Combining his passion for film and agriculture, Henry Schofield attended the Merino ram sale conducted by the McGufficke family at Greendale, Cooma, NSW, where he was commissioned to make a branded video on their Merino business.
Mr Schofield is a filmmaker and videographer based in Cooma, and with his understanding of the bush, he was capturing the ram auction as one segment of the pastoral enterprise.
“We are shooting a video that tells the story of the McGuffick family and how their Greendale Merino business works,” he said.
“Ram sales are just one fragment of what they do, and within the next couple of weeks they will be shearing and sewing crops, so I will be getting some shots of that to tell the story of wool production at Greendale.”
Mr Schofield created the media business known as Schope Creative after a period he spent in Sydney attending the infamous rugby school of St Joseph’s College, Hunters Hill, NSW.
“I got involved in this industry because I was heavily involved in the rugby scene in Sydney and as I started to pull back from playing rugby I increased my interest in filmmaking,” he said.
But before he knew it, he was getting significant traction on his videos, and gaining attention for them.
“It’s funny you know, one minute I was making highlight edits for talented friends, next thing you know these videos were receiving 100,000+ views online and my friends were being handed out National Rugby League (NRL) and Super Rugby contracts,” he said.
“It was quite a humbling experience.”
For Mr Schofield, country-born and raised, it was a natural progression to bring his filmmaking skills to focus on pastoral and sporting pursuits for which the Monaro and Snowy Mountains are renowned.
“I haven’t had any academic training, my knowledge of filmmaking has all been self-taught and I think a lot of the industry is like that,” he said.
“You can either be a creative person or not, but if you are it is important to keep pushing and develop your skills’’
Mr Schofield acknowledges his creative urge is subliminal, an aesthetic feeling he has always had for as long as he can remember.
“I have always had a camera at hand wherever I have gone,” he said.
“And I’ve been a part of the action sports scene, growing up in the Snowy Mountains, skiing all the time.”
Mr Schofield said living on the land added a further perspective to his creative appreciation of the world around him.
He said he loved taking photos and videos of rural Australia.
“I have been to a lot of cool places around the world,” he said.
“But you cannot beat a sunrise on the land with a camera in hand.”