When Preston Randolph’s name was called out as the winner of an Emmy last Saturday, he was in Cody surrounded by his family. He didn’t expect to win, despite being nominated previously. 

But he knows where his heart is: home in Wyoming.

He had an invitation for the swanky red-carpet event, yet he chose to be in his living room watching the live-stream of the awards ceremony with his wife, Hilary, and their three children. 

“Everyone kind of jumped up and down and celebrated (when the winner was announced). My little 3-month-old daughter, Grace, didn’t know what was going on, but she was having a good time with it too,” he said, adding, “I was definitely surprised.”

Randolph, owner of Cactus Productions in Cody, was presented the award by the Heartland Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for best commercial. 

The project was a 43-episode commercial for the Park County Travel Council. The theme is “finding your moment” in Park County.

Randolph, who directs and produces his films himself, beat out large companies and even a professional basketball team for the award. He has pretty much kept the news to himself and couldn’t be lured away from his family for the weekend.

“My family is the most important thing,” he said. “We have a small, very tight family — my wife and my girls, my parents and brother, you know, they’re everything to me. They’ve supported me the whole time I’ve been going down this kind of crazy career. And I’m just thankful to have all of them in my life.”

It would have been a special moment at the microphone in front of hundreds of his peers. It’s the kind of honest sentiment that gets the tears flowing. Instead, the family is waiting for a box to be delivered carrying the golden statue. 

Had Randolph been present at the awards ceremony, he would have also mentioned employee Tristen Acton.

“This award is just as much his as it is mine,” he said. “This campaign wouldn’t have been possible without all his trust and hard work. He put in a lot of hours on this thing.”

The polished ad campaign starts with area residents with their eyes closed, daydreaming of their moment in the bucket-list landscapes of the northwest Wyoming county. 

Ads in varying lengths show the best of outdoor recreation the county has to offer. The videos end with the stars of the episodes opening their eyes to the reality of their outdoor recreation dreams made possible in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.

“What’s really going to help set these things apart is that collectively they show that we’re not a one-trick pony. We have it all here in Park County for outdoor recreation,” said Ryan Hauck, the travel council’s executive director.

The goal for the council is to show the county as a destination, not just a gateway to Yellowstone National Park. 

Randolph’s work was exactly what Hauck had wanted.

“In the destination marketing organization world, there’s a lot of things that kind of look the same,” he said. “We all like to promote that cowboy lifestyle or different attractions. They can almost get lost within each other.

“Preston really has his own style that helps set him apart in the (destination marketing) world that I’m constantly competing in every single day,” Hauck added.

Randolph said he was thrilled the council hired all local companies and used actual residents to create the campaign. 

“It would’ve been easy for them to look outside the state,” he said.

The campaign, as well as the Emmy, will hopefully be a catalyst for more work for the small company Randolph started just after he graduated from Cody High School in 2008. 

Unlike many in the film industry, Randolph skipped film school when setting out on his own. 

He was accepted into a few film schools, but then, as the time to make a decision approached, he decided to go it alone. 

“At the last second, I was like, I’m not going to do that. And I just started working and building my own company,” he said.

Randolph’s company has been steadily growing. Hilary left her profession as a teacher in the Cody school system and took on the role of business manager and mom to their three daughters, Grace, 3 months old, Kamry, 16, and Alayna, 12.  

“We have a number of projects in the works,” said Hilary. “We’re also doing a large parenting campaign for the state of Montana. And (Preston) is working on a film.”

Randolph has always known what he wanted to do. As a child, he started making WWII videos, enlisting his brother Garrett to help him reenact scenes from movies. “Saving Private Ryan,” directed by Steven Spielberg, was a favorite movie of his.

Documentaries are now Randolph’s priority. 

“I’m passionate about documentary films, telling stories that I feel are meaningful and important,” he said.

He’s been working on a film since 2014 documenting the struggles of a Montana inmate whose family fought to prove his innocence. “My interest was in the human element of the case. I’ve followed this man’s mother for several years as she continued the fight almost 30 years after her son was sent to prison. And she inspires new laws in Montana,” he said.

His day job takes most of his time, so he works on his long-term projects after dark. 

“There’s a lot of nights when I’m working. Those are family sacrifices,” he said.

Yet to reach his goal, sacrifices have to be made, he said. 

“I would like to make a difference,” he said. “It seems like, with all the noise and the confusion in today’s society —people don’t know what’s true and what’s not — I think a lot of people, including myself, feel like our hands are tied and are searching for things you can do to help change things,” he said.

“For me, being able to reveal human stories is important,” he added. “Hopefully it can bring something good out of it. That’s wishful thinking, but hopefully, if you just build awareness and hope, if it just helps just one person, then it was totally worth it.”