For the best part of ten years, Dubai is where we’ve created content for Callaway with some of golf’s biggest names. At the start of the season, it’s where the players’ calendars line up, which makes it the perfect place to film.
Early morning at the Emirates is our favourite time of day. The heat hasn’t arrived yet, the light is soft and the clubhouse’s white peaks glow against the sky. While the main course gets busy, we borrow a quiet corner of the second course and start building our set.
Thirty minutes with a champion
Players in Dubai have packed diaries: practice, sponsor duties, media and travel. We typically get 30 to 60 minutes with each one, and it’s whenever they’re free, not when the light suits us.
So we make the best of every slot. The shot list is agreed, the set is ready and someone stands in so we can check framing before the player arrives. When they walk up, we roll.
Working with the sun
There’s no point fighting Dubai’s sun with lights. Outdoors, the tools are reflectors, bounces, flags and careful framing. If the sun moves, we move with it, rotating the whole set to chase the light or to escape it when it gets too harsh.
We often shoot against backdrops too, so players can be cut out and placed into Callaway’s wider campaign creative. Rotoscoping used to be slow, frame-by-frame work. AI tools have transformed it in recent years, making clean cut-outs much faster, which leaves more of the budget for the shoot itself.
The players
Over the years, we’ve created content with and for some of the biggest names in the European game, including Henrik Stenson, Jon Rahm, Sergio Garcia, Francesco Molinari, Thomas Bjørn, Danny Willett and Min Woo Lee.
Callaway’s content often follows a style set in the US. Our job is to fit that style while giving it a European perspective and a bit of our own flair. It has to sit comfortably alongside everything else Callaway puts out, while still feeling fresh.
Broadcast quality, tournament pressures
The content goes out on TV and across Callaway’s global channels, so it has to look every bit as good as the equipment it’s selling. That standard doesn’t bend because a player has somewhere else to be.
It’s a balance we’ve got used to: moving fast, staying calm and keeping the quality where Callaway expects it to be.
A home away from home
After this many trips, Dubai feels familiar. We know how the light falls across the course at each hour, where the shade will be by mid-morning and how quickly the heat builds. That familiarity is what lets us move fast without cutting corners.
“Channel 2020 have consistently over-delivered on their promises on every project we have done together.”
What it means for you
When your talent’s time is precious, plan every shot, prepare every set-up and make the most of the minutes you get. Your film will look as though you had all day. The shoot begins before they arrive.