Jeff Dillon began his connection with the equine industry working as a television reporter and photojournalist for WESH TV (NBC) Orlando and WCJB (ABC) Gainesville in the 1980s. During that time, he covered several equine industry stories and developed an interest in how video could enhance the equine experience. In 1996, Ocala Breeders’ Sales hired his recently founded company, Dillon Video and Film Productions, to videotape 2-year-old sales horses, a novel concept at the time.
In its infancy, the video process involved an under tack video for each horse – standard definition, VHS. Nowadays, videos stream real-time and post digitally online for the benefit of shoppers globally. Dillon takes pride that his company brought the process of video content to a higher level each year for OBS, the world’s leading two-year-olds in training auction house.
“When recording the horses at Ocala Breeders’ Sales, we have a crew of up to ten people doing very specific jobs in real time. For our crew, we consider each horse special and consider it an honor to able to ride along with them for a few seconds on the workout. The goal of each video clip is to show them in the best possible light to potential buyers,” Dillon said, “I am always excited to see another winner that is an OBS graduate.
While horses are his passion, Dillon has had other unique filming experiences including being face to face with an adult male lion, photographing the entire coastline of Florida from a helicopter, capturing images from inside a nuclear power plant and standing over a human beating heart during surgery.
Dillon’s quality of work has earned 13 Telly Awards and has taken him across the world to Africa, Tahiti, Central America and the Caribbean. His client list includes E-One, Coke, Pepsi, General Motors, Seminole Feeds, the Marion County Sheriff’s office and Trinity Catholic school among others. He has branched out into drone work with quadcopters and is an FAA approved drone pilot. This has proven valuable when shooting sequences in newly built horse barns.