Wyoming Filmmakers Take Over Shell Wyoming

At the end of Beaver Creek Road, in the shadow of the Bighorn Mountains, in the middle of nowhere, the Wyoming film scene changed.

(photo: Anna Iler)

From dark in the morning of February 19 til late into the night of February 21, 2016, twenty people came together at Double Doc Ranch in Shell to capture a real Wyoming story in a real Wyoming setting.

(photo: Anna Iler)

The three grueling, 10-hour plus days seemed not only doable, but necessary as the cast and crew fully immersed themselves in the short film they’d come to create. Echoing the film’s title, the very process of filming seemed to become, almost … PYRRHIC. 

“”Pyrrhic”: a success marked by multiple heavy losses that outweigh any other achievement due to the difficulties endured.”

Anna and Jared Iler of Cody – both graduating seniors in the Montana State University (MSU) Film Program in Bozeman – together wrote the script for Pyrrhic. Anna is the film’s Director and Jared is the Director of Photography. Their pyrrhic screenplay brings to life a drama all too real to the Wyoming ranching family: That of a ranch owner’s unexpected death heaving insurmountable inheritance taxes onto the shoulders of the ranch heirs left behind.

“We really wanted to make sure what we were telling was gritty and real and had powerful emotion attached – We wanted this story to help make a change in Wyoming,” said Anna. “In agriculture, one of the biggest issues is the passage of land and heritage between families. We wanted to make sure that was something we could try to change. We want to tell people’s stories, but also affect change.”

(photo: Virginia Schmidt)

“That’s exactly what [Anna and Jared] were going for – to make this film so real because this type of thing happens to so many families,” said Anna’s younger sister Sara Reed, who also attends MSU and was an integral part of the Pyrrhic film crew. “It’s one of the worst things and one of the biggest decisions they might ever have to deal with in a family with a farm or a ranch … When tragedy happens, they have to decide what they’re going to do.”

Pyrrhic arose as a senior capstone project – a demonstration of film knowledge and skill accrued at MSU’s School of Film and Photography. But the film’s intention and trajectory quickly surpassed that of a class project.

(photo: Virginia Schmidt)

“Jared and I both wanted it to be something that represented all we learned in the past four years, but we also wanted it to showcase Wyoming,” said Anna. “The people in Wyoming, and their talent, as well as ranching and farming and that agricultural way of life that isn’t as common anymore.”

And there is nothing Hollywood (besides the quality of the film equipment) about Pyrrhic’s reveal of Wyoming.

“It’s told from a point of view that isn’t shown very often to people outside the state of Wyoming,” said Justine May, who owns her own photography business in Cody and was the still photographer on the Pyrrhic set. “To really appreciate the Western lifestyle culture, you have to SEE it from that perspective because it’s so often glorified and romanticized. When it gets down to it, it’s pretty RAW, and it’s real.”

(photo: Kalyn Beasley)

Pyrrhic will be 10-minutes in length, for which the crew shot about six total hours of footage. They shot the majority of the footage staying together for three days and nights on location at a working cattle ranch. This allowed almost every scene to double in function – both fulfilling the film’s storyline and executing vital ranch tasks needing done each day: Feeding hungry cows, fixing downed fence, repairing broken equipment, bottle feeding an ailing calf, and pulling a newborn calf right out into the world – all recorded with jaw-droppingly sharp, feature-film-grade video and audio.

“The calf birthing scene was definitely a game changer for me,” said Nathan Norby, Sound Recorder and Sound Designer for Pyrrhic, and a senior in the MSU Film Program. “I’ve never seen that happen before, and from a sound perspective … Hearing the intimate sounds of a calf being born through high-end audio gear straight into both your ears was quite an experience in itself.”

(photo: Anna Iler)

“Of course the calving shot – We can’t beat that one,” said Jared. “I mean, he [the lead actor] got to actually pull the calf … When we first got back [to MSU], we told some of the other students and faculty about it, and a week later, people were coming up and being like, ‘We heard your actor pulled a calf, and you got it on footage!’ So, he’s gonna be a legend now.”

(photo: Anna Iler)

A sense of dedicated artistry and industry knitted the cast together throughout the filming. Each person strove not only to make Pyrrhic the best, most authentic and compelling Wyoming film ever shot, but also worked to lend a hand wherever they could – be it with fellow cast and crewmates on set or with the working ranch manager to complete daily ranch chores.

“We had a really strong team, and everyone who was there was just a perfect fit,” said Marrisa Sweeney, Pyrrhic’s Producer. “Extremely hard workers, everyone, and so focused. Not to mention how well we worked together.”

(photo: Bret Reed)

The extensive preparation done before shooting, as well as the professional quality of filming equipment, added to the overall sense of creative earnestness.

“I learned a lot from this film because it was a lot more organized and felt a lot more professional than anything else I’d ever been on,” said Hunter Hicks, First Camera Assistant for Pyrrhic and a Cody High School senior who aims to make films. “It was cool to see everybody do their thing because all the little problems I’ve had with all the little things that go wrong, they were really prepared for all that.”

“As soon as Jared busted out the camera [an AJA Cion – a full on cinema production camera shooting in 3K resolution], I was like, ‘Oh, we’re actually going to shoot this, huh? It’s going to look really good,” said lead actor Jake Graham, of Cody. “And when Anna said ‘action,’ there were actually people who cared. I knew she was going to tell me if the scene was what she wanted or not, and keep reworking it to the point it was telling a story. Being in that environment of people who cared made me want to do a better performance.”

(photo: Sara Reed)

The line between the fictional ranch in Pyrrhic and the Double Doc Ranch where it was filmed often seemed to blur as the setting and events being portrayed were as real as it gets.

“You could easily sit in the studio and build a set that looks like a ranch shop and that might be really great, but you can’t beat going out to Wyoming and shooting at that actual place,” said Jared. “I think that really comes across on this film when you see it – this isn’t Hollywood. We’re not trying to lie to the audience. It’s just the real deal, and the viewer is seeing it how it’s playing out realistically.”

While the real ranch setting set the tone for Pyrrhic’s authenticity, it was the real Wyoming people involved who made the story represent this state.

(photo: Virginia Schmidt)

“Wyoming has always been Jared’s and my home, and we think the people who live in Wyoming make it so extraordinary,” said Anna. “It’s a very rich way of life, and showing people what it’s like here is so essential. The people are real and dedicated and some of the hardest working, most authentic people on the planet.”

“Being born and raised in Wyoming, we just really see how special the place is, and that goes for everything as far as the mountains, the landscape, the people and the communities. Everyone really pours into their community, and that really came across on this film … People who worked with us on this … and people in Wyoming in general … are more than willing to help out and do as much as they possibly can, and we’re really drawn to that.”

(photo: Jared Iler)

Pyrrhic changed the Wyoming film scene by documenting a raw Wyoming narrative with real Wyoming natives, demonstrating such cinematic art can be created in Wyoming.

 “We never see Wyoming and the ranching community in movies and films, and we wanted to bring that to life; we wanted to bring this place to the cinema world more,” said Jared. “Just by doing this, we can show people there is so much potential here, and such a willingness to bring the arts and to bring films to Wyoming to showcase this beautiful place and the culture and heritage we have here.”

(photo: Kalyn Beasley)

 Pyrrhic will be completed by the end of April, and premiered soon after at the Emerson Center for the Arts & Culture in Bozeman. The film will then be a contender at the annual Tracy Award Ceremony, along with the other MSU senior capstone short films. Anna and Jared later hope to show the film locally at Montana and Wyoming venues, and to enter it into various short film festivals including the Wyoming Short Film Festival.

“When we get the film done, we want to do local screenings as many places as we can,” said Jared. “We want to do a bunch around Wyoming … Cody and Powell, for example the drive in at Powell would be awesome!”

(photo: Kalyn Beasley)

Created for a cause, Pyrrhic will seek to go beyond entertaining to encourage awareness.

“We’ve sent out letters to various beef associations around the country like the Stockgrowers Associations and Cattlemen’s Associations for each state, Beef Magazine,” said Anna. “We want the film to be given to them to help educate for estate planning … We don’t want it to just reach the film festival circuit; We want it to reach ranchers and farmers, hopefully around the country.”

When the film does begin to circulate, there is one word Pyrrhic is sure to invoke in its audiences: Authentic.

“I think the authenticity is key. When we see movies that are supposedly filmed in Wyoming, and you can tell it’s not, and you’re from Wyoming, you feel a little cheated,” said Kalyn Beasley of Cody, a supporting actor in Pyrrhic. “When you see something so unquestionably Wyoming as this film, you feel a sense of pride and kind of ask yourself why isn’t this featured more? We have some of the most unique landscapes and ways of life in the world, and they tell a story that doesn’t need words.”

(photo: Kalyn Beasley)