It wasn't the first time I’ve been lucky enough to make something at the Hunewill Ranch and it 100% will not be the last time. Recently I directed a one-minute commercial for the Hunewill guest ranch, you can watch it here:

Every year a few of us stay at the ranch and collect social media content for the guest side of the ranch. This year three of us put our boots on and got to work. I focused on photography with my business partner and Will Call Cinematic collaborator Sam Shimizu-Jones, while our long-time collaborator/ colleague Kelsey Doyle helped write captions and crush some of her own photography. You can follow the Hunewill Instagram, TikTok, or Facebook page to see all our hard work (if you even want to call that work).

This year while we were there, Sam and I decided it would be fun to try to make something special. Something cinematic that got the viewer a feeling of being there through the pacing and the sort of “day in the life” without directly telling you it was a day in the life.

We woke up at sunrise every day and targeted specific events that have meant the most to me from spending every other summer at the ranch growing up. We captured the horses coming in at sunrise, coffee pouring, saddling up, riding, swimming, eating, dancing, and summer puddle splashing. All those things to mention and we still missed the campfire, smores, poetry reading, roping, and just being away from city life.

This place means a lot to me. It’s where I first used my mom's professional camera, it's where I drove a car down Hunewill Road for the first time by myself, it’s where I learned I gained confidence and found I could ride a horse with a broken arm when Sally asked me as a kid “What do you need that second arm for anyway? Are you roping anything today or just riding?”

There is magic at this multi-generational ranch. It is magic I only ever smell and feel when I am there and am forever trying to lasso through images (with both my arms).

For you camera nerds, Sam and I (well Sam mostly) shot this on a Sony Fx-3 with some new Blazzer anamorphic lenses. For the slow-motion shots on the water, we used an FX-6 and a 600mm Sony lens. In the opening shot and closing shot I flew a DJI mini 3. And if you're wondering how we got those close-up riding shots, our special camera op - a real Hunewill descended Rhiannon Hunewill Wright held our 360 camera on a pole as she rode in the middle of all the wranglers. And to top it all off we have some very epic wonderful profesional sound design by our friend Barry Neely.

I’m proud of this video, more so than some of the things we’ve done in the past.

It's an example of the rare instance where I can see the entire thing in my head and with the help of other artists can physically make it come to life.

I have an easier time doing that here in this valley than anywhere else I’ve found on this planet.

Hunewill 2024 Commercial