Today we’d like to introduce you to Dave Stotts.
Dave, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
From a very early age, I was always interested in cameras and video. In the 1980s, after my dad bought a “camcorder”, there is everything that led up to that day and everything after. I fell in love. Soon I was constantly filming stuff with my friends and brothers, mostly silly movie spoofs. It became a passion even through high school when I spent months putting together a 45-minute long “Raiders of the Lost Ark” movie. Indiana Jones remains, to this day, my favorite movie character. There will never be another to replace him. I developed other interests along the way, namely theater performance and theology. I know those particular interests seem like strange bedfellows, but it’s true what they say, sometimes your passions pick you rather than the other way around. I always had a knack for speaking and performing, so opportunities in that department kept presenting themselves. But I also grew to really take my faith seriously and my commitment to that deepened along the way. Even after I briefly quit video for a few years in the early 2000s to attend seminary, I eventually realized I couldn’t leave video behind and found myself pulled back into the media world. I had this odd mix of interests and skills: performing, religious interests and video production. I didn’t know where my life was headed, and I certainly never expected that I could merge those passions into one job.
In 2003, with the help of a business partner, I ventured into the realm of professional tv production with me as the on-camera host. Initially we had no idea what we were doing. We bought a camera, wrote a bunch of history scripts and booked travel all over Rome, Greece and Turkey. We didn’t even take the time to secure permits for filming; we just hit the ground running. I pinned a lapel mic on my shirt, memorized a few lines and began talking to the camera about the history of the Roman Empire, Alexander the Great, Mehmet the Conqueror, Jesus and the early Apostles, and so forth – all on-location. We filmed clip after clip. Drove to location after location. And soon, we had enough footage to come home and start cobbling together a fast-paced on-location tv show about history and culture. We called it Drive Thru History and we’ve been at it now for 18 years. Why “Drive Thru” History? There was something about a “drive thru” that captured the lighthearted, fast-food nature of our style and delivery. As the show’s host, I make it a point to always have fun and never take myself too seriously.
After all, I’m not a historian or scholar. I’m just a video guy who happens to love history. We also developed a driving theme that really became a fun feature of our program that our audience really loves. Wherever I am in the world, I try to find a car that both looks cool on camera, but also captures the essence of the country I’m in. If I’m in Rome I might drive an Alfa Romeo. In Germany I’ll drive a vintage Mercedes. In the UK, it will be a retro Mini Cooper. In Israel, a country I seem to visit often, it’s always been a banged-up vintage Land Rover nicknamed Steve McQueen. Few vehicles scream “adventure” like a vintage Land Rover. In many ways, it will always be my favorite car. We put together a pilot episode and soon we had landed a deal for retail distribution and then, in time, we secured a broadcast partner. We never really knew how many years we’d get to make these shows, but here we are, 18 years later, and we’ll soon be making our 100th episode. Our subject matter has ranged from Bible history and World History to American History and most recently, the history of America’s holidays. In many ways, it’s like a dream job to get to see and explore the world, teach history and drive fun cars. And I still get to keep my feet in the media production world because, being a small team, it falls on me to handle the editing and post-production on almost all our shows. Never in my wildest dreams did I actually think I’d make a career out of my varying interests, but then again, there was no established career path I could point to for reference. It’s been beyond rewarding to go down this crazy road. I may never get to be Indiana Jones, but all things considered, I think I got pretty close.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Ironically one of the greatest joys of working on Drive Thru History is simultaneously one of its greatest challenges. I’m talking about the travel. As a husband and father of four kids, it can take an enormous toll on the family when I’m on the road for long periods of time. It’s certainly no fun being so far away from them. And as glamorous as world travel may seem, it can often be a total drag. We don’t exactly include the long lines at airports, the occasional car breakdown or the food sickness in the final edit of our show. It would ruin the adventure vibe! Years ago we decided to keep our trips to between 2 to 3 weeks. That’s about as long as we can all stand to be away. It’s also the case that our team reaches a point of exhaustion because we often are up before dawn in order to arrive at a filming location before sunrise. (When the sun is low, that’s when you get the more dramatic light.) And we’re often working all day until “golden hour” when the sun is low in the evening.
Those make for long days. Luckily, we have developed an incredible chemistry as a team. We work hard but always find ways to boost morale and have fun. And it may be a cliche but in our case, it’s very true: there is no ego among us. We’re all lucky to be there and grateful we get to work on this show together. And even though we all know our roles on the team, it’s truly a family. That means we work as a team collaboratively to come up with the best way to pull off a shot or troubleshoot a crisis. Nobody gets weird about someone else not “staying in their lane”. Most union production crews would be shocked at how casual we are about our production process. We’re friends first and production team members second. It’s like a breath of fresh air to work with my team. This is all the more important because as my cameraman Tom always says, “Production is simply problem-solving.” And he’s right! Especially when you’re a small team often trying to do something totally unique on a modest budget with very little time. I can’t tell you the number of times we just improvise in the field with just the hope of it working out in the edit. And the overwhelming majority of times, it does.
What matters most to you? Why?
Back in 1996, Bill Gates coined the phrase “content is king” for the world on online marketing. What’s true about the success of a website is also true about the success of a history program. If the subject matter and content don’t find an audience that loves it, it doesn’t matter how many bells and whistles it has, it will fail. And over the course of 18 years, we’ve really learned the value of teaching real history in the context of the adventure. Many of our customers are homeschool families who want to give their young learners a supplement to their history curricula. Sometimes a church or small group will watch our shows together to have some fun and learn along the way. Others simply watch casually and enjoy the fun fast-paced nature of the show.
When the pandemic hit in 2020, we definitely saw an uptick in viewers who found themselves at home with lots of time on their hands. They seemed to really click with a show that could take them around the world at a time when it was difficult to sometimes get to the local supermarket. The bottom line is, we are grateful that we get to work on a program with content we truly care about and whose audience we truly care for. We will regularly get feedback from families who tell us they have a young boy who now wants to study history for the first time as a result of our show. Or maybe they’ll say they never thought history could be fun and exciting. Doing work that lasts is what matters for us. After all, history content is evergreen. And even though sometimes we’re covering history that happened 2000 years ago, it will never be “yesterday’s news.”
Contact Info:
- Website: www.drivethruhistory.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/drivethruhistory
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/drivethruhistory
Image Credits:
Tristan Lyons
