To effectively shoot the most film’s most demanding set piece, a wild mustang race, Mayer knew the animals would have to be given very specific parameters. “The horses can be trained to go from, say, ‘A to B,’ explains the director, “so it became about constructing a whole series of ‘A to B’s’ for them and basically building the stampede on film.”

“It’s kind of like pouring water on the ground and estimating which way it’s going to run,” remarks Hendrickson. “You create a sanctuary for the horses, a place where they have food and water and no pressure, and they get to like that place. Then you take them away from this sanctuary and just let them go. Of course, they’ll want to go back there – and that’s what you end up filming.”

Though FLICKA is set in Wyoming, much of the movie was shot in the Los Angeles area, which also has its share of imposing mountains and pristine vistas. Says Muro: “We had to work around the city’s modern exteriors and look for the natural beauty that often goes unseen in contemporary Los Angeles. When you watch the film, it’s amazing to realize so many of these gorgeous, striking images were actually shot in L.A.

“We also wanted to challenge ourselves on the ‘reality vibe’ of this project. We wanted to avoid the typical, overlit ‘family look,’ which was ultimately consistent with film’s slighty darker, more unique approach to its classical subject matter.”

The filming of a scene depicting Katy’s dawn ride at the ranch was another tough assignment. “It was a hard scene to coordinate and compose,” states Muro. “It took a lot of extra planning and scheduling to pull off properly. Some of Katy’s horse ride to her mountain ridge home was shot in L.A., while other parts were filmed on location in Wyoming. The two locales meant shooting out of sequence. As we ended up filming day for night, as well as during actual dusk, we had to continually adjust our exposure to end up with uniform light and color throughout the entire scene. It was tricky, but it worked.

“I want audiences to feel so inspired by the beauty of this sequence,” adds Muro. “That they’ll want to go home, jump on a horse, and take the same kind of fantastic ride that Katy does.”

Lohman has her own hope for the audience – that the film will bring them back to nature and remind everyone that the country’s wide-open spaces needs to be preserved and honored. “It can’t all be tract homes and malls,” the actress declares. “We need to have some land left.”

“Each character in the film is kind of a paradigm of American individualism, each pursuing their own version of the American dream,” says director Mayer. “There’s something in the picture that speaks to all of us, because we know that you don’t get something for nothing in this land--the one that we created here.

“None of our characters go without making a really intense personal sacrifice, in one way or another. Yet, in the process, they all end up honoring each other as well, which I think is really beautiful.&rdquo

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