This was a prime example of joining forces. To staff each shoot, I worked with NeedAFixer.com to assemble top-tier local crews — many with backgrounds in documentary, broadcast, and cinematic production like the BBC, NatGeo, and Netflix. These professionals brought a high level of craft and adaptability to every location, helping us move fast without compromising quality. I kept the crew lean with only a local producer, photographer, videographer, sound engineer, and a general assistant with a digitek background to help with lights, sound, running, and even act as "the bad guy with a knife" when needed. 

I also flew in Sales Engineers who handled tented products and acted as SMEs on set. Sales Leads for each country were also brought in to help with relations with the local agencies since they had the built-in rapport and helped smooth the edges with our tight run-and-gun crew moving quickly through their offices. 

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Once boots were on the ground, I directed each shoot in person. Travel was tightly coordinated: land the night before, scout locations, and begin shooting at first light. We made the most of every daylight hour, usually capturing 2–3 days’ worth of content before moving on to the next location.

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Post-shoot, I selected around 150 final images per country — curating from thousands — to be sent to our editing partners for final color and cleanup. Within two weeks, these images were in the hands of our global marketing and sales teams. For video, we had the files uploaded directly to our server the day of shooting so our team back home could start organizing and editing footage. Throughout the edit process, I would work directly with our post team to get screen comps correct and making sure the customers story was told correctly, setting them as the hero.

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Outcome

I traveled to nine countries across three continents delivering 1,350+ polished hero images and over 72 hours of b-roll. Each shot represented Axon’s products in real-world situations used by actual public safety professionals. By hiring local crews and doing pre-production myself, I kept the cost several hundred thousand dollars lower than initial bids for larger production companies.

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These assets were deployed across Axon’s owned channels, used in global campaigns, and supported regional launches in new markets. In many cases, they became the first time international partners saw themselves authentically represented in our creative materials.

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This project proved that high-quality, localized storytelling can scale and that with the right structure in place, global creative doesn’t have to compromise nuance or detail. We now have a replicable playbook for international photo and video production, ready to be deployed wherever it’s needed next.