The Brief
DJI came to us in late 2023 with a clear ask. They needed hero content for the Mavic 3 Pro launch .. 40 deliverables across photo, video and social formats. The content had to show the drone in real production scenarios, not studio setups. They wanted locations that would push the camera system to its limits. Low light. Fast motion. Wide dynamic range.
The timeline was tight. Three weeks from first flight to final delivery. Four countries .. Iceland, Morocco, Switzerland and the UAE. Two crew members per location. Max Zaharenkov led the Iceland and Switzerland legs personally.
Production Approach
We split the shoot into two parallel tracks. Track one covered landscape and cinematic footage .. the kind of content DJI uses on product pages and launch videos. Track two focused on social-first assets .. vertical video, behind-the-scenes reels and creator-style content that feels native to Instagram and TikTok.
Each location had a specific purpose. Iceland delivered the dramatic aerials .. glacier flyovers, volcanic terrain, northern light sequences shot at ISO 12800. Morocco gave us the texture .. medina rooftops, desert tracking shots, golden hour content in the Sahara. Switzerland was precision .. mountain passes, tight valley flights, speed ramping through alpine terrain. Dubai provided the urban contrast .. skyline reveals, construction sites, marina sequences.
Technical Details
We flew the Mavic 3 Pro alongside our existing DJI Inspire 3 rigs for comparison footage. The triple-camera system on the Mavic 3 Pro meant we could switch between 24mm, 70mm and 166mm focal lengths without landing. That saved roughly 40 minutes per shooting day on lens swaps alone.
All footage was shot in D-Log M at 5.1K. Color grading happened in DaVinci Resolve with custom LUTs we built specifically for DJI's color science. Final delivery included 12 hero videos (15-60 seconds each), 18 social-first clips (9:16 format) and 10 high-resolution stills per location.
The Results
DJI used the content across their global launch campaign. The hero reel hit 4.2M views in the first 48 hours on YouTube. Three of the social clips exceeded 1M views on Instagram Reels. The Iceland glacier sequence became the thumbnail for DJI's official product page.
Total production cost came in 22% under the original budget. The parallel crew approach cut travel days in half compared to a single-team sequential shoot. DJI renewed the partnership for their next two product launches.
What We Learned
Dual-track production works for hardware launches. The hero content and social content serve different audiences with different expectations. Trying to make one piece of content work for both never delivers. Shooting them separately, even at the same locations, produces stronger results on both sides.
The other takeaway is crew size. We ran 2-person teams instead of the 5-person crews DJI had used with previous agencies. Smaller teams move faster, attract less attention and adapt to weather and light changes without the logistics overhead. Every day we gained an extra 90 minutes of shooting time because we did not need to coordinate large setups.