
Matt:That's where Jesus shows up, right?
Matt:That's where the blessed are the meek, they inherit the earth.
Matt:And so, I had a friend who was kind of based out of our church here in Watkinsville, Georgia, and he runs a ministry down there.
Matt:He was actually born and raised in Guatemala, although he looks like he's from the mountains of North Georgia.
Matt:He was born and raised down there because parents who are from the mountains of North Georgia, uh, went down there when they were young and had a family and...
Matt:but he came up here to college, and so he's kind of both American and Guatemalan.
Matt:So having known a little bit about his ministry.
Matt:I wrote his ministry into the end of the script.
Matt:When the development process went over, I used him as well, and I sent him the Guatemala portions, and he's like, No, it wouldn't happen that way, and that wouldn't happen that way, and that wouldn't happen...
Matt:I'm like, Great, because I don't understand your culture.
Matt:I can't put myself in there.
Matt:So, you see what I'm trying to do with the story.
Matt:How would that really happen?
Matt:And so I let him kind of develop his part of the script as well, which was very helpful.
Matt:and so his name is Nathan Hardiman and Engadi Ministries.
Matt:Look up Engadi Ministries.
Matt:They're doing some amazing things.
Matt:They're in zone 18 of Guatemala city, which is probably the most dangerous neighborhood in Central America.
Matt:I can promise you that Steven Spielberg could not take a movie and shoot in zone 18.
Matt:The cops don't go to zone 18.
Matt:Okay, there's no security.
Matt:People ask, well, did you have security?
Matt:No, I didn't have to, because we were with Engadi, and Engadi is a ministry that's been there for 20 years, and so even though the gangs, completely run it, that neighborhood, they have kind of an understanding with him, a lot of their kids are the little boys, that he serves, And so if you've got an Engadi logo, you're fine as long as you stay where Nathan tells you to stay.
Matt:So that allowed us to go down to Guatemala and, shoot.
Matt:And for me, it was one of the richest parts of the movie.
Matt:It's the best, probably 15 minute, sequence in the movie.
Matt:But here's, where production comes in, where other filmmakers will find this interesting.
Matt:So we were about to sign the contract and be a SAG approved movie.
Matt:We would have had names in the movie.
Matt:And names are what you need to market a movie, obviously, right?
Matt:huh
Matt:And my producer, Christos Hines is, you know, he's just a detail oriented guy, and he's looking through the SAG contract and he realizes, Uh oh, there's a little line in like three point font somewhere on page, 98,000 that basically says If, you take even one SAG actor off American soil, then you become a full, full SAG.
Matt:You pay everybody full SAG scale.
Matt:We were at modified SAG.
Matt:Not ultra low, but we were at modified.
Matt:Now a small group had a giant cast, and most of them were either SAG eligible or, Fi-Core or, or full SAG, but they were all agreed to, pay a modified SAG scale.
Matt:And the budget, a small group was still 1.
Matt:1 million.
Matt:It was way too big a budget for a Christian movie with no names.
Matt:Way too big.
Matt:It's hard to make that money back.
Matt:So we had a decision to make.
Matt:Now, do we, do we shoot for Guatemala in Winder, Georgia?
Matt:Guatemala is such a rich part of the movie.
Matt:Do we try to go to Puerto Rico and fake Guatemala?
Matt:No, you can't.
Matt:Do I rewrite it as some other kind of foreign mission and try to...
Matt:it was quite a struggle between, you know, producer and creative producer and me, the director, as to What do we do?
Matt:And my whole thing was, look, I'm the director.
Matt:It's my job to tell the most, authentic story I can.
Matt:And I can't do that in America, if I'm trying to accurately depict foreign mission.
Matt:So we got to go to Guatemala.
Matt:We can't be a SAG film.
Matt:You should have seen some of the people whose agents were, putting them up for small group.
Matt:I was very excited to work with some of these names, but we didn't get a chance to because of that fact, and that hurt us, obviously, because I got no name, no recognizable face for the cover, so it hurt us in marketing, but it helped for the movie, because the movie would have been, I don't think the movie would have worked at all had we not actually gone to Guatemala and be able to experience the authentic richness of the story, because that's where Coop really, he hits his, almost rock bottom there that's where he kind of rejects , American Christianity there.
Matt:Another part that was very important to my buddy in Guatemala was he's like, you know, Matt, one of the things that drives me crazy is some of the attitude of poverty tourism that rich American churches have.
Matt:They depend on the partnerships.
