And that’s when everything changed. That’s when I became willing to do another short film on my friend’s farm in Illinois. It was about the birth of Christ from the perspective of the shepherds, something that I had put off because I was making my Hollywood movie. I did it because, even though it felt like a step down again, I feel like it was what God wanted. And, of course, that little movie ultimately birthed The Chosen.
It certainly seems that the “loaves and fishes” that you brought have multiplied with The Chosen.
That’s what’s funny about it. I got to the point where I let my expectations about outward success go. And that’s when God, I believe, said, Well, now you’re ready for The Chosen. I think if this would have happened 10 years ago, I wouldn’t have been able to handle it. But I’m different now.
As we talk, it’s now, by all measures, one of the most successful shows in the world. Our best third-party numbers estimate that it’s been viewed over 500 million times, and viewed in some form by over 100 million people. When a couple of episodes were released to theaters, it performed in the top five of the box office during its run. Like I always wanted.
And it continues to grow, by every standard. Now it’s been translated into over 50 to 60 languages. I’m in the middle of filming Season 4, which is pretty extraordinary. At the time we began, it was the highest crowdfunded media project of all time.
I’m curious about the crowdfunding. It’s unique to allow the public to participate in funding the creative process for a major project. What principles do you see as you reflect on that aspect of this project?
I was hoping to make as good a show as possible. I wanted it to resonate and that’s what I want to focus on. My partner, Derral Eves, is one of the top brand builders and audience developers in the social media space. He said from the beginning that in order to really connect with the audience, it’s your story as much as it is “the show.” An important part of building the audience is people need to know you; people need to see your journey. People need to trust you, especially with this kind of content, and participation can encourage trust.
So, from the beginning, we pulled back the curtain. We wanted people to see not only how the sausage gets made, but who’s making the sausage and why. We made the building of our brand personal and direct. When you go to our social media posts, we’re using personal pronouns, we’re speaking very directly. We’re not saying, “Hey, guys,” we’re talking to one person at a time. I’m not trying just to reach as many people as possible with every post. I’m saying specific things. I’m talking about my motivation. I’m talking about what God is revealing to me. I’m sharing struggles, I’m sharing mistakes. I’m talking people through the process.
When it comes to content like this, I think that’s important because they do want to know that the person who was ultimately responsible for sharing the story of their Savior is trying to walk a road of humility and authenticity. So everything about our communications falls under what we call four brand categories. “Brand” may be a crass word for it, but we’re intentionally and authentically the following four things: authentic, intimate, playful and disruptive.
First, authentic: everything we say we really try not to sound like we’re marketing or that we’re trying to be general. We’re trying to be as authentic as possible. Intimate: we try to make it very personal, very connective. It’s a relationship between me and the audience, and the viewer.
Playful: we don’t take ourselves too seriously. We take the work seriously but don’t take ourselves too seriously. And you find that on the show itself. These are all brand identifiers. You can see this in the actual content and in our social media. And then, disruptive: we don’t hide the fact that we’re trying to do things a little different, that we’re trying to upset the applecart a little bit. Not just for its own sake, but we’re up against a genre—biblical storytelling—that has kind of its own, in the past, rules. We’re trying to subvert those a little bit. The media industry needs a little shaking up sometimes, I think, or at least that’s how we do things.
We try to apply these to everything. Like when we make a new gift item, whether it’s a book, a shirt, or anything, we ask, “Does this fit into at least some of those categories?” I think that’s been part of our growth. The viewer feels connected to me, they feel connected to our team, they feel like this is a relationship as much as just a piece of content.
Tell us about the storytelling philosophy behind the content of The Chosen. What are some of the principles that you’ve learned about biblical storytelling that you would bring forward for pastors or other people who routinely work with the Bible?
Well, it’s interesting. The principles of good storytelling go back to Aristotle and the three-act structure: the beginning, the middle and the end. Typically, everyone agrees that a great story starts with a character who has a need, a weakness or a question. Then there’s the middle—the journey of finding the answer to that question, or the journey of addressing that weakness or overcoming that challenge. And then there’s the climax to completion, finding the answer to the question. Some stories don’t end well, of course—they’re tragedies—but that three-act structure goes back to the Greeks. Well, it also happens to be a great framework to understand the story of the Gospels, the story of the Bible, God’s story of humanity.