The Boston Symphony Orchestra’s Holiday Pops concerts are a beloved tradition at Symphony Hall, and no concert is complete without an annual visit from Santa Claus himself. Every year, Santa’s visit and his banter with maestro Keith Lockhart follow a theme. In 2014, the BSO hired me to produce a series of images for Santa’s “newly launched Instagram account.”
The result
Images seen by over 80,000 audience members across the holiday season, and an invitation back to collaborate with the BSO Pops team on two more projects.
Disciplines
Art direction, design, photography, retouching
Deliverables
Digital files for projection in Boston Symphony Hall
Collaborators
Dennis Alves, Amanda Severin, Wei Jing Saw, Keith Lockhart
Background and research
The challenge: These images weren’t going on a phone screen. They would be projected in Symphony Hall during the concert, as the visual half of a live comedic exchange between Santa and the maestro. Each image had to read instantly to a full house, sell the joke of Santa as an Instagram user, and fit into the scenes the script called for, which ranged from a beach to a Swan Boat ride to a meeting with a Boston sports legend.
I photographed Santa in front of a green screen in the various poses suggested by the script, so that every image could be built around the right body language for its scene. In the final shot, I even posed as the stand-in for the maestro.
Original photos
Hashtag happy holidays
From there, I composited Santa into the different situations as needed: relaxing on the beach, taking a Swan Boat ride with Rudolph, and meeting David Ortiz. The result was a set of images that looked like the holiday selfies of a very famous, very well-traveled Boston visitor.
“This was such a fun project to work on with Kyle. His enthusiasm and talent perfectly brought our vision to life to the delight of our audiences young and old.”
—Wei Jing Saw, Boston Pops manager of artistic administration
Projected in Symphony Hall
Results and impact
The project was met with high praise from both the client and the more than 80,000 audience members who encountered it throughout the holiday season. I was invited back twice more to collaborate with the BSO Pops team on other projects.