Second Miler - Ryan Herring
A grant from The Urantia Book Fellowship’s Second Miler Grant Program has helped the filmmaker and screenwriter Ryan Herring produce the first of a series of short films delving into some of the fundamental teachings of Jesus as presented in Part IV of The Urantia Book. Ryan said the grant enabled him to explore creative cinematic film production using innovative tools and platforms.
His first film in the series, "The Living Waters," explores several statements Jesus made regarding the "water of life."
“In this short film, I aimed to explain the deeper meaning behind these references,” Ryan told The Mini Messenger.
He said the project also served as an opportunity to experiment with new generative content creation platforms, including Google Flow and Runway, in addition to Midjourney, Leonardo, Elevenlabs, Suno, and Adobe Premiere Pro.
“I hope to leverage these tools to create cinematic and compelling short films that bridge the gap between small-scale independent production and larger, traditional filmmaking. While I would ideally have access to a large budget and a full traditional film production team to bring the teachings of The Urantia Book to life on a grand scale, I, like many independent filmmakers, see these new digital creation tools as a viable path to pursue my passion and goals more affordably.
“I understand there are limitations to these tools, and the results may not yet match those of full-scale traditional productions. However, I am thankful for the chance to explore this new frontier of digital creation to showcase some of my favorite passages from ‘The Life and Teachings of Jesus.’”
He said each production was a valuable learning experience, and he plans to apply each new lesson to push the boundaries of what can be achieved with these tools in cinematic film production.
Thanking the Fellowship for its generous support, he said he was looking forward to seeing what could be accomplished.
“I hope you enjoy the films, and thank you for watching.”
Watch the film here.
September 2025
