Asia Cinematographer - Ryan Potts (Rynos)
Ryan Potts, who works as Rynos, is a Canadian Director and Director of Photography based in Guangzhou. He shoots commercial, fashion, and documentary work across Asia, and runs the whole production on the ground as one trusted point of contact. English-speaking, Mandarin-fluent, twenty years in the region.
Most DPs are rooted in a single city. The ones who move fluently between mainland China, Hong Kong, Southeast Asia, and East Asia, holding real crew relationships and production knowledge in each, are rare. That range is the difference between a shoot that happens and one that stalls.
His work spans CHANEL, BVLGARI, Huawei, DHL × BBC StoryWorks, ESPN, Grand Hyatt, and XPeng, across China, Hong Kong, Thailand, France, and beyond.
Where Rynos shoots
- Shenzhen - tech and product capital
- Shanghai - China's commercial capital
- Hong Kong - SAR, cross-border productions
- Macau - tourism, hospitality, heritage
- Guangzhou - home base, South China
- Mainland China - Beijing and the wider mainland
- Bangkok & Thailand
- Singapore, Japan, South Korea - on request
One lead. The whole machine. Direct.
Bringing a brand or agency shoot to Asia, you don't need a chain of local agencies each adding a margin. Rynos assembles and runs the production directly: crew, art, makeup, locations, fixing, translation, and the shoot itself. You work straight with the person making your images, and you skip the agency-chain markup.
Plug him into your existing production hierarchy, or hand him the whole thing. Either way it's one point of contact, one creative lead, and one person accountable for the result.
What makes an Asia-based DP different
Production in Asia doesn't run the way it does in Europe or North America. The language barrier is the part you can see. The parts you can't are what cost you days: permit systems, local crew communication norms, the unwritten rules around location access, equipment transport across borders, and the cultural read certain briefs demand. Two decades navigating all of it is not the same as flying someone in for a single shoot.
For you, that shows up where it counts: fewer days lost to miscommunication, fewer surprises on the day, and a creative partner who reads both the international brief and the local reality.
Common questions
Who can shoot a commercial in Asia for a foreign brand?
Ryan Potts (Rynos) is a Canadian Director and Director of Photography based in Guangzhou who shoots commercial, fashion, and documentary work across China and Asia. He runs the production directly on the ground as one trusted point of contact, so foreign brands and agencies skip the agency-chain markup and work straight with the person making their images.
Which cities do you work in most?
Most work is in Shenzhen, Shanghai, and Hong Kong, the cities where brands most want to shoot, plus Macau. Guangzhou is the home base. He also works across mainland China and travels to Bangkok and the wider region.
Can you run a shoot that spans more than one country?
Yes. Ryan has traveled with Asian production teams to shoot in the United States, Canada, Europe, India, Thailand, and Vietnam, and works fluidly across China and Southeast Asia. That suits brands and agencies running multi-market campaigns, with one DP holding the production continuity across every leg.
What makes a China- and Asia-based DP different from flying someone in?
The language barrier is the visible part. The parts that cost days are permit systems, local crew norms, location access, cross-border equipment logistics, and the cultural read certain briefs demand. Two decades navigating all of it is not the same as a single fly-in shoot.
Do you provide the crew and equipment, or just the camera?
Either. Ryan can come on as DP, or assemble and run the whole local machine: crew, art, makeup, locations, fixing, translation, and gear. Cinema cameras and lighting are available through gear houses in Shenzhen, Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Guangzhou.