The Henslee family, from left, Anthony, Pat and Dale, has been the creative force behind Henslee Productions for 20 years. Henslee Productions’ latest inventive effort is ''Palo Pinto Gold.'' Photo by David Basarich

When Anthony Henslee was growing up in Palo Pinto County in the 1970s, seeing a movie was a big deal. It meant leaving the ranch he and his family called home and going to Fort Worth.

“We would drive 70 miles to the theater, so it was an all-day thing, a very special event in my mind, to go see a movie,” Henslee said.

Though he went from working on a cattle ranch to working in front of a camera when his parents moved to Boerne in 1987, the Palo Pinto underpinnings couldn’t be shed.

Now those youthful experiences have come full circle, as Henslee Productions releases its first feature-length movie, “Palo Pinto Gold,” written, produced and directed by Anthony Henslee.

Anyone who has GVTC cable in Boerne has seen Henslee in local commercials. He has a voice for electronic media and a face that manages to be credible yet slightly bemused at the same time.

That persona may have been honed on the ranch, where a love of all things western mixed with a family fascination for cameras and production equipment.

Television reception on the ranch was limited to three channels, ABC, NBC and CBS, and Henslee watched all the reruns of westerns that were shown.

One of the reasons Henslee may have been drawn to movies was that dad Dale had been tinkering with a home movie camera for some time.

Dale Henslee, cinematographer for ''Palo Pinto Gold,'' during a break in the taping last fall.

Soon, Dale was taking his camera to events featuring family and friends, then cutting and splicing the film and mixing in music or audio to produce interesting home movies far beyond the grainy efforts of most amateurs of the day.

“We showed them over and over,” Pat Henslee recalled with a laugh.

Dale took to the adulation and soon expanded his efforts to include animation and Indiana Jones spoofs. He then worked periodically in Dallas to learn the production business professionally.

The itch to try to make a living in the growing field of media and production was strong, so when the family ranch was sold in 1986, Dale and Pat moved to Boerne with their children, Anthony and Stephanie, and entered a whole new line of work.

They chose Boerne because they had friends in the area.

Dale did remodeling jobs for a while, but his interest in film, cameras and movies remained strong and one day in 1988 he got a call from a client who wanted help making a commercial.

“We never did find out how that customer knew of his experience in Dallas,” Pat said.

Soon, Henslee Productions was up and running.

The family took the plunge together, with every family member contributing to make the business a success and focusing on strengths, whether the task was scheduling, writing scripts, taping commercials or editing videotape and film in the post-production process.

Today, Anthony is production manager, Dale runs the business end and Pat pitches in wherever needed. Stephanie’s husband, Michael Thurmond, is skilled at sound editing and surround sound.

Looking back over 20 years of working together as a family, Pat Henslee said it has been a blessing.

“We have great respect for each other, the same goals and the same value structure,” she said. “It’s easier to work together than for someone else.”

Four years ago, a client called Enchanted Springs Ranch ordered a commercial, and the rest is history.

Western aficionado/production manager Anthony Henslee met western buff Steve Schmidt, owner of Enchanted Springs.

Each had something the other needed: Schmidt offered a historically accurate location to shoot a western movie and Henslee had years of well-rounded production experience.

Like a rainbow settling over a canyon after a spring shower on parched land, all the signs were right for forging ahead in pursuit of a dream.

Next week: Behind the scenes at “Palo Pinto Gold”