What We Filmed: WM Phoenix Open Video Production Week in Scottsdale
- camillahelenecm
- 2 days ago
- 5 min read
The first quarter of the year has been busy! One of our many shoots included February’s 2026 WMPO, along with what we captured for our clients, such as the Phoenix Open, Golf Digest, Skratch Golf, and the PGA TOUR. This coverage is yet another example of how the video production services we offer meet our clients' multipurpose advertising needs, especially for long-reaching campaigns.
While the players are competing throughout the week, our team is capturing all the action, both on the ground and in the sky, to produce story-driven documentary, marketing, and social media content, and to handle all photo editing.
While the shooters on the green were capturing content, a six-person crew simultaneously edited that footage throughout the week, and we delivered 56 pieces of content and edited 65,000 photos. When it comes to quality media at scale, we’ve got it down.
The schedule spanned roughly ten days, and the material we captured during that period was designed to support marketing and promotion well into the future for these brands.
What the Week Included
Tournament week at TPC Scottsdale is spread over the course, the surrounding events, and the sponsors that make the WM Phoenix Open one of the most recognizable stops on the PGA TOUR schedule.
Aerial cinematography helped establish that impressive scale first. Our drone coverage of the Stadium Course, piloted by our experts, showed how the grandstands wrap around the 16th hole, how spectators follow plays between fairways and hospitality areas, and how the tournament fills the property during the week. Those aerial passes give viewers the wide visual context to anchor the rest of the coverage.
Ground cameras captured the individual players, activities, and audience on the green. Our operators moved between tee boxes and public walkways while staying aware of player movement and tournament staff directions. A golf tournament requires a high level of awareness, more than many live events, because camera positions must stay out of play while still capturing the excitement of each swing.
The recap video above reflects that energy, shifting from aerial coverage of the venue to ground-level moments that show the intensity of each hole and the interaction between fans and the event.
A Tournament With a Long History in Arizona
The WM Phoenix Open has been part of Arizona sports culture for decades. First played in 1932 and revived in 1939 by Bob Goldwater and The Thunderbirds, the tournament has grown into one of the most recognizable stops on the PGA TOUR calendar.
The event also supports a larger charitable mission through Thunderbirds Charities, which distributes funds raised during the tournament to organizations serving children and families across the Phoenix metropolitan area. Programs such as Birdies for Charity enable participating nonprofits to benefit from the event.
Our cameras capture it all: the competition itself and the importance of the broader community presence associated with the tournament.
Working Across Multiple Productions
We filmed the Phoenix Open coverage alongside several other production assignments during the same stretch. Our production crews rotated between different deliverables connected to Golf Digest, Skratch Golf, and PGA TOUR content while maintaining the highest quality visual standards across the work.
We captured additional footage for brand storytelling and promotional edits, some of which was gathered for immediate turnaround, while other pieces were filmed with longer-term use in mind.
The week produced dozens of finished videos–56 in one week alone–and photos–56,000 edited in that same week–, all drawn from footage captured during that stretch of filming around the event.
Tournament Play and Cinematography
The Stadium Course changes character once play begins, each player and hole adding its own flavor that we love to capture. The 16th hole in particular functions more like a stadium than a typical golf setting, with thousands of spectators surrounding the spot, all focused on the tee box.
Capturing that environment requires multiple approaches. Wide shots show the structure and the surrounding crowd, while tighter angles track the players' approach, swings, and reactions as they move through the course. Our camera teams adjust positions throughout the day as groups rotate through the players and the crowd flocks around different vantage points.
Slow-motion filming is useful when the movement itself carries the story. The strike of the ball, or the reaction of fans on the green, can reveal a moment's intensity when the camera slows the action to a lower frame rate. That footage provides material that works well in promotional edits or sponsor pieces revisiting the event months later.
The goal is to build footage that reflects the event as it happened for live viewers, capturing the escalation of the competition and the week's energy.
Built for Evergreen Use
Events like the WM Phoenix Open generate a large amount of footage in a short period of time with how much we're filming. Much of that material is formatted to continue serving the tournament throughout the calendar year to promote next year’s event.
Crowd reactions, aerial cinematography of the course, slow-motion footage, and sponsor environments become part of a visual archive for our clients that can be revisited in different ways as needed for each brand.
Those shots appear in social content, sponsor materials, and promotional pieces leading into the following tournament. Our camera teams look for angles that remain useful later rather than framing everything for a single use.
Why This Kind of Production Has an Impact
Large events like the WM Phoenix Open depend on our production crew, who understand both the technical requirements of filming live sports and the logistics of working inside active venues.
Arizona hosts events of this scale because the infrastructure is in place to support them, including venues such as TPC Scottsdale and our own video production crew, which is highly familiar with the pace of large commercial and sports productions. Myers Media has spent years working inside these environments, building experience in commercial filmmaking, aerial cinematography, slow-motion clips, and live event coverage throughout the Valley.
Ready to Support Your Next Phoenix Production
Myers Media films some of the largest productions in Phoenix and offers production gear rental and technical support for commercial and large-scale events, including DP, camera operators, grip support, and equipment packages that match the needs and access constraints of live environments.
If your project is coming into Arizona with a creative plan and you need a local team that can execute at a high level, Myers Media is positioned to step in as your on-the-ground crew and DP partner, with the gear and workflow to integrate easily.
Contact Myers Media today for a free consultation! Call us at 623-694-5997, or fill out our online contact form.
Every brand has a story. Let’s tell yours.
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