Matt:and usually the leadership knows what this is all about, but too many kids come down there and see it as a, just a chance to get selfies.
Matt:So, Hey, look, I'm helping all the Guatemalans.
Matt:Look how, you know, how altruistic I am.
Matt:And that kind of attitude drives them crazy.
Matt:So we were able to create a character, who, even this little character had an arc, but this character, that was what he kind of embodied and represented.
Matt:He's this.
Matt:Super hip, cool guy at church, and there's one at every church, by the way.
Matt:People come up to me time and go, there's that guy, Chaz was his name.
Matt:Um, but he went down to Guatemala thinking he's God's gift to Guatemala, and thank God that he's there for them.
Matt:And so that was, those kind of things needed to be part of the story, because they had to be part of Coop's discovery of really what Jesus is.
Matt:And so we had to do it in Guatemala, and it definitely hurt the movie and our ability to market it and get a good distribution deal.
Matt:We were offered a ton of the distribution deals, but as you read through them, you're like, I'm doing the numbers, I'm going to carry the one here.
Matt:We realized every time we look at it and go, okay, so what you're saying is our investors will never make their money back, but you guys are going to make some money.
Matt:Is that basically what you're saying?
Matt:And it's funny because a lot of these distribution companies look at you and go, Yeah, that is.
Matt:I mean, they're not trying to lie to you, they're going, Yeah, we're going to make some money and you're not.
Matt:I'm like, well, why?
Matt:Well, that's just kind of the way this works.
Matt:Sorry, that's the industry.
Matt:Um, you made an expensive movie.
Matt:Not that 1.
Matt:1 million is expensive you know, for Hollywood.
Matt:But it is expensive how do you put that movie out, and raise enough P and A to, to get people out and get the kind of revenue you need?
Jaclyn:And that, that's the thing, because you don't have the names that would draw that crowd, that would draw that money to make investment come back, that's kind of where you were stuck in a catch 22 because, I agree with you that the movie is, yeah, exactly.
Jaclyn:But it's a very rich movie.
Jaclyn:And to be honest, It surprised me.
Jaclyn:I'm not gonna get into the, the second half of the movie, because what I also really, really appreciate is that your trailer does not give it all
Matt:No, no.
Matt:The trailer covers the basic premise of the movie...
Jaclyn:The setup.
Jaclyn:Yeah.
Matt:That's, what I wanted to happen.
Matt:But the problem is if the trailer doesn't pull enough people in, then they don't get a chance to see the movie.
Matt:It was a risk, the whole movie was a giant risk.
Matt:It, we were trying to stretch the genre a little bit.
Matt:The genre became a little formulaic for me.
Matt:And so let's stretch this.
Matt:Plus, when you make a comedy...
Matt:the first two acts of small group are a comedy.
Matt:And then third act is real drama, and that's a weird thing to do in a movie be both drama and comedy.
Jaclyn:But you did it in a way, and I think that this is kind of the direction that I've seen from some of the other scripts that I've read recently, like in the last few years, and other projects that I've kind of encountered and stuff.
Jaclyn:I really think that this is kind of a direction of where things are going.
Jaclyn:To have that richness of life, because life can be laugh out loud funny, and also, like, your heart is, being ripped out of your chest, kind of traumatic, and difficult, and, like, it's all of these things, right?
Jaclyn:And sometimes they're like, they happen all within the same day.
Jaclyn:And so what I really appreciate is when there are stories where you can have that richness of life, where you can have the emotions.
Jaclyn:And I think part of what brings out the, the depth of the story is because of the beginning where you have so much fun.
Jaclyn:And that's why I was, I was really proud of you, actually.
Jaclyn:I mean, I didn't know you yet, but when I was watching it, I was like, he went there.
Jaclyn:Good!
Matt:It's not bravery though, it's just I was too dumb to know any better.
Jaclyn:Well, Ok...
Matt:I will say that I can claim that we have the biggest fart joke in Christian cinema history in this movie.
Geoff:Um, this is
Matt:Somebody show me a bigger fart joke in a Christian movie and I will, uh, I'll be impressed.
Jaclyn:But you know, I think that this is where, um, The Christian film industry has an opportunity, you know, to tell stories in a way that is better than what Hollywood could or is willing to do.
Jaclyn:And I think instead of taking our cue from Hollywood, I think that this is where, In prayer, we can ask God, like, what story do you want to tell through me?
Jaclyn:How can I actually affect people?
