Case Study
Five films, four cities, one immovable launch date
Samsung (via Eleven, San Francisco) · Executive Broadcast Producer — Jill Honig
View the full case study (PDF) →The Ask
Samsung needed a five-video unboxing series ready for its Galaxy Awesome Unpacked event — the global launch of a new Galaxy device — on a timeline measured in weeks, not months.
And this wasn't a product-on-a-table unboxing: the creative was choreography-driven — casting dancers, engaging a choreographer, and running a full week of pre-production dance rehearsals before a camera ever rolled.
The Footprint
A production footprint spanning half the globe — executive produced end to end from San Francisco.
The Risk
A 15-hour split between the US and Asia: when San Francisco was starting its morning, Singapore and the client in China were ending their day. Every question that waited for “the next meeting” cost a full 24 hours — on a weeks-long timeline, an unaffordable tax.
The star of the series was an unreleased phone: embargoed hardware under controlled custody, NDAs across every layer — agencies, production company, choreographer, dancers, crew — and a set run so the product never appeared where it shouldn't. One leak and the launch story breaks before Samsung tells it.
How It Ran
Early SF morning — evening in Singapore and China — was the only live hour the triangle shared. Reserved for decisions only; everything asynchronous was pushed out of it.
Every end-of-day US handoff went out decision-ready — the cut or board, the questions, the options, a recommendation — so Asia could respond inside its own workday.
Status lived in shared trackers, not inboxes — every asset's stage, owner and open questions visible to whoever was awake.
A week of dance rehearsals locked the performance before the embargoed device reached set — keeping shoot days tight and the hardware's exposure window short.
Absorbing review styles, approval hierarchies and communication norms at the EP level meant the teams in LA and Singapore could just make the work.
The US day ended with a handoff, Asia's began with clear direction — the sun never set on the schedule.
The Outcome
All five films delivered on time for the Galaxy Awesome Unpacked event, to Samsung's brand and quality standards — a choreographed, embargo-secured, four-city production held together from San Francisco without the launch date ever coming into question.
Watch the work
Film 1 — Galaxy unboxing series
Film 2 — Galaxy unboxing series
The Takeaway
When there's no shared workday, the producer is the shared workday.
Producing across time zones isn't about working longer hours — it's about designing handoffs so the work never waits.
