Behind the scenes: Honey bridge ranch
Written by David Pierce Tuttle
Goal: Create a 2-3 minute promotional video highlighting the ranch’s efforts to grow and expand the foster program as well as Horsepower Therapeutic Riding Center.
Concept: Interview with the ranch owner to learn about why she wants to help foster children and the disabled to help drive an impactful emotion to her staff, clients, investors, and the community.
Challenges: Overcoming chirping birds during the interview in the stables and working alone during the interview.
Pre-Production:
When I first got introduced to Horsepower TR and Honey Bridge Ranch, I met with the ranch owner, Nikki, to learn more about what the ranch does and how it operates. I learned that the ranch primarily hosts Horsepower Therapeutic Riding which is a riding center for the disabled and mentally challenged among other activities involving farm animals and alike. They are a non-profit company that is aimed at helping children, adults, and families connect and bond together around horse riding. Their work is truly amazing.
When I first arrived on site on the scouting day, we walked around the ranch until we came to the stables which was the best place to get the interview. It provided wonderful context, cover from the hot sun, and it would look very cinematic and gritty. I chose the stables and scheduled the shoot time for early morning to get the best sunlight out the back gate.
Other than the interview, I shot b-roll footage of the horses, the volunteers, staff, instructors, parents, and riders.
Production:
The first day we shot the interview. I was working alone for this shoot so I had a lot to juggle. We ended up having to move back the shoot for about 3 weeks after the first shoot day as we went through an extremely wet month of October and on the days they were open (and going to be busy), it was always raining. Finally, we were blessed with a beautiful, warm and sunny, day, 75° F – it was perfect.
For the second day of shooting, I worked with the people on site. Everyone was was proud to help other parents with disabled or mentally challenged kids feel good about coming to the ranch and learning to ride horses. I was able to capture some very meaningful footage. For one rider, it was her 100th time riding and she earned a blue ribbon which absolutely made her day!
Post-Production:
My first step with post production was laying down the A-roll: the interview. I chopped up the impactful and meaningful audio bytes and started crafting together the story, making sure to include and highlight the foster program, which was the overall intended goal to promote. Additionally, I made sure to include information about Horsepower TR for the parents who may be on the fence about coming or who have never heard of the program to help get new families to join.
Once I had the A-roll on my timeline it was time to lay the b-roll. Horses, volunteers, people working, parents smiling, children riding horses, families in the petting zoo, the instructors teaching, all of these clips were needed to round out the video.
Finally, the last step was finessing the color grade which had a moodier vibe in the stable with the horses, and was paired with a warm and inviting feel for the outdoor footage. I wanted it to look like film, but also something easy on the eyes.
Conclusion:
This shoot had so many encompassing details that I feel like I doubled my experience as a filmmaker, cinematographer, and businessman. I enjoyed the entire process from discovery, to sales, to pre-production, filming, and post-production. The client was happy and I was able to help her better achieve her goals by assisting the ranch with their outreach and video content.