Jaclyn:And part of the way that we can actually connect with people is through emotions.
Jaclyn:And so, if we contain ourselves in these small little boxes...
Jaclyn:and I understand who's my audience.
Jaclyn:There's always going to be, like, two sides to this kind of conversation.
Jaclyn:But.
Jaclyn:There's more of an audience out there than I think that we realize, or that distribution realizes, I can put it that way maybe.
Jaclyn:Because it's like, they know that there's this audience, and so then they know they can make money on that audience, so that's the audience that they want to make...
Matt:And you can't blame them
Jaclyn:...things for.
Matt:You can't blame them for the formula because if when you're in a marketing and, and the people who are investing, they want a formula because they know what's successful.
Matt:Right?
Matt:So it's hard when you're genre bending a little bit like we did...
Matt:I got my feelings hurt really, really bad, a lot, because people would watch it and go, Wow, I really like that movie, but I have no idea how to market this thing.
Matt:So I'll pass.
Matt:And we got passed on a lot.
Matt:And guess what?
Matt:I don't know who was right, because they were right and I was right.
Matt:I was right to make the movie that I did.
Matt:I know that.
Matt:However, it's kind of a cautionary tale, to be honest with you.
Matt:You notice I haven't made anything since, right?
Matt:Well, the reason is because we lost a lot of money on this movie.
Matt:How do I make a second movie if we've, financially failed on the first one?
Matt:Now, artistically, I think we succeeded.
Matt:For a first film, I'm proud of what we did for a first film, know I could do a lot better, but I'm proud artistically of what we did the first film.
Matt:But when you spend a million dollars on a movie and...
Matt:and there was other issues too.
Matt:We actually got, speaking of cautionary tales, we kind of got hooked up with the wrong individual in terms of, who was going to manage our theatrical release.
Matt:The guy stole.
Matt:multiple six figures from us, and didn't put the money into marketing, and so the theatrical...
Matt:the little theatrical test we were gonna do completely flopped because no one knew it, because the guy pocketed the money and ran.
Matt:He's in federal prison right now,
Matt:for something else But the guy somehow had a reputation around the Christian industry, around the industry.
Matt:Anyway, um, there's all kinds of things like that that happen.
Matt:You can step on landmines.
Matt:But it's tough.
Matt:How do you tell an artist, a writer, a director, Look, go for it, you know, follow your heart, follow what God's telling you to do.
Matt:Tell the story God's going to tell you to tell.
Matt:Go out and boldly raise...
Matt:because we raised a million dollars from friends and family and business associates.
Matt:There was no...
Matt:And we raised it in five months.
Matt:As soon as the script was done, I went out and, because I'd been in the business world forever, so I had a lot of, a lot of, contacts, and it was enthusiastic,
Matt:I could write a masterclass on how to pitch a movie, except for the fact that I was under some misconceptions in terms of, the potential to make the money back.
Matt:I just knew it was going to happen.
Matt:Knew it was going to happen, because one of the producers on the film, he was like, look, You don't have to worry about distribution.
Matt:You don't have to worry about marketing.
Matt:We're not thinking about any of that until after the movie's done.
Matt:Make a good movie and all else will work itself out.
Matt:That was terrible advice.
Jaclyn:Yeah.
Matt:You know the whole thing about, Grow your audience while you're making the movie.
Matt:He's like, no, no, no, no, don't do that.
Matt:That would have been great advice in 1995, it just wasn't great advice in, you know, 2018 when we were putting the movie out.
Matt:So it's a cautionary tale, and it's one that I'm glad that I made the movie.
Matt:I do believe it's a good movie.
Matt:Most people who watch it will say it is.
Matt:You know, like Jared was saying, there are people who are like, I can't believe you did so and so in a Christian movie.
Matt:There are always gonna be those types.
Matt:We get hit hard for the fact that the, lead's wife did yoga in the movie.
Matt:You can't put Christians doing yoga, it's Eastern mysticism.
Matt:And my response is, I had no idea.
Matt:I just thought some California girl would be doing yoga, that's what she would do.
Matt:So I, I had never heard of the Eastern mysticism thing, but apparently as a filmmaker, you gotta be Perfect but that's the only thing.
Matt:Most people, 99 percent of people, 95 percent of people really liked it.
Matt:So should I have not made the movie or should we have made it differently?
Matt:I don't know, but I mean, it's a cautionary tale because, and this is what I wanted to say for real, is that...
