“It combines my passions for filming and farming.”
Equipped with the knowledge he learned growing up on a sheep and beef farm he heads away to another rural region.
Robinson films GlobalHQ’s weekly, short videos that accompany in-depth articles and professional photographs published as On Farm Story in Farmers Weekly and Dairy Farmer.
A former film academy manager in New Zealand and Germany, his experience spans every aspect of the industry from feature films to television commercials and corporate videos.
When he and wife Ellen Ashenden returned to Auckland in 2017 he was set to return to running his video and production business, Dollarmixbag, full time.
But he showed GlobalHQ owner Dean Williamson his latest documentary – a short film capturing a Fijian rugby coach’s passion and personality. It has had more than 680,000 YouTube views this year.
Understanding the formula for its success sparked a conversation that led to the creation of On Farm Story.
“Ash just has this knack of getting people to open up and tell their story in a really captivating and inspiring way,” Williamson said.
He used to meet farmers who absolutely love what they do, who look after the land and love their animals. He would walk away and wish could bottle that story and share it with everyone – kids who are wondering about farming as a career, exporters who need to market our food story, people who criticise farming and farmers and, most importantly, farmers themselves
“And now we are bottling them and sharing them with the world.”
Since July when GlobalHQ took over Farmers Weekly and began On Farm Story, Robinson has filmed more than 25 farmers.
On Farm Story’s home is on the Farmers Weekly website (farmersweekly.co.nz/onfarm).
Robinson’s approach, like that of GlobalHQ’s journalists, is to find out what makes these people tick. The written stories use that approach but also present the farm facts and figures in an interesting and easily understood way.
Each story has a deliberate focus on one character – people like Jason Smith, the Kaipara District mayor and his infectious passion for bringing kiwi back to the native bush and Sophie Barnes the 26-year-old English woman who’s now sharing her farming adventures in Taumarunui with thousands of followers across the world.
Robinson’s provincial upbringing gave him natural empathy for farmers but working with On Farm Story has really driven that home.
“Farmers, as business owners, come across as being honest and authentic about how much they love what they do.”
He hasn’t set out to be an advocate for farmers but he’s struck by the irony of his own situation.
“Once my filming’s done in the regions I return to Auckland to edit the stories about people who are passionate about their animals and environment then the view out my window is across Coxes Bay, which is fed by perhaps the grubbiest estuary in NZ and has an almost permanent no-swim notice up.
“We can all learn a lot from the way farmers invest so much of themselves and their time and money in good land management. They take their roles as custodians of the land for future generations really seriously.”
On Farm Story has reached more than 350,000 Facebook viewers since it started in July. One episode alone reached 59,000. Add to that the following on other social platforms LinkedIn, Twitter, Vimeo and YouTube and the worldwide viewership of On Farm Story is probably well in excess of 500,000 and growing.
Williamson said this is an exciting initiative for the new business, GlobalHQ.
“We set out to help NZ farmers tell their story and it’s working.”
“It’s all about making interesting short films about interesting people. Farmers are characters and they have the best offices. It’s ideal subject matter for a great story. And at the end of the day everybody loves a story.”
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Watch the videos at https://www.farmersweekly.co.nz/on-farm
