To close out their year-long centennial celebration, the LA Phil approached me to create a capstone experience for patrons at the final gala dinner, seated outdoors on the Music Center Plaza in downtown Los Angeles. Following an elevated concert at Walt Disney Concert Hall (not to mention an entire year’s worth of spectacular performances), there was a concern about finding the right mix of institutional reverence and celebratory sparkle. Intel’s Shooting Star Drone technology provided the ideal solution for crafting something truly mesmerizing in the sky while highlighting the emotional impact of audio from the LA Phil’s archives.

I created a loosely chronological story board, tracing through significant events in LA Phil history (the opening of new venues, first tour around the world, establishment of the youth orchestra program), supported by archival remarks from the orchestra’s music directors and significant musical performances from the time periods depicted. To allow us to cycle quickly through different scenes, I created the frame of a radio broadcast through time and worked with sound designer Mark Grey to create a variety of transitional sound effects to keep the plot moving. The audience was captivated from the surprise launch right through to the end.

The project was created from scratch on an extremely compressed six-week timeline and was not without its fair share of logistical and creative hurdles. I worked closely with the animators at Intel to find creative ways to add elements of speed and surprise. The above sequence in which architect Frank Gehry’s early sketch of Walt Disney Concert Hall “draws” itself in the sky is a good example.

By navigating unlit drones into place, the image can “race” to life through lighting effects and then evolve into a three-dimensional version of the building. The audio story covers the transitions, using the music inspired by the building itself (Wing on Wing by former Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen), as Salonen remarks about how it felt to see the building come to life in real time.