Matt:you were talking about networking at Christian, conferences and film festivals and things, and I found, I've only been to a couple, especially ICFF was really, really helpful for us.
Matt:We won that by the way, but met a lot of great people.
Matt:But everywhere I looked, it kind of made me go, Oh, oh.
Matt:Everywhere I looked where people going, You know, God told me I'm going to make this movie.
Matt:It's going to be the big one.
Matt:It's going to be it.
Matt:God tells a lot of people apparently to risk everything, making a Christian movie.
Matt:And unfortunately, a lot of them, it doesn't work out.
Matt:And, I just caution us all to go make sure it's God's voice telling you that and not your own.
Jaclyn:Or even put some wisdom in the process because maybe God did tell you to do it.
Jaclyn:But he didn't tell you do it without, you know, seeking counsel or without, grabbing some skills first.
Jaclyn:Like, you need to develop yourself in whatever area it is that you're working in, in order to be able to accomplish that.
Matt:I think a lot of people just think that God told me to do it, so everything's gonna just fall into
Matt:place and
Matt:it's gonna work.
Jaclyn:Yeah.
Jaclyn:Yeah.
Matt:Mine's Gonna be the big one.
Matt:Um...
Jaclyn:he's expecting you to be smart about
Matt:He is expecting you to seek counsel.
Matt:And even when you do seek counsel, and even when you do make a movie the right way, It doesn't mean that you're going to be the next Kendrick Brothers that just step into gold everything they do.
Matt:God might need to make a cautionary tale out of you.
Matt:So, I don't know what he wants to use my own personal story or my own career that kind of peaked at one movie and has been on hold for many years since.
Matt:I don't know what he wants to use the movie for, but I'm fine with it.
Matt:Whatever he wants to do, I'm here to just be a vessel for him, whatever that means.
Matt:Well, thank you.
Matt:That's, that's going to be helpful.
Matt:And hopefully some people listening, can really learn a lot.
Matt:I think that there's been, both sides in this conversation.
Matt:I think that there's, learning from the cautionary side of it, like you mentioned, but I think also there's so much joy and passion when you're talking about the production and the development of this movie and understanding like, okay, so it didn't turn out how you were expecting in the beginning, but clearly you still have a lot of joy from having done it.
Matt:You have no regrets of having done it.
Matt:So I think that this is kind of one of those things where, you know, we need to recognize like God is not a short term thinker.
Matt:He is a long term thinker.
Matt:So, yeah, maybe within the last few years, things didn't turn out the way that you had expected, but you don't know what God's plan is for, you know, 10 years from now, where are you going to be and what you will have done.
Matt:And so keeping yourself where you're at, where, you're like, well, I'm open to where God wants to lead me and whatever he wants to do with the projects.
Matt:Like, that's exactly where he wants you.
Matt:Cause where he can use you.
Matt:A hundred percent.
Matt:You're exactly right.
Matt:And I'll say this too, is, um, even outside of the spiritual part of this conversation, the simple, very deep statement I'll make is making movies is way better than not making movies.
Matt:So, Isn't that deep?
Matt:That's pretty deep, right?
Matt:That's the best advice I can give people.
Matt:It's absolute magic.
Matt:When you're, you're creating a story, you're telling a story, and collaboration, that is the beauty right there.
Matt:I forget who it was, and one of your podcasters was talking about, I think it was Alexandra When you get a whole crew together, 30, 50 people, and everybody is really in the right spirit ,and everybody just wants to do what they can do to make their part of helping you tell your story, be as successful as it can be.
Matt:I mean, it is a gift from God.
Matt:It is magic and it's a beautiful drug that we all chase and we want to do it over and over again.
Matt:So, yeah, pursue it.
Matt:Pursue it and tell your stories.
Matt:This is what I tell my kids.
Matt:Get your iPhone, get your friends, go make some stories.
Matt:go tell some stories.
Matt:Get off the TikToks.
Matt:Hard to tell the stories in a six second Um, let's go a little longer form.
Matt:It's a beautiful thing.
Matt:And like you say, it's, I've, I've experienced a lot of anguish and hell for the parts of it that didn't succeed, but I got a lot of joy.
Matt:And really just, I'm, I'm thankful,.
Matt:I'm humbled and thankful that I got to make it and it turned out to be what I believe is a really good movie.
Jaclyn:Yeah, absolutely.
Jaclyn:And you already mentioned where people can find it, but I guess it's on several platforms, but you wanted people to go to the website.
