Picture Perfect Productions

26/06/2026

Hard to believe it was eight years ago! Amazing story.

Eight years ago this week, the world watched a flooded cave in northern Thailand and could not look away.

Twelve boys. One coach. A rescue that pulled in divers, engineers and volunteers from across the globe, and kept millions of people glued to live coverage for the full length of the operation.

Behind the broadcast for Australia's Seven Network, Picture Perfect Productions supplied the resources that kept that coverage running non-stop, around the clock, for the entire duration of the rescue, working with Chris Reason one of Australia most respected journalists.

It is the kind of work that never shows up on screen. No credit roll. Just the machinery that lets a story reach the people waiting on it, hour after hour, when every hour counts.

We think about that job often. Not for its scale, but for what it asked of everyone involved: be ready, stay steady, and never drop the signal on a moment that mattered to the entire world.

To the divers, the rescuers, the families and everyone who gave something to bring those boys home, we were proud to play our small part in carrying the story.

The image below shows the behind the scenes. Mud, Mosquitoes and lots of coffee.

19/06/2026

Truly an amazing book.

19/06/2026

Last night, Hanoi made history.

The official launch of 40 Years of Innovators — the bilingual English-Vietnamese book by Sam Van and Sam Korsmoe chronicling the extraordinary individuals behind Vietnam’s Doi Moi economic transformation — took place at the Melia Hanoi Hotel to a room full of the people who helped build modern Vietnam.

Former and current ambassadors. Founders. Economists. Technologists. Storytellers. The architects of a $500 billion economy who rarely share the same room and last night, they did.

The evening featured a powerful panel discussion with eight of the book’s subjects, and we’re proud to share a first glimpse of what was captured on camera, including reflections from co-author Sam Korsmoe, former Australian Ambassador Andrew Goledzinowski AM, and economist Pham Chi Lan, one of the great champions of Vietnam’s private sector.

This is just the beginning.

At Picture Perfect Productions, we believe Vietnam’s story is one of the most important and undertold narratives of our time. A nation that moved from extreme poverty to emerging market status in a single generation, driven not by luck, but by the courage of individuals who chose to act when the policies were still just words on paper.

Our mission is to bring those stories to the world. Through documentary, long-form series, and live event content, we are building the screen archive that this moment in Vietnam’s history deserves.

40 Years of Innovators is published by Alpha Books and available now in English and Vietnamese.

The country is just getting started. So are we.

30/05/2026

Vietnam Just Sent a Message the Whole Region Should Hear

At the 2026 IISS Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, Vietnam’s President and Communist Party General Secretary Tô Lâm delivered a keynote that positioned Vietnam as a thoughtful, steady voice in an increasingly uncertain regional and global environment.

His central message was clear: the world is facing three connected crises; the erosion of international law, a weakening development model under pressure from slowing growth and climate change, and a growing crisis of trust between nations. But rather than presenting these challenges as inevitable, he framed them as problems that can still be addressed through dialogue, transparency, stronger international rules, and more inclusive models of growth.

For Vietnam, this was more than a diplomatic speech. It was a statement of confidence from a country that is increasingly important to the Indo-Pacific conversation. Vietnam continues to balance complex relationships with major powers while also presenting itself as a constructive partner committed to stability, cooperation, and rules-based engagement.

What stood out was the tone. This was not a speech about choosing sides. It was about creating space for countries to work together at a time when strategic competition, maritime tensions, climate pressures, and economic uncertainty are reshaping the region.

Vietnam’s keynote carried weight because it reflected the concerns of many middle powers: how to protect sovereignty, maintain peace, sustain growth, and avoid being trapped by great-power rivalry.

The bigger takeaway is that Vietnam is no longer simply responding to regional change. It is increasingly helping shape the conversation.

For businesses, policymakers, and regional partners, that matters. Stability, trust, and strategic clarity are becoming just as important as growth — and Vietnam understands that deeply.

The full speech is in the link in comments.

28/04/2026

This is a great article

Kai Riemer and Sandra Peter from the University of Sydney offer a thoughtful framework for understanding the wave of tech layoffs sweeping through Meta, Microsoft, Atlassian, Block, and others.

Rather than defaulting to the easy narrative "AI is replacing everyone" they outline three lenses: AI as emerging superintelligence (unlikely), AI as convenient corporate cover (partly true), and AI as a powerful but uncertain tool that companies are still figuring out how to harness.

Their third view resonates most, and it maps closely to what I'm seeing across creative and production industries in APAC. What we're witnessing isn't AI doing people's jobs. It's leadership creating pressure cutting headcount and expecting remaining teams to maintain output, effectively forcing AI adoption through necessity rather than strategy.

For those of us running creative businesses in Southeast Asia, this has real implications. Our clients, many of them regional arms of global enterprises, are navigating the same uncertainty. Budgets are being scrutinised. Teams are shrinking. And the expectation is that technology will somehow fill the gap.

But creative work is messy in ways that AI still struggles with: ambiguous briefs, competing stakeholder interests, cultural nuance across markets, and outputs that require human judgement and imagination to get right.

AI is a powerful tool in our workflows, we use it. But it doesn't replace the thinking, the relationships, or the on the ground understanding that makes creative work resonate across diverse APAC audiences.

As the authors suggests, “don't watch what companies cut. Watch what they hire next.” That will tell you far more about where this is actually heading.

Three ways to think about AI, massive job cuts, and the future of work.

03/04/2026

1 million AI credits. But the real story is the workflow behind it.

We’ve just committed to 1 million AI credits for a Global MNC.
Not as a test, but as a structured move towards a more scalable, intelligent way of producing content.
Because for most large organisations, the challenge isn’t generating ideas.
It’s turning complex thinking into clear, consistent content at speed, and at scale.
That’s where the right workflow matters. Our approach focuses on three stages: Just like we do for a video shoot.

IDEATION
Exploring multiple creative directions quickly, while staying aligned to business objectives
STORYBOARDING
Bringing clarity early — so stakeholders can see, shape, and align before production begins
CREATION
Producing and refining content with greater flexibility, iteration, and efficiency

AI doesn’t replace the thinking.
It strengthens the process around it.
The result is content that moves faster without losing clarity or intent.
We’re starting to see a real shift from one off productions to more adaptive, ongoing content systems.

Its not the end it's just beginning!

If you’re exploring how AI can fit into your content workflow, particularly across multiple markets I’d be happy to share how we’re approaching it.