When Kristin, my boss at New Boston Creative Group, decided Episode #16 in our Cool Careers series would feature a dairy farmer, she wanted to include a kid who was interested in agriculture. If you’re not familiar with Cool Careers, it’s a fun series from HirePaths hosted by Kansas kids and made for kids. Each episode features a different in-demand career in our state and explains how to get started, shows a day in the life of a real worker at a real company and more. Our search for Episode #16’s host led us to Jude Horinek from Colby, Kansas. From his audition to the end of the production, Jude was very professional, animated and respectful (I’ve never been called Mr. Patterson before!). We’d found our guy.

To shoot the episode, we spent two days with Jude at McCarty Family Farms in Rexford, Kansas. Jude starred alongside Ken McCarty, one of the brothers who owns and runs the dairy. They hit it off from the get-go!

During our first day of production, Jude toured the milking parlor, which sounds like a fancy place to sip cool, frothy drinks but is actually where the cows board a carousel to be milked. Jude even got to dress the part! We call this activity the “demo scene,” where the host of each episode gets to step into the shoes of the professional — or, in Jude’s case, a smock and gloves!

We placed a wireless microphone on both Ken and Jude and followed them around with our cameras. The demo scenes aren’t scripted, which allows Ken to do what he does best: talk about cows. Jude was curious and asked lots of questions. We like it when the hosts are curious because that makes our demo scenes more fun.

The second day of production is when Jude’s talents really got to shine. Cool Careers episodes are scripted, so we ask hosts to memorize their lines. Jude came in even more prepared than we expected. In some sections of the video, we only require a voiceover (VO) from our talent, which means we just need them to read from the script. Jude showed up with those VO lines memorized, too. We were impressed!
We set up in three different areas around the farm: two spots in the stables and one at the home of Ken’s father. We needed a quiet and relaxed setting for one of our scenes, and the house offered an appropriately cozy spot. Plus, it had a good fence to lean on. Kristin had been watching Yellowstone and noticed the characters in that series did a lot of talking while leaning on fences. So, we took inspiration from there to set up our “talking-at-a-fence” scene.

Our team uses three cameras: a wide shot and two close-ups. When we were ready to roll, Jude and Ken ran through their lines multiple times. They absolutely crushed it. We probably annoyed them with how many times we said, “One more time!” (In our industry, “one more time” can really range from one to infinity). Jude and Ken had excellent on-screen chemistry and excitement, which helps keep the video audience entertained. It was entertaining for the cows too!

Video shoots can mean long days, but Jude handled the work like a pro. Shoot, he even ran the GoPro like a pro. Maybe he’ll be a video producer someday! A special thanks goes out to Jude and his mom as well as to Ken and the McCarty Family Farms team for inviting us to tell their story. Cool Careers Episode #16: Dairy Farmer will premiere in October on hirepaths.com.