Matt:I mean, yeah, I'd prefer people get it from a smallgroupmovie.
Matt:com like you guys
Matt:did.
Matt:You stream it there.
Matt:You can, uh, buy a physical copy.
Matt:Uh, if you want to open your Amazon app, that's fine too.
Matt:It's on Amazon prime.
Matt:Sometimes it's free.
Matt:Sometimes it's 3.
Matt:99 rental.
Matt:I'm happy to give Jeff Bezos 2 to, to rent our movie.
Matt:But yeah, you can find it small group movie, and reach out to us and let us know what you think.
Jaclyn:Help spread the word.
Jaclyn:because like this is, maybe what we need to do in order to, tell distribution that there is a wider audience out there.
Jaclyn:Like I think part of what we have to do, and maybe this is, maybe this is part of why this podcast, part of the purpose is connecting each other and helping to grow together, right?
Jaclyn:Like it's not just about learning, but maybe we can actually provide for each other as well.
Jaclyn:And so in this process, what we can hopefully do is prove that there's an audience.
Jaclyn:I know Alexandra said the same thing.
Jaclyn:Alexandra Boylan was talking about how she wanted to make a movie and people were saying there's no audience for that.
Jaclyn:And she's like, well, that's just because nothing's been made like this yet.
Jaclyn:So she did it, right.?
Jaclyn:And so yours is maybe the first, of its kind, or one of the few of its kind that takes the direction that your story goes in, but there's so much value in it, and I know there's an audience for it, and so, as filmmakers here together, like, all the, all of our audience, we can work together to help spread the word on things like this, and prove to distribution there is an audience for it.
Jaclyn:And, you know, while it will help you up front, I think it will help all of us in the long run, because I also have movies that have that, depth where it's a lot of fun up front, but then it's like there is something real, very heavy, and there's a lot of depth comes in, you know, a little past halfway where it's like, oh, oh, this is the richness this story.
Jaclyn:Um, But, know, order for us to show that there is that, we need to, we need to prove there's an audience for it.
Jaclyn:And I think that once we do, then it will just bust wide open, because I think a lot of faith based stories have that.
Jaclyn:They do.
Jaclyn:And I, there's definitely an audience for it.
Jaclyn:Here's the difference in thinking.
Jaclyn:When we packed out a theater with 200 people and showed them our movie, there's a judgment to be made there.
Jaclyn:Okay, the judgment is, what's the audience's reaction?
Jaclyn:And it was phenomenal, every single time.
Jaclyn:with so many audiences in theaters.
Jaclyn:I knew exactly where the big laughs were going to come, I knew what that meant for the other end of it, I knew how they were going to walk out.
Jaclyn:It just worked.
Jaclyn:The question is...
Jaclyn:and a lot of those were screenings or whatever, that's not the question.
Jaclyn:It's a big question.
Jaclyn:It's half of the formula.
Jaclyn:What's going to happen when we fill a theater with an audience?
Jaclyn:What's going to happen?
Jaclyn:Are they going to have a good experience?
Jaclyn:Because if they do, they're going to go tell other people.
Jaclyn:And that's what really makes something grow.
Jaclyn:The first step is how do we get them in there in the first place?
Jaclyn:So, we did not answer that well at all, but the second part, which is the most important part, we answered.
Jaclyn:So we just have to figure out how do we get our arms around this audience a little better, and how do we grow our genre creatively, um, with the audience we already have?
Jaclyn:And how do we do so in a way that filmmakers and more importantly the people who invest in filmmaking wcan get hole or even make a little money off of it, so that there's an incentive to keep making more.
Jaclyn:I would have loved for a small group to have been successful.
Jaclyn:And I didn't need to get rich off of it.
Jaclyn:I would like to be able to feed my family, but I would really have liked for my investors to have all made 10, 20 percent on this so that they go, let's do it again.
Jaclyn:I could have made movies now right?
Jaclyn:And so that's the, that's really the goal.
Jaclyn:We've got half the equation.
Jaclyn:I know that I can make something that if it theater is full of people.
Jaclyn:They will have an experience.
Jaclyn:We'll take them on a ride.
Jaclyn:They will be closer to God afterwards.
Jaclyn:The only question is that first part.
Jaclyn:How do we get them in the theater in the first place?
Jaclyn:Mm hmm.
Jaclyn:Yeah.
Jaclyn:Well, we'll figure it out.
Jaclyn:And so here's my thought: Years ago, I was a single parent and, you know, really, really poor, but I was a new believer.
