Gold Hearts of Hot Rod County: tractor ad evolves into short film

Gold Hearts of Hot Rod County, is a character-led short filmed in Iowa and Kansas that blends heartfelt Americana with pop-culture nostalgia and strong visual craft. It’s on YouTube now!

Turning a tractor ad into a coming-of-age tale, that’s what Gold Hearts of Hot Rod County is all about. The young-adult franchise-ready story packed into a 20-minute short film evolved from a tractor advertisement proof of concept. Grounded in 80s and 90s influences, the film – now streaming on YouTube – follows two teenagers, played by Noah Fearnley and Shayla Stensby, through a charged rural summer fling that tests loyalty, risk, and first love.

The story is simple: when outsider farm girl Callie falls for charismatic bad boy Zack, she crashes a local party to catch his eye. Pressured by his girlfriend, Zack humiliates her in front of everyone. Callie strikes back with a plan built on the skills and machines she knows best. Gold Hearts of Hot Rod County has already earned strong first-wave reviews and built a fast-growing, captivated audience asking for more.

Shayla Stensby stars as Callie in Gold Hearts of Hot Rod County, anchoring the film’s perspective with a grounded, quietly resilient performance. Her recent screen credits include My Forbidden Stepmother (2024) and Survive (2020). Noah Fearnley plays Zack, pairing charm with a sharper edge as the film’s small-town provocateur. Fearnley will soon be making his big debut in Ryan Murphy’s American Love Story and Timur Bekmambetov’s Mercy alongside Chris Pratt.

David Kobzantsev is a US-based director, writer, and indie filmmaker focused on fun, edgy, unexpected, and heart-filled storytelling across narrative shorts, independent film, and commercial work. With a background spanning directing, creative direction, producing, and screenwriting, David brings a hands-on, collaborative approach from development through delivery to create work that feels real and thrilling. Gold Hearts of Hot Rod County, David Kobzantsev’s directorial debut narrative short, was first shown, in 2025, at the Beverly Hills International Film Festival, as part of the official selection, and won the Best Director and Best 1st Short awards at the Stockholm Film Festival.

“This started as a tractor ad spec. The visuals and tone kept growing in my head until it became an entire world,” comments David Kobzantsev. “I had to tell this story about these characters who are stuck inside of tractor commercial land, each dreaming of something more, needing to find a way to break free. The rest is history; I finished the script, and pre-production ensued.”

After storyboarding, David found an Iowa family whose farm, hot rod tractor, and classic 70s Mustang matched the film’s look and scale. John Frost, a Los Angeles–based cinematographer and director whose commercial and promo work spans entertainment, gaming, and music photographed the film, shaping a kinetic rural look that balances intimate, handheld character work with high-energy vehicle photography.

On Gold Hearts of Hot Rod County, Jeremy Osbern, a cinematographer with 25 years of experience across television series, musicals, and music videos, led the cinematography for the bar scene and the “Callie and Zack’s Fantasy” dance sequence, bringing a distinct visual rhythm to some of the film’s most charged, performance-led moments.

Danielle King, a Los Angeles–based director, choreographer, and producer whose work spans music, film, and branded content, choreographed the party sequences, and intimate beats around vehicles in the film, coordinating closely with the director and cinematography teams to keep movements emotionally precise.

“We started principal photography at the Bower farm, and booked out the only local hotel with cast and crew. The Bower family and fine folks of Latimer and Hampton, IA, could not have been more generous,” Kobzantsev added. “We were extremely lucky. Mike Bower agreeing to soup-up his tractor into what the story needed was one of the most exciting parts.”

A signature sequence pits protagonists Zack and Callie in a head-to-head race – one in a tractor, the other in a Mustang. Rather than emulating speed entirely in post, the crew swapped the tractor’s engine so it could reach 65 mph under controlled conditions, and then made up for it to look significantly faster with clever editing, sound design, and footage ramping. Parts of the scene were filmed from the back of a Gator vehicle or the bed of a pick-up truck, to capture proximity, vibration, and ground truth without compromising safety.

Another standout sequence is the pair’s fantasy dance, choreographed with nods to classics like Dirty Dancing, Flashdance and Footloose. The team leaned into saturated color, filmic grain, and subtle retro treatments to evoke a lived-in nostalgia while keeping the movement grounded in character and story.

“Turning a spec into a narrative short proved the concept and the characters,” said Kobzantsev. “The world has room to grow. The plotline can extend into a series or a feature without losing the intimate stakes that make the short work.”