DJI Osmo Pocket 4 Launch Spot Was Filmed With A Sony FX3 Across South Africa And Hong Kong

South African filmmaker Jacques Crafford published a behind-the-scenes breakdown on April 29 showing how the DJI Osmo Pocket 4 global launch commercial was actually produced. The shoot ran 8 days across South Africa and Hong Kong with a skeleton crew. DJI launched the Pocket 4 on April 16 at €499 in Europe with no US release because the company’s FCC authorization application remains pending under the Covered List.

Crafford handled DP and producing duties on the South African leg. His collaborator Reilin Joey directed and edited, and finished the Hong Kong portion with the rest of the team after Crafford flew home for the birth of his second child.

DJI Approached Both Filmmakers Separately Before They Pitched Together

Crafford said in the video that DJI reached out to him and to Joey independently about the project. He admitted hesitation because a global launch eats time he could otherwise spend on YouTube content and other client work. Once he learned Joey had received the same outreach, the two combined into a single pitch to make their case stronger. Joey took storyboarding and directing. Crafford handled cinematography and the practical layer of locations, talent, and gear.

A Sony FX3 With A Magic Arm Did The Hero Product Shots

Crafford shot almost the entire campaign on a Sony FX3 with native autofocus lenses. One fireplace setup used Thypoch Simera-C cine lenses with a focus puller. The autofocus choice came down to risk management. Many shots involved outdoor wildlife where there was no second take if an animal moved out of frame at the wrong moment. The Monitor and Control app handled subject tracking on the critical scenes.

For the hero product shots that anchor the montage commercial, Crafford fixed the Pocket 4 itself directly in front of the FX3 lens using a magic arm and a 24-70mm. With the static product locked in focus and the FX3 free to move, the rig produced the match-cut sequences that carry the campaign’s intro. The same setup let Crafford zoom in and out to demonstrate Pocket 4 features without breaking visual continuity. He also used a DJI RS3 gimbal with a 24-70mm to track a moving vehicle at sunrise, with a 4-by-4 Poly Bounce wrapping sun for fill on the actors’ faces.

Schotia Safaris And A Last-Minute Cape Town Find

The South African leg used Schotia Safaris after Crafford determined no other reachable game farm would meet the lighting requirements. He noted that the owner had hosted him on earlier projects and accompanied the crew personally on this one. An unscripted encounter with an elephant herd, including a calf and protective mother, produced the sequence used to demonstrate the DJI Mic. The mother sniffed the production vehicle and moved on without incident. Bad weather then forced a fireplace scene to skip blue hour and rely on every lighting unit on hand.

The Cape Town leg required canola fields in their narrow flowering window, which Crafford said he had wanted to shoot for years. He solo-scouted the area for three days a month before the shoot and confirmed dates with a farmer whose harvest would begin one week after their booked window. A property the team almost passed on turned out to be a registered shooting location that had hosted a feature film. There Crafford added a Nanlite PavoSlim 240CL on an inverter for high-key product close-ups.

Crafford Used The Sponsor Spot To Reject AI Music And Video Generators

Crafford ran his Musicbed sponsor read deep into the BTS but did not treat it as throwaway filler. He said he refuses to promote AI video generators on his channel despite repeated offers from those platforms. He framed Musicbed’s catalog of human-composed tracks as a deliberate counter-position to the AI-generated stock libraries flooding social platforms. The framing matters because the DJI launch ad will run alongside an avalanche of AI-generated product spots competing for the same creator audience.

DroneXL’s Take

The BTS is interesting because DJI invested serious global production budget in a product that cannot be legally sold in the US through normal retail channels. The Pocket 4 launched April 16 with a €499 price tag in Europe and silence in America. Crafford’s team shot for 8 days across two countries to support a product that has no FCC authorization to enter US retail.

DroneXL has been tracking the Pocket 4 since Jasper Ellens spotted prototype images in September 2025. Coverage continued through FCC filings and retail packaging leaks. Most recently, Shawn at Air Photography unboxed the Creator Combo on launch day. Crafford’s BTS rounds out that coverage from a different angle, showing how DJI markets what it can sell where it can sell it. The two-country choice of South Africa and Hong Kong, with no US-shot footage, fits a product the company cannot officially sell to American buyers.

What this video does not address is whether DJI plans a separate US-targeted campaign for the Pocket 4 Pro if and when its FCC status clarifies. The Pro received approval on December 22, 2025, the same day DJI was added to the FCC Covered List. Whether a parallel campaign exists for that variant in markets where it can be sold depends on a regulatory outcome no production schedule can predict, and the Ninth Circuit appeal that will shape that outcome is still pending.

Source: Jacques Crafford on YouTube.

DroneXL uses automated tools to support research and source retrieval. All reporting and editorial perspectives are by Haye Kesteloo.