Jaclyn:And so I came to Christ and I was praying and I said, Okay, God, if you are the king of the universe, and if I am your daughter, that means that I share in this royal family, which means I should not have to beg.
Jaclyn:And so, after that, any time that I needed anything, I did not ask a person, I went to God in prayer and I said, I need clothes for this job that I'm applying for.
Jaclyn:Or I need...
Jaclyn:whatever it was, like I would go to him with my needs.
Jaclyn:And literally, people would show up and say, I know this might be awkward, but I was cleaning out my closet and I want to know if you want this.
Jaclyn:Like I was given even a mattress, like I was given all of this stuff and I only ever went to God.
Jaclyn:So, you know, as we're talking about funding and resources and all of this, I think, first and foremost, we need to recognize that, we are actually family in a kingdom that has unlimited resources, and our father is the one who says where those resources go.
Jaclyn:He also says how they get there, and so, you know, it doesn't always show up the way that we want.
Jaclyn:Yes, he is, he totally is.
Jaclyn:and so I just want to encourage people to remember that, we don't need to beg, like, we are part of this royal kingdom and, God has his ways, he has his reasons and all of that.
Jaclyn:In prayer and as we share with each other, like, he's gonna do what he's going to do and it's going to be amazing.
Matt:A hundred percent.
Matt:to that point, if you get just a couple of minutes, I'm gonna share this last story...
Matt:it's from the production itself.
Matt:So we're in Guatemala, okay?
Matt:And there's a particular scene where the gangsters are confronting the missionary down in Guatemala.
Matt:You remember that scene?
Matt:Pretty heavy scene.
Matt:Well, and you know how this all works.
Matt:We actually only took one Alexa with us down there.
Matt:We shot on the Alexa, but we only took one.
Matt:so we're shooting everything from this side.
Matt:All the stuff looking at the gangsters.
Matt:We shot all that in that big scene.
Matt:It took three, three hours, I think.
Matt:Now we got to turn and shoot the stuff looking this way at the missionary.
Matt:Problem is We were shooting in the middle of rainy season.
Matt:I didn't
Matt:know that at the time.
Matt:And so you can't shoot half a scene this way in the sun and the other half of the scene, all of a sudden it's pouring rain...
Matt:the cross coverage
Matt:basically.
Matt:And so, I was scared cause the thunderstorms were moving in over Guatemala city.
Matt:It was coming.
Matt:And I was like, Oh my goodness.
Matt:And I looked at Nathan.
Matt:Nathan is the head of Angadi Ministries down to the founder of Angadi Ministries.
Matt:Look, there are certain people out there who , it'll give you the chills to be around them because they are just...
Matt:they have a greater ability to die to themselves moment by moment by moment, and have such a strong connection to Holy Spirit., that they just...
Matt:things happen around.
Matt:God moves through them, and Nathan's one of these people.
Matt:I mean, I need to make a movie about Nathan.
Matt:But, he looked at me and he was, he was praying and he's praying and he looked at me and he goes, we'll be fine.
Matt:Keep shooting.
Matt:I was like,
Jaclyn:Nice.
Matt:Ok.
Matt:And I swear to you, we looked up at the sky and the clouds moved around us in a circle above It was, In a ,360 degrees around us, it's pouring rain in Guatemala City.
Matt:But in, I don't know, in our, quarter square mile, we were fine.
Matt:And we shot the rest of the scene, it was a pretty impactful scene, and I swear to you, at the end of it, we said, cut, that's it...
Matt:the rains came down immediately when we said cut.
Matt:Like, God will look after you.
Matt:He will, but you're right, it's completely up to him.
Matt:So we just, we're just at his mercy and just along for the ride, do what we can.
Jaclyn:Wow.
Jaclyn:That's a fantastic story.
Jaclyn:That's amazing.
Matt:Its true too.
Matt:There's a lot of nonbelievers on set that day.
Matt:I walked up to some of the nonbelievers on set and I was like, this is a really bad day to be an atheist isn't it?
Matt:And they were like, yeah, I guess you're right.
Jaclyn:Yeah, no doubt.
Geoff:Well, Matt, it's been a lot of fun today, and...
Geoff:good information, but it's been fun talking to you.
Geoff:Great getting to know you.
Matt:Oh, great.
Matt:Thank you guys for having me.
Matt:I appreciate it.
Jaclyn:God bless.
Matt:All right.
Matt:Thank you
Matt:guys.
Matt:It's been a pleasure.
