Conversations with Kaleb And Kyler Cook

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kaleb And Kyler Cook.

Hi Kaleb and Kyler, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My brother and I started on a competitive speech team in Southern Illinois. We have always loved performance and acting, and we immediately took to the competitive nature of the art form. After college, Kaleb went on to start his cinematography business working largely in the wedding industry, and Kyler worked teaching communication courses at the college level as well as English and writing courses at the secondary level. In the midst of the covid shutdown we decided to save our stimulus money and make our first shortfilm after being inspired by the first episode of The Chosen, The rest is history!

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It has been EVERYTHING BUT smooth. We had to work diligently for five years to make it to the place where we could shoot our first feature film, and the road to get here has been full of trials, nos, and set backs. Both of our shortfalls were met with a certain amount of critical acclaim/awards, but the issue was there was no market for them. But they helped us to develop our style and voice, and prepared us for the opportunity we took this September and October.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
My brother and I make hyper-stylized Christian feature films focused on divergent storytelling and character study performance. A lot of words that means we want our films to look beautiful, and feel deep. Our stories, now, are not driven by complicated plot devices, but instead focus on what it means to be human and to need God.

We specialize in performance. All of our films will look and feel very real, lived in, worn. Like reality, the stories do not often pan out how we plan, but instead lean into the chaos of life, and the beauty of Christ in the midst.

My brother and I are extremely proud of our resilience. No movie wants to get made. Especially not the ones you make while still trying to develop support and a voice. However, the nature of this business requires that you lay everything on the line if you want to go for it. Not too dissimilar from Jesus. Lay it down, and follow me. If you’re following Christ in your art then you will likely end up serving the audience, the artists, and Jesus first and foremost.

My brother and I are identical twins. That’s pretty rare in general. A quick AI check says .0005% of twin brothers go into film together. Only 1.2% of pregnancies are twins, and some of those are fraternal and not identical, or identical sisters. That being said, we both love Jesus. We are fascinated by all kinds of different story telling, and our style feels more like something you might see out of the A24 company than a “traditional” faith based film.

The future of our filmmaking will be epic fantasy/magic realism.

Networking and finding a mentor can have such a positive impact on one’s life and career. Any advice?
This has been extremely tricky for us. The people with time to help aren’t often the kinds of people that can help you, and the people that can help you are too busy to help you. Haha! That’s not always the case, obviously, but for years it felt that way to us. I just continued reaching out on Linkedin, Facebook, and IG. The biggest steps for finding mentors came in attending high level film festivals and making sure to use our time talking with high level players. NEVER be too scared to approach and introduce yourself. That’s literally why people go to those events.

A big step for my brother and I was announcing we had raised $360,000 in seven days across 12 investors. That shows we had built real connections with people, earned buy in, and that we were socially healthy. When I contacted some industry producers with this knowledge our conversations were different. People began taking us more seriously.

It’s EXTREMELY important in this industry that you don’t wait for help, and move forward in what ever way you can. Think Sam in LOTR carrying Frodo up Mt. Doom.

Also, sharing high quality content on socials consistently will attract the kind of help you need. Don’t forsake doing the obvious.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.twinboltmedia.com and https://www.twinboltmedia.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/twinboltmedia/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/twinbolt-media-cook-bros-819095260/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@twinboltmedia