A $42M Trophy: How We Captured Florida's Most Extraordinary Private Ranch

At 1 OAK Studios, we've shot luxury estates across South Florida, oceanfront compounds in the Keys, and multi-million dollar penthouses in the heart of Miami — but nothing quite prepared us for Phillips Ranch. When this project landed on our radar, we knew immediately this was going to be unlike anything we had done before.

5,110 acres. 2 full shooting days. One team fully immersed in the wild.

This is the story behind the lens.

The Scout: When You Realize Just How Big "Big" Actually Is

Before any shoot, I always do a scout visit. I've walked hundreds of properties I thought I had a pretty good feel for scale. Phillips Ranch humbled me fast.

The scout alone took about 3 hours and 2 of those were spent riding in a vehicle just getting from one area to the next. Not walking a home. Not reviewing angles. Just driving across the property. That's when it hit me: this is not a real estate shoot. This is a full-scale expedition.

I came back from that scout knowing we had to rethink our entire approach.

The Backstory:

When the client first called, they started showing us videos of sprawling ranches in Colorado dramatic mountain backdrops, elevation, towering peaks behind every shot. Breathtaking stuff. And then I gently had to remind them...

We're in Florida. It's as flat as it gets. 😄

But that's exactly what made this challenge so exciting. How do you make 5,100 acres of flat Florida land feel as cinematic and awe inspiring as a Colorado mountain ranch? That became our mission.

Richard, Tom and Thiago loaded up and made the 5-hour drive north from Miami to Bunnell the evening before Day 1. We checked in, settled into the ranch, and soaked in the silence. No city noise. No traffic. Just the sound of nature and the reality of what we were about to take on.

Going in, we knew we had two full days sunrise to sunset to cover multiple residences, barns, a golf facility, a shooting range, equestrian arenas, event spaces, and 5,100 acres of open land. The plan: hit all the structures first, then shift into what we started calling our safari mode.

The Sunrise That Changed Everything

I'll be honest I was nervous about the light. Florida doesn't give you mountains to work with. You live and die by the sky and the atmosphere. And on the first morning of the shoot, the sky delivered something I won't forget.

We were blessed with one of the most stunning sunrises I have ever witnessed on a shoot. A thick, low haze had rolled in overnight and was sitting just above the tree line and when the first light started cutting through, it created this warm, golden, cinematic atmosphere that looked like something out of a film set. Beams of light glowing through the cypress trees. Reflecting off the water. Hovering over the fields in soft waves.

Right then, I knew we had already achieved the feeling the client was after. We didn't need mountains. We had this.

From that point on, every shot of the morning had a natural, dramatic quality to it. The kind of light you can't manufacture. You just have to be there, ready for it and we were.

Once we had the homes and structures covered, we shifted into full safari mode. We jumped in a truck and spent hours driving across the property stopping, shooting, chasing light across endless fields.

And I mean endless. There were stretches of open pasture that would glow like gold at sunset, the grass lit up from end to end with no horizon in sight. It genuinely made you feel like you were somewhere else entirely another country, another world.

The wildlife alone was a spectacle. Deer, elk, turkey everywhere you looked. Hundreds of them. Moving through the fields like it was the most natural thing in the world, because for them, it was. At moments, it felt more like a safari in Africa than a ranch shoot in Flagler County, Florida.

And then for the first time in my career we captured eagles in their natural habitat.

I have to be honest: I was personally in awe. We've filmed a lot. We've seen a lot. But watching an eagle do its thing, in the wild, on a ranch in the middle of Florida, while we had a camera rolling that is a moment you don't take for granted. That shot alone made the trip worth it.

Meeting Bucky

No recap of this shoot would be complete without talking about Bucky.

Bucky is the ranch's flagship breeder buck a whitetail deer whose genetics are so elite, his offspring consistently score over 200 inches. He's the crown jewel of a $42 million property.

And he walked up to us like a golden retriever greeting his owners after a long day.
I have never seen a deer behave like this. Completely calm. Completely unbothered. Just coming right up to the team, sniffing around, hanging out like we were old friends. It was one of the most unexpectedly charming moments of the entire shoot. A gentle giant on a property full of giants.

Sleeping Under 5,100 Acres of Stars

Staying on-site overnight was something else entirely. When the crew wrapped for the day, there was no hotel, no city noise, no scrolling through your phone with the TV on in the background.

There was nothing. In the best possible way.

Complete quiet. Fresh air that you could actually feel the difference in. And at night a dome of stars so clear and so full that it genuinely stopped you in your tracks. I can't remember the last time I looked up and could actually see the Milky Way without having to drive somewhere remote to find it. Out there, it just was.

That kind of environment does something to a production. It pulls you deeper into the story you're trying to tell. You stop thinking like a crew on a job and start thinking like someone who actually lives there and that always shows up in the work.

This business is demanding. Long days, early mornings, a lot of pressure to deliver. But one of the things that makes 1 OAK different and this shoot was a perfect example is the people we do it with.

Tom and Thiago are not just talented. They're family. Out on that ranch, between setups and sunsets and truck rides through the fields, we were laughing probably 90% of the time. Inside jokes, bad impressions, the kind of humor that only makes sense to people who've spent hundreds of hours together on location.That energy is not separate from the work — it is the work. When a team genuinely enjoys being together, it comes through in everything they create. The shots are more relaxed. The coverage is more creative. The day feels less like a grind and more like a story worth telling.

The Final Take

We have shot a lot of projects. A lot of impressive ones. But being able to say that 1 OAK Studios shot a 5,100-acre private ranch that's a trophy for the books. Personally and professionally, this was one of those experiences that reminds you why you got into this work in the first place.

And at $42,000,000? Honestly, I think it's a steal. If I could, I'd move my entire family onto that property and never leave. I'm not joking.

Phillips Ranch is more than a listing. It's a legacy. And we were honored to be the team trusted to capture it.

For more information about Phillips Ranch, please contact:

John A. Evans, Sr. President & Broker — MoonBeam Land Company 📞 (407) 947-3335 ✉️ john@moonbeamlandco.com