The Invitation
Emirates reached out through their Dubai headquarters. They wanted creator-led content showing the First Class experience on their A380 .. not the polished TV commercials they are known for, but something that felt real and personal. The kind of content that makes someone watching on their phone think "I need to try this."
The catch: we would shoot on a live commercial flight. Real passengers. Real crew. No staged elements. No reshoot opportunities. Dubai to London Heathrow. DXB to LHR. Approximately 7 hours in the air.
Pre-Production
Emirates gave us access to a grounded A380 at their engineering centre for a 4-hour technical scout. We walked the First Class cabin .. 14 private suites, each with a closing door, lie-flat bed, personal minibar and 32-inch screen. We measured light levels at different window positions. We identified which suites had the best angles for filming.
Suite 2A became our primary position. Forward-facing, window side, with a view down the aisle that showed the scale of the cabin. Suite 2K across the aisle served as our B-camera position for reverse angles.
Gear Constraints
No drones, obviously. No lights .. Emirates would not allow any equipment that could disturb other First Class passengers. No tripods in the aisle. Everything had to be handheld or clamped to our own suite furniture.
We stripped our kit to the minimum. Sony FX3 as primary camera. Sony A7C as B-camera (small enough to be discreet). Two lenses: 24mm f/1.4 for wide suite shots and 50mm f/1.2 for detail and food content. DJI Mic 2 wireless system for ambient audio. Everything fit in a single backpack.
The Flight
Boarding content came first. The private terminal at DXB. The chauffeur-driven transfer to the aircraft. Walking through the doors into First Class. We shot these sequences documentary-style .. no direction, just capture.
Once airborne, we had a structured plan. First hour: suite tour and feature demonstrations (shower spa, minibar, seat-to-bed conversion). Hours 2-3: dining sequence. Emirates serves a multi-course meal on Royal Doulton china with Dom Perignon. We filmed the table setup, the food presentation and the eating experience. Hours 4-5: the shower spa at 40,000 feet. This is Emirates' signature First Class feature. A real shower. In the sky. We shot it empty (for obvious reasons) and then the before/after of using it. Final hour: arrival prep, landing sequence, disembarkation.
Results
We delivered 8 Reels, 15 stills and 2 longer-form YouTube edits. The shower spa reel hit 6.2M views in the first week .. Emirates' best-performing creator content of 2024. The dining sequence drove measurable interest: Emirates reported a 12% uptick in First Class booking page visits in the 72 hours after the content went live.
The partnership expanded to Business Class content on the 777 and a behind-the-scenes series at the Emirates Flight Training Academy. Total content value from a single flight: 28 deliverables that ran across Emirates' channels for